We’ve all heard the saying “failing to prepare is preparing to fail”, although cliché it can’t be truer when it comes to preparing your meals. The success of your diet is relying on you to be prepared.
There’s nothing worse, it’s lunch time, you’re due to eat but you didn’t prep your meals last night so now you have to try and find 200 grams of grilled chicken breast and 100 grams of broccoli or something similar somewhere. You could probably find a meal very similar if you have the time but usually you’re time poor and have to get back to work so you grab what you think is the healthiest option because it’s convenient.
When you prep your own meals, you know exactly what is in them and the caloric content, when you don’t prep your meals you’re leaving it all to chance. If you do this multiple times per week you could easily put yourself either into a caloric surplus or caloric deficit, how does this NOT have an effect on your progress. Mentally you think you can get away with this once or twice because it hasn’t had an immediate effect on your body, now you think that you’ve gotten away with it. Not the case, maybe you have this time but next time you haven’t prepared, you’re mind justifies your decision because you “got away with it” last time and before you know it, it becomes a regular thing.
The unforeseeable can always happen and you need to be prepared for it, one of the most common is getting caught back at work and getting home late. We all live busy lives and for the majority of us work doesn’t finish when we leave our job, there’s work always waiting for us at home. If you’re prepared it means you have plenty of food with you and plenty of food prepared in the fridge. The last thing you want to experience is getting home late and having to cook food for dinner and the next day amongst all the other chores that need attentions. This is a very common area where people fall down and the next call is usually Uber eats because it’s convenient.
Another variable to look at regarding meal preparation is food shopping, not only do you have to cook and prepare, you have to shop for the food you need. This can be as inconvenient as cooking your food for the week. You can’t prepare what you don’t have.
The success of a diet is all about preparation, if you are well prepared it means you can focus on other important things like training and life commitments because you know you don’t need to shop or cook because you have already done it for the week.
A common excuse is time, this is an unacceptable excuse. I can guarantee that there is someone out there busier than you who manages to successfully prepare their food. Imagine someone was going to do an audit on your week like they do on your tax, what they are looking for is free time or somewhere you could find additional time, I bet you would be surprised at how much available time they find. It could be a simple as waking up an hour earlier or going to bed an hour later, watching less Netflix, spending less time on social media etc.. there’s always time.
If you’re serious you’ll prepare, preparation is the first step of a successful diet, a successful diet will produce the desired results.
“There’s a difference between Interest and Commitment, when you’re interested in doing something, you do it when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results” Kenneth Blanchard
Get Committed!!
Thanks for reading,
Schembri PT Team