Weight Loss Tip #12: Be Prepared! Pack everything you need to stay on your food plan every day and be ready for menu changes and life’s big and little surprises.
If you work or leave the house during the day, be sure to pack your lunch the night before. In case you get stuck at work (or in case something else happens that will prevent you from going home to prepare food), always bring an extra back-up meal with you in addition to your lunch.
If you have a work-related meal, a wedding or some other special event — also bring with you a back-up meal. You might be able to eat some food that is served at these events — but there is a very good chance it will not be organic. So be sure to pack a nice salad with organic greens and one of your favorite salad dressings every time you leave the house. Bring a few nuts and some fresh fruit, too.
Maybe you don’t feel comfortable whipping out your healthy meal in front of your colleagues or friends at a formal dinner — or in a restaurant. Just remember there’s absolutely nothing wrong with bringing your own food. Restaurants will hardly ever give you any trouble when you explain to them you have special dietary needs and have brought your own food. Occasionally a waitress or waiter will try to discourage you from eating your own food. Some try to say that the health department doesn’t allow them to let you eat your own food. It isn’t true. You can ask to speak to a manager. Or, if you feel uncomfortable standing up for yourself, you can always just order herbal tea and eat when you leave the restaurant. If you are not extremely sensitive to non-organic produce, you might order a simple salad or fruit plate.
Daily Inspiration: “The only way to have gratitude is to live in the now, not in the past or the future.”
Planning our meals ahead and being prepared might not seem especially glamorous. If it’s been a long day, the last thing you might want to do before bed is to pack your lunch and a back-up meal for the next day. But practicing these simple good habits on a daily basis is a way of dealing with one of the few things in life we actually have control over — what we eat. Once we get in the habit of planning ahead, we can begin to enjoy our daily food preparation. We can prepare more tasty meals. Ideally we will enjoy our meals every bit as much — if not more — than the people around us who are eating the Standard American Diet.
Chopping up vegetables, making some yummy cashew cheese in the food processor — these activities are great opportunities to practice living in the now on a daily basis. Moment by moment our self care through good planning and healthy eating is a wonderful opportunity to live in the now. Day by day we will let go of worrying about the past or the future. We will experience taking care of the now on a deeper and deeper level and in so doing, our joy will increase.
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Robert Morgan, Naturopath 