In my practice, I find the biggest roadblock to weight loss success is that people do not take the time to plan their day as far as eating goes. So they either wait for meal times, or until they are hungry, and then just see what is convenient to grab.
This sets you up to either not eat enough during the day, or gorge on whatever is available, or just get the most convenient food which is more than likely prepackaged and processed.
If you take a few moments in the day to plan a grocery list, spend an hour or two a week shopping for nutritious foods (that can be just as convenient), and having these nutritious foods available for eating smaller meals more often during the day – the huge high calorie, high fat, or prepackaged meals can be avoided.
Planning is the best tool for success in any project, and creating a healthy lifestyle and/or weight management is a project too. Planning is not a big deal – in fact, shopping regularly and having the right type of foods available means the planning is done.
Nutritiously dense and calorically low foods that are easy to have around are things like yogurts, string cheeses, whole wheat crackers, ricotta or cottage cheese, wheat tortillas and sliced turkey, carrots and other veggies, V8 fruit and vegetable juices, raw nuts, some trail mixes (not all m and m’s), meal replacement bars, fruits, hard boiled eggs (when ready to eat peel, and discard some of the yolks), hummus (to have with some of these), 100 calorie snack pack to enjoy once a day, such as pretzels, baked chips, etc.
Many of these things can be kept in a mini fridge at work if available, else have ice packs available and pack a mini cooler for a days worth of snacks, and many can be kept in a desk drawer, trunk of the car, if not necessary to refrigerate.
