Meal Planning

Since last week I've been planning my meals each day in order to find a balance of protein, carbs and fat that will get me to my new caloric goal of 1,400/day. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

• I already eat 5 times a day -- 3 meals, 2 snacks. I can't seem to fit another full meal or snack into the schedule.
• I'm already at my max quantity of food for each of the 5 meals/snacks, so I can't just "eat more." I'm trying to figure out how to make the foods I eat more calorie dense rather than just eating larger quantities.
• I want to increase my calories and still maintain the balance that I know works for me. 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fat.
• I need to avoid the trap of grazing throughout the day to get in extra calories. Eating on a schedule has kept me on track all these months and I don't want to fall into the trap of eating all day long -- which can be the first step in weight regain in the future.
• Besides all the extra calories I'm trying to add, I'm also trying to increase my sodium - per my doctor's orders - to help combat the low blood pressure issues.

So each morning I get onto www.FitDay.com and do some planning. I guess technically I should do this the night before because by the time I sit down to plan my meals, I've already eaten breakfast and I've already packed my lunch and afternoon snack in my lunchbag. So maybe I really am doing meal planning the night before ... or at 6:30 a.m. ... but seeing all my food in my food journal before I actually eat it seems to help me stay on track for the day.


Because I've been using FitDay for a long time I have a very solid list of Custom Foods and Recent Foods on my list. So this meal planning process literally takes about 3 minutes. Today's eating plan is as follows:

• Breakfast #1 -- Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal & Coffee/Latte (coffee is 30 minutes later) 
• Breakfast #2 -- Grapes & Cheesestick 
• Lunch -- Chicken & Veggie Casserole 
• Snack (mid-afternoon) -- Protein Hot Cocoa 
• Snack (drive home) -- South Beach Protein Bar 
• Dinner -- Tortilla Pizza w/ turkey pepperoni, mushrooms, cheese 
• Snack -- 1 Christmas Cookie (got a dozen as a gift from the office intern yesterday)

(That snack of protein hot cocoa is not typical and something I'm adding today to see if I can fit it into my day. I've figured out I can't add a bedtime snack because I eat dinner too late... so I'm experimenting with two mid-day snacks instead. We'll see. )


Calories: 1,298 
Fat: 45g -- 30% 
Carbs: 129g (20g fiber) -- 37% 
Protein: 108g -- 33%


Ok... so this is only 1,300 calories which is still short of my daily goal. But it's closer than I was getting a week ago. My percentage balance is also off today. The cheese puts me over my limit on fat content, but I really like cheese and I'm not on a "low-fat diet" so I'm fine with this. The oatmeal appears to put me over on my carb count - kinda. I try to keep my protein grams and net carb grams equal... so once you subtract the fiber from 129, I'm at 109g carbs and 108g protein - pretty much right on track.


I guess the cool thing about this meal planning stuff is that I can play around with the numbers before I actually eat the food. A normal food journal just records what you put in your mouth after the fact. But with meal planning I feel like I have more control of the outcome for my day. If I decide to have a bowl of soup and a salad for dinner but see that my protein count is going to fall short of my goal for the day... I can change my plan and pick something that is higher in protein and lower in carbs instead.


I don't think I'll stick to the meal planning thing forever. But doing it while you're adjusting your eating plan is a good thing. Once I have a solid plan and know the quantities I need to eat to maintain a 1,400/calories day then I won't need to plan as rigidly. But for now, I find it is helping me a lot.


~Pam