The importance of planning ahead in regards to day to day nutrition

Introduction

Consistently meeting nutrition goals is something a lot of people struggle with. Things like evaluating the nutritional content of food, making choices on whether or not a food will help you hit your goals, tracking/calculating macronutrients, and preparing food several times per day can be time-consuming processes that end up adding in more decisions and tasks to an already busy daily schedule. This can lead to being overwhelmed with tasks or decision fatigue, and ultimately result in poor dietary choices, eating fast food, taking shortcuts, overeating, undereating, or various other outcomes that all result in not meeting nutrition goals for the day.

Creating a Baseline Day of Eating

The best way to combat this is to plan ahead in regards to meeting daily nutrition goals. To begin,  I often advise clients on creating a “baseline day of eating” that meets all of their nutritional needs and works towards their individual goals (weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance). This baseline day should be designed to be completely sustainable over the long term, should include all meals and snacks, and mesh well with the person’s lifestyle - meaning that if they include a dinner that takes 45 minutes to cook, they should realistically have 45 minutes every evening to prepare that dinner. On the other hand, if a person is chronically short on time, they should include ways to eat and consume whole foods that require minimal time commitment or set aside meal prep days as part of their baseline plan. Once this baseline day is calculated, I recommend keeping all of the foods that make it up readily available at all times. This “baseline day of eating” can then function as a pre-made set of dietary choices to help meet the client’s goals. While deviation from this is expected and encouraged for numerous reasons, having a pre-structured eating plan to fall back on can help eliminate the need for a lot of food decisions day to day.

Finding Substitutions

The next step after the baseline day of eating is created is to figure out substitutes for the foods that make it up. This serves to create flexibility, options, and ultimately helps with long-term adherence by providing variety, and the ability to easily swap out foods if necessary (or simply desired). This step is something that usually happens over the course of several months as a person learns more about their individual nutritional needs and habits. Understanding the macronutrient profiles of foods goes a long way here - people often find that 2 brands of protein bars have near identical nutrient content, that swapping bread and a small serving of butter with pasta yields almost the same carbs and fats, or chicken cooked with Mexican spices and sauce and chicken cooked with Asian spices and sauce is mostly the same protein (provided the oils used to cook are the same). In the end, this step is all about food education and developing an understanding of the nutrients in the foods eaten day in and day out. The more you know about this, the more you can shift things around in your diet and still hit your goals. 

Navigating Resturaunts

In addition to (and in line) with understanding substitutions, it is important to understand how to navigate restaurants and get food on the go. I recommend looking up a restaurant's menu and/or figuring out a meal in your food tracker before you go. Most restaurants have some variation of lean meat, carbs, and vegetables which can serve as a good staple to look for when eating out. The biggest thing to be mindful of when eating at restaurants is the fat content of the food, as most places tend to use fats liberally for taste - they also tend to overuse salt as well. In regards to most fast-casual restaurants, fairly healthy meals (although higher in sodium) can usually be created pretty easily by opting for leaner meats, keeping carbs moderate, and declining the excessively fatty toppings. Ultimately, it is the pre-planning of food and ensuring that it helps meet your goals that is important.  Knowing a restaurant order and how it fits into your macros ahead of time can also serve as a go-to meal if you find yourself out and without access to your home-cooked food.

On-the-Go “Emergency” Nutrition Strategies

Being on the go is a part of life, and people often forget to bring food with them when they leave the house or end up staying out longer than planned. In addition to knowing a few ready-to-eat restaurant meals, convenience stores can also be helpful in a pinch. Although they are far less than ideal and are stocked full of mostly unhealthy food, you can usually find a few foods such as protein bars, fruit, jerky, and somewhat healthy crackers or nuts at most convenience stores to hold you over until you can get to better quality food. While this is not recommended as a first-line option, it is better than not eating anything for a longer period of time. This should not be part of a plan rather, but kept in mind as an emergency option.

Conclusion
Overall, approaching nutrition with a plan is what is most important - a person putting forethought into what they are going to eat before the decision comes up usually leads to decisions that are more consistently in line with their goals. One tool that can help with this is the utilization of a pre-structured baseline daily eating plan. It is also important to work towards a better understanding of the foods that make up your day to day diet and how they can be interchangeable while still meeting your goals. Knowing how to navigate restaurants and select for foods that are in line with your goals is also an important aspect of pre-planning food. It is also helpful to think of ways to get “emergency snacks” that still fit your nutrition plan if you are out for extended periods of time without food.

If you do plan to be away from your home for an extended period of time, packing a small cooler and a dry foods bag with all of the foods you would usually eat in that time period can go a long way towards helping you stay on track. While this post covers the utilization of restaurants and convenience stores to help meet your nutritional goals, they should be used sparingly, especially the latter. Home-cooked meals and whole foods are usually the better nutritional choices. Ultimately, this guide exists to emphasize the impact of pre-planning nutrition, and while it goes over some of the methods I personally utilize and teach, it is ultimately up to each individual to find what works best for them, their goals, and their lifestyle.