Menu planning for weight loss

Preplanning meals does not have to be a difficult and time-consuming task. Marlene Lesson, Nutrition Director at Structure House, has provided her insight into how preplanning your menu can improve your chances of weight loss and making healthy decisions:

• Preplanning meals makes losing weight more of a certainty. Without a meal plan, weight control is left up to chance.
• When we preplan our meals, we are more likely to choose more nourishing and healthy foods. Waiting until the spur of the moment can cause us to act on emotional or psychological impulses.
• Eating our preplanned meals at consistent times each day can aid in weight control by preventing our desire to snack or binge.
• Preplanning meals helps normalize our relationship with food. By preplanning meals, we are devoting less time to dreaming all day about decisions that have already been made.
• Selecting meal choices in advance gives us a chance to monitor our intake. This monitoring has proven beneficial for long-term weight loss.
• Preplanning our meals provides structure and less opportunity to make unhealthy choices.

Marlene has been the Nutrition Director at Structure House for more than 22 years. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association, the Weight Management and Diabetes Care and Education Practice Groups of the American Dietetic Association, the Durham/Chapel Hill Dietetic Association, and the North Carolina Dietetic Association. In August 2006, Marlene received Certified Diabetes Educator status from the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators (NCBDE).