I know some here do and some don’t make a food plan. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle of that. I suppose you could say I have a plan for breakfast and lunch but dinner is always “up for grabs”.

My breakfast is almost always the same (banana, DanActive, peanut butter); unless we go to The Skillet for biscuits and gravy; but I often use fitday to play "what if" with the rest of my day.

I put in choices for lunch & dinner and snacks to see what these choices do to my "numbers". For example, I usually have a turkey sandwich for lunch but lately before I fix it I play "what if" on fitday. The first time I tried this it was because I saw that my breakfast & lunch had my fats & carbs about where I wanted them but I needed to increase my protein. By posting various foods, checking the numbers and then deleting the foods, I found that I could increase the protein (but not up the fats & carbs) by cutting the amount of mayo in half and doubling the amount of turkey in my sandwich.

Then I try various combinations of foods for dinner and snacks if I need them. I rarely snack because I don’t get hungry; I only snack if it looks like I need to in order to get my numbers where they need to be for the day. For example, after lunch yesterday I discovered that including what I was thinking of for dinner I would only have 1071 calories so I would need to have an afternoon snack and possibly an evening snack. I also need to lower my fat percentage and increase my protein percentage but without changing my carbs (which were perfect). By posting & deleting various snack ideas in fitday I was able to find snack options that fit my needs.

Now after that long intro, my questions is:
If you make one, do you play “what if “ in order to make a food plan? What is your thought process in making one? How do you decide what to have?

quote:

Originally posted by BrenauMom:
I often use fitday to play "what if" with the rest of my day.

I put in choices for lunch & dinner and snacks to see what these choices do to my "numbers".

I've done this same thing... "Oh look. If I have carrots instead of brocolli... my vitamin A requirement is met".

I think that it can be an interesting experiment and motivated me to eat different colors of vegs/fruits.

Although... once I put in a typical "Nelson Day" hoping that it would prove that he is on the verge of malnutrition and eating 9000 grams of fat a day... and to my disapointment ... his numbers came back pretty good.

I think that it was all of the "enriched" white flour he eats.

If you make one, do you play “what if “ in order to make a food plan?

Right now, my plan is to eat at home and to only go out once on the weekends. My plan is to basically follow the food pyramid. My plan is to eat dessert twice a week. These are all non negociable.

Other than that... I don't plan THAT much... except that I have shopped and healthy food that I enjoy in the house.

My plan is to eat 7-8 servings of vegetables/fruits. I have bananas and oranges in the house. It doesn't matter at all if I planned to eat a banana and change my mind and eat an orange. It doesn't really matter if I make a chicken sandwich or an egg sandwich as they are virtually the same number of calories.

When I need to go into losing mode, a make a more concise plan. And I usually plan out everything on paper... and then stick to it.

Dinner 4 nights a week is dinner co-op... and that is planned out until mid June.

When we were doing a lot of "what if" or "whatever"... we ate too much fast food and we all gained weight. "What if I don't feel like cooking?" "What if I bought chicken and don't feel like having it?" "What if I feel like having Taco Bell?" These are what if's that have gotten me in trouble.

"What if I don't feel like having a banana?..." if the alternative is an orange, no big deal. If the alternative is 1,000 calorie smoothie at Jamba Juice and rationalizing, "It is fruit. It is healthy", not so good.

I guess that would be the thing... If I'm playing 14 rationalization why I should not eat my planned X and should eat Y... that is not so good.

quote:

If you make one, do you play “what if “ in order to make a food plan? What is your thought process in making one? How do you decide what to have?

No "what ifs" for me. The food plan is the food plan for the day. The only playing around I do is if I'm truly hungry between planned meals and snacks, I'll break up the next planned meal and have part of it early.

I find that for myself, allowing the "what if" option leaves the door open to "cheating".

As for planning what to have, breakfast is fairly constant usually a whole wheat english muffin with light cream cheese. Lunch is usual soup, salad, or veggie wrap and I'll alternate type of soup, salad and what veggies.

Snack is almost always yogurt, granola and fruit

Dinner is where I get the most variety and like Diana, I usually plan about a weeks worth of meals ahead of time when I'm planning my grocery list. I'll decide the night before which of those options I'll have the following day.

Breakfast is either cereal & milk (the type of milk and cereal can vary) or a pb&j. That makes it easy.

Lunch is packed after dinner for the next day. No questions with lunch, no playing around.

Dinners are planned out on Sundays for the next week and written on a whiteboard on the fridge.

I can look at dinner and decide how to pack lunch. Friday, for example, I'm trying a new recipe for meatloaf. Sooo...lunch tomorrow will be a salad, low-fat string cheese, yogurt, and a piece of fruit. Tonight is omelettes, so lunch is heartier--leftover "pot pie" from last night, yogurt, and a piece of fruit.

So I guess the short answer is this: Breakfast is fairly constant. Dinners are planned ahead of time. Lunch is usually the only variable in my food plan, and it depends on what I'm having for dinner.

As for weekends--my plan will often have breakfast, lunch, and my "plan" for dinner. Meaning...we plan to go to a Greek restaurant, so I put in a glass of retsina, Greek salad & Avgolemono soup. We end up at an Italian place; I have a glass of table wine, salad & minestrone soup. Whatever I've planned for, I try to substitute appropriately if plans change.

When I moved to Delaware and began working from home Monday through Thursday, I made the decision to continue what has probably been the most positive and successful healthy eating habit I had established since July 2003 when I started my journey--making my lunches for the week ahead of time.

So on Saturday when I return from the DC area (I go up on Fridays to the office), I think about what I'm going to have for lunches the next week. Depending on the ingredients I need and their shelf life, I may shop on Saturday when I get back or wait until Sunday.

Then on Sunday afternoon or early evening (and occasionally Monday morning), I cook my lunches for the week. I no longer weigh and portion them out into individual containers at the time of the cooking, since I'm working at home and I don't need to transport my lunches to work anymore. I still weigh and portion, but I do it at the time I'm eating. For example, this week I made a delicious entree salad with grilled chicken and lots of veggies. I grilled and chopped up the chicken and chopped up all the veggies and put all of each ingredient into individual containers. Then, when lunch arrives, I just get out the containers, portion and weigh, and "build" my salad to order.

Where my weekday lunches have always been my strongest suit in menu planning, my weekday dinners (which are very light meals since my lunch is my main meal fo the day) and my weekend dinners have always been my weakest. I still need to do a better job with thinking ahead when I'm at the market. I'm doing better at always keeping at least 1 or 2 Lean Cuisines in the freezer for when I just don't want to have to do anything but push buttons on the nuker, but I still have improvement to make.