Planning and consistency are two of the main drivers behind any successful diet
Meal planning and preparing your food is one of the easiest ways to maintain a healthy diet. This plays a pivotal role in developing adherence, which is the foundation of any positive lifestyle change.
Weight loss is considered a healthy lifestyle change, especially as the Western world battles an obesity epidemic. However, less stress and better general health and are also hugely sought-after side effects.
In the same way that Marie Kondo shot to stardom by helping people to 'work smart' and not necessarily harder, organising your diet and meal planning properly can also help you save money and time in the long-term.
How to 'Marie Kondo' your diet
So how can you organise your diet to lose weight and improve your overall health? Registered Nutritionist
Sophie Thurner told JOE how to 'Marie Kondo' your diet.
"We humans are creatures of convenience and tend to take the path of least resistance. If we have home-made, healthy food available at hand we're likely to eat it. If we're faced with the decision of starting to make a meal from scratch or ordering a delivery when we get home late from work, we are likely to do the latter."
People always want the easy way out. Fast food may seem like the 'easiest' option, but if you take the time to prepare home-made food, you have readily-available meals completely catered to the portion size and goal you're pursuing.
It is recommended never to do your grocery shopping when hungry - as you'll always buy junk food. Whatever your fridge and shelves are stocked with, that is what you'll eat. Make sure your meals correspond with your goals.
Losing weight through your diet goes beyond what's found in the fridge, Thurner explains.
"Being organised and having a tidy kitchen with a system of where you store things not only makes meal planning more joyful, it takes less time because you know exactly where you store your items, and it never leaves you with missing ingredients because you have an oversight on everything you own.
"Chaos and clutter in the kitchen can be disheartening, a nuisance and stop you from cooking altogether. An organised kitchen is much more likely to result in an organised diet."
Diet rules to remember
Thurner outlined how to organise a diet for weight loss:
- "Start by tidying up your kitchen, get rid of items you don't need and store items by size in little containers by frequency of use
- Take 15 minutes on a Sunday to think about what meals you want to prepare for the week and write down everything you need for it. This will result in a more organised, targeted grocery shop that will have you spend less time browsing around
- Take a couple of hours on your free day to batch-cook the meals. Batch-cooking and freezing is extremely time-efficient
- By batch-cooking, the washing up only has to be done once and you can have perfectly portioned meals, nicely labelled in freezer-proof containers. That way, when you're on our way home from work and don't have the energy to cook, you can look forward to a home-cooked nutritious meal."
In terms of structuring the meals within your diet, realise weight loss is mainly a matter for calories in against calories out.
WWE superstar Sheamus bore this in mind when he recently embarked on a fat loss program. And it's fair to say it paid off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI87qqbsmKI
If you take the time to track your food intake and measure your meals for an initial few weeks, the diet that works for your body will soon be second nature.
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