Planning Your Calories Ahead of Time

This is going to be a real quick post – just something I was thinking of throughout the day.

Last November, (11/2019) towards the end of the month, my husband and I took an overnight vacation, partly to celebrate his birthday, partly because that was the time that was available. We went out to dinner, which for me was carbs, oil and carbs. We ordered a huge dessert. We went to our overnight reservations where I drank copious amounts of wine and sampled a chocolate bar. Yep – totally all in my caloric budget.

Then Thanksgiving.
Then Yule.
Then the second day of Yule (we celebrate 2 days).
Family parties.
New Years.
Annnd – money is a little tight right now, so it is easy for me to make poor calorie decisions that are quick and not so great, but cheap – like that 600 calorie PB&J sandwich I had yesterday. (And before you fall over in disbelief, trying to figure out how huge of a sandwich it must have been – understand that the sandwich I am talking about is right around the average. The bread was a little bigger, so a little more calories, at 120 a slice. But the peanut butter was the normally creamy kind at 190 calories for 2 table spoons; I had 3 table spoons and grape jelly is 50 calories a TBSP. I had around 2 TBSP’s. That is 575 calories. If you send a PB&J sandwich with your kid to school – you are sending him or her with a 500+ calorie sandwich, plus all the other garbage that goes in the lunchbox).
Okay, enough!

I have spent almost 2 months either riding high on my weight (up to 3 pounds over my 5 pound swing) or getting within my 5 pound swing, but staying at the top of my allowed weight swing for 2 days and jumping out and ending up over my allowed weight again. Today I am very close to being back in my allowed range. I am fully ready to be back and lose that additional 5 pounds. But…our Wednesday schedule is hectic for the next 8 weeks…

Lucas, my husband will be gone most of the day and will not be around for dinner, so I packed all 3 of us a Bento Box dinner. I woke up early, grabbed 3 lunchboxes, sorted out liquids, fruits, vegetables, munchies and proteins and weighed everything out and packed them all up and stuck them in the fridge. Lucas grabbed his on his way out. Catawba-Lynn and I sat at the dinning room table, opened our lunchboxes and ate ours together as a dinner.

What was so easy about this was that I packed everything in the morning. I was excited about my decision to make these dinners and stick to this plan. I weighed everything out with our food scale and made it presentable. I was happy with this. I looked over the food choices that I made, before stress was induced to my day, and I knew that they were healthy and balanced – for what was available in my kitchen. Then I stuck to it! Sure, I would like to much on something, but that is going to put me over my calorie allotment and right now, I cannot afford it.

I will most likely have another 2 teas and might have another decaf coffee, just to get me through my stomach shrinking again. Thank will be another 15-20 calories, which puts me under 1,800 calories, which is working me back to the 1,600 calorie range. It is where I want to be.

So, the big take away here is, plan out your day – make it as easy for yourself as possible – and stick to it. The first couple of days may suck, but you are going to feel great ounce you get through it. (Even if you can’t open a bottle of wine for a couple of days…)

What would you want to put in your quick, to-go, Bento Box dinner? Let me know below! And have a great one – I will have another post coming shortly!