Is following a meal plan the best way to health?

It's about that time of year again folks!

All the weight-loss ads start ramping up and you are being asked to pay pennies on the dollar for a proven system that works. Guaranteed or your money back right? They'll give you all these shakes and pills and stuff - THEN challenge you to keep it together for 6 weeks while you starve and spend hours working out. C'mon. How realistic is that? Are you really set up for success at that point?

We all know . . . yes, yes, yeash . . . deep down we all know that a healthy body composition means we have to eat according to how we use our body. A sedentary lifestyle means eating less than the same someone that works on their feet all day. But eating the foods we love feels too good sometimes to give it up. Am I right? What makes you love that one special pie Grandma makes or the lasagna your mom whips up in no time but it's so so deliciouso! Or those little candy bars in the checkout aisle taunting you at 5 for $1.00. They're on sale!

So, how do we begin to repair that relationship with food? To look at it for fuel instead of emotional comfort?

Whelp, sometimes following a meal plan helps break that habit. The reason following a meal plan might be the best way to health is that it takes the guesswork out of eating for you but . . . it also makes you totally responsible for what you're putting into your body. Eeeek!

Have you followed a meal plan before in the past that didn't work? All those little containers to carry around or still, ALWAYS, still hungry?

That's because you were probably not eating enough.

Do you know how many calories you expend in a day doing you? Most people don't. They just kinda start a 'diet' and hope for the best. They cross their fingers, close their eyes and hope they are not eating more than they burn, but again - what happens if you don't eat enough.

If you are thinking you need to try something new? Nothing works?

Then do this as your homework for this weekend.

Keep track of all your meals for 3 whole days. Write down how much of what you ate for which meals and email it to me on Monday at coachro@woderation.com with "My Food Diary" in the subject line.

From there, I can teach you how meal planning is the best way to health - happily and sustainably.