Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I struggle with planning. I know that planning what I’m going to eat is the most effective way to prevent overeating, yet I still resist it. I don’t mind having options. If I have a list of healthy meals that I can make with ingredients that are in the house that all have similar calorie and fat content, I’m happy. That’s about as far into planning as I have been able to muster.

I guess some people love planning. They love to get menus and set the course for their week. I’ve never really met a person that really loves to plan out their food and snacks for a week or month ahead. I see those menus in the magazines and sometimes Weight Watchers gives us a one month menu planner, but I just carefully file them away in the folder in the hopes that one day I’ll get on board with this planning stuff.

It’s not like I’m not organized. I’m probably one of the most organized people you know. I’ve had a Palm since the beginning of the platform. Before that, I had a day planner that went everywhere with me. I realized quite quickly that I can’t remember everything, so it all goes into my Palm. I have no issues with planning my time, but I just don’t want to plan my food.

It’s not like the food doesn’t look good. Almost every one of those menu planners sound really tasty, and I think that I should try some of the recipes there. I just can’t bear to follow the menu meal for meal and snack for snack. What if I don’t want a Tropical Smoothie for a snack? It’s actually kind of hard to bring one of those along to have as a snack at work.

I think I’m scared of losing my sense of spontaneity. Having a strict regimen of eating sounds less like freedom from worry and more like prison, or worse, school. When I went to school, the district distributed the lunch menu. There it was on the fridge at home stating unequivocally what I would eat for lunch for the next month. Sure the Pizza Squares were yummy, but sometimes they came and I didn’t particularly want Pizza Squares for lunch.

I want to eat what I want when I want. That doesn’t mean that I give myself free reign of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It means that if I am in the mood for a huge salad, I want it. I don’t want pizza or stroganoff. I want the salad. Planning tends to squash that freedom of choosing what I want at mealtime, but somehow, I feel that it is the final puzzle piece for me to achieve my goal weight.

• The Feeling Great Menu