It’s a fact of life that it is difficult to make good decisions when you are hungry. This is why one of the first rules you learn when starting to fend for yourself is that you never go to the grocery store when hungry—that will simply lead to a cart full of food you didn’t need.

When you wait until you are hungry to make a choice about what you are going to eat, you are a whole lot less likely to make the healthy choice. This is why after having weight loss surgery in Atlanta you need to plan your meals ahead of time.

Meal Planning 101

It is a lot easier to make healthy food choices when you aren’t hungry. This means that 6 pm after a long day at work is not the right time to start thinking about what is for dinner that night.

Planning ahead is the building block of essential skills that lead to an overall healthier lifestyle. One of the best ways to plan ahead is to fit meal planning into your existing planner. You most likely use some sort of planning device or calendar to keep track of what is going on at work, school, or even with your family and friends. Whether it is on paper or on your phone, you can easily incorporate your meal planning into this same place.

Here are a few tips to help you get started with effective meal planning:

• Start tracking what’s for dinner right next to your list of upcoming meetings and deadlines. Jot down what you plan to make for dinner each night, and then create a list of ingredients that you’ll need to be successful.
• Once a week, go to the grocery store and load up on all the items you’ll need for the week. Write yourself a list and stick to it. Load your home with healthy foods that will carry you throughout the entire week.
• Set aside time on your day off to start prepping items for the week so that it is even easier to have a healthy meal when you are ready to eat. You can chop up meat and vegetables before putting them in the freezer, or divide up appropriate portion sizes of dry ingredients so they are ready to go.

Planning your meals ahead of time might be one of the greatest tips that you can try when you are looking to lose weight. For many people, this is partially why meal replacement programs are so effective. When you know what you are going to eat, you are less likely to make an impulse decision and eat something you’ll regret later. Following this same premise is often helpful after weight loss surgery when your dietary choices are severely limited and you can’t eat whatever happens to be in the kitchen anymore.