Meal planning through the eyes of a Life, Health & Weight Loss coach

My mum always said to me, "if you've got your health you've got your wealth"

I suspect her mum said it to her too!

I also saw a great quote "Look after your body, it's the only place you have to live" Jim Rohn.

This is David. We are colleagues who network together & I love his philosophy towards looking after yourself:

David Breaker - gaming addict

David Breaker - Breakthrough Life Coaching

From a poorly 32 stone gaming addict to a Life & Health coach!

It all starts with changing your mindset on what's important to you and then respecting it's a daily repetitive action that will get you there.

If you need to kick start anything in life & have the patience of a gnat, I would recommend you read this book, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. Daily actions that are easy to do, are also easy not to do.

If you eat a cake, some sweets & a pizza today, tomorrow and the next day will you put on weight or feel unwell?

Unlikely.

Keep doing it for a month, a year then yep of course things are going to look different.

Same with choosing better foods, choosing to move more every day won't yield any results until you're around 2 months in when you can recognise you do actually feel & look better. Choosing to do the little things that seemingly have

little immediate effect, to have integrity - doing stuff especially when no one's watching - will have great results in the coming months & years - this is the slight edge & is such a great life philosophy.

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David & I recorded our chat which you can watch here. Please like the video & subscribe if you'd like to keep up to date with our new ones.

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Or read about - the 7 big questions here:

1. Firstly thinking back to when you started your journey for huge transformation, when did you first start to feel your confidence changing? Nothing happens overnight, the physical transformation took years and it took me years to feel more confident. You can feel the weight coming off and you feel better but the confidence has to come from your own mindset. It takes time.

2. How do you get into meal planning or get it more consistent? Be kind to yourself. I didn't start off with meal planning I was a long way off from there in the beginning. Then we got into it & it made a huge difference. Thinking to yourself or promising yourself, I will run every day, go to the gym every other day and eat only clean foods... no one does this at least not for long & definitely not me! The first step is to realise why this new way of living is important to you & your family. Eating more healthily and using a pre planned approach has got to come from a place of where it's important to you because it will be a challenge to start with. A common myth is cooking takes too much time. That's not true. As you're saying by planning in advance, you'll have all your ingredients ready so it can become a pleasure to cook. Get the kids involved in choosing & prepping you don't have to do it all alone & they love it when they get involved instead of being handed food on a plate. Don't try to be perfect but do try to be better. Just start with planning out dinners & go from there.

3. Give us an example of how you eat Breakfast is often homemade muesli - shop bought cereals aren't great for you portion control is a measly amount because of the sugar. Mix up nuts, seeds, dried fruit into oats and you've got a big jar of muesli! Full fat Greek yoghurt is the king of yoghurt, add fresh fruit maybe a drizzle of honey. We like eggs, avocado on wholemeal toast - check your seeded bread it might not be wholemeal & it might have extra sugar. Yeast only needs one sugar source to activate. A george foreman grill is good for bacon & sausages which we love every now and then. Lunch is often a salad, sandwiches with a nice fresh baguette, use romaine lettuce as the bread it's a good solid ingredient holder instead of bread! Dinners will rotate a lot so we don't get bored or in a rut. We like One Pound Meals cook books by Miguel Barclay, they are fantastic! So good I wish we had a collaboration with him! Pulled pork chilli, risotto is also easy & good to add veggies to. Leek, bacon & spinach lasagne is delish - make your own Bechamel it's so easy & so much cheaper. We rarely buy ready meals, we will make extra and create our own ready meals in the freezer in glass containers. We have a small freezer, we don't buy chips, chicken nuggets or loads of meat that needs freezing. We have frozen fruit & veg, spinach is good to freeze as it never lasts - great for smoothies. If you've a big family you might like to batch cook on a Sunday for example so it's ready to go - again in glass containers in the fridge, your own ready meals.
   

4. Do you use your freezer a lot, how can families do this with only a small freezer? We rarely buy ready meals, we will make extra and create our own ready meals in the freezer in glass containers. We have a small freezer, we don't buy chips, chicken nuggets or lots of meat that needs freezing. We have frozen fruit & veg, ice, spinach is good to freeze it never lasts - great for smoothies. If you've a big family you might like to batch cook on a Sunday for example so it's ready to go - again in glass containers in the fridge or freezer but you don't need a big freezer.

5. As with all choices we make in life it all starts in the mind. Your mindset will show up in the decisions you make. Do you work with clients in this way first? Yes, it's so important, we start with a food diary and how you're feeling, your emotions are often in charge of your food choices. For example we popped into costa after the gym, I thought I'd have the belgian bun type cake in there. My partner asked why did I want it? Usually I eat because I'm bored, stressed, feeling down, none of those applied. But reminding myself what my usual triggers are it stopped me to think about my reasons why. Yes it's yummy and I decided I would still have it as I hadn't had one in months! There we are really moderation is there but you need to know what your triggers are to making regular poor choices. By definition when you're thinking of adopting a change in your lifestyle it's going to be a challenge to change your belief system or thought and emotion process. Your WHY is essential. It's going to get hard at times.

6. So do you believe in moderation? Yes but we don't buy any chocolate, crisps or any of that stuff in our shopping. If we really want something it has to be a separate trip to the shops which psychologically makes us think about why we want to get something. It's a real decision not a buying on a whim. A client I have worked with who has Type 2 diabetes was eating a few pieces of chocolate every night after dinner. After chatting with her I asked her why, she said simply she always had it. So I asked her if it was now a habit rather than a pleasurable choice and it was a habit.

7. We are what we eat right? If you look in our cupboards you'll know instantly why we look the way we do! Your mindset around social interaction, treats, desserts. If I baked you a cake it would be socially awkward to refuse a slice so the answer is to have a small slice.

So as a result I would conclude from a health perspective it is clearly far better to plan ahead in order to make the best choices for your nutrition - but go with the 80/20 rule! 80% of the time eat really well and 20% of the time you can have that take away, that cake & enjoy it.

Financially it makes sense, health wise it makes sense, busy people with a packed life it makes sense - what's not to love about meal planning?

Thoughts, comments, ideas all welcome!

This is a good place to start, take a look here:

Monthly & Weekly Meal Planning Toolkit

Buy Now

Thank you for reading - if you'd like to get in touch with David he has a very welcoming nature. I'd be glad to refer you or you can go direct, please let him know you heard about him here.

His website is this one https://www.breakthroughlifecoaching.co.uk/

Lots of love

Lucy x