Do you need to be counting calories to lose weight? Or stay the weight that you want to be at once you’ve lost the weight?
ABSOLUTELY NOT
Counting calories is not as important as making sure that you’re eating properly. Meal planning can help with this because with meal planning comes grocery shopping lists and thinking ahead.
Don’t shop when you’re hungry.
For help on how to grocery shop for healthy food, check out my beginners guide here!
I will be the first to say that meal planning is a great…. Idea. It even works, for some people. But for some reason, I just don’t have the patience to cook a bunch of food, divvy it out and in proper portions, put it in labeled containers and plan out my entire week of meals.
It’s exhausting just to think about . . . in the traditional sense of meal planning, anyway. But I do meal plan. I keep it simple. I write down a vague idea of what I want for 1-2 meals a day for the week. Then I shop for just that week with those meals in mind.
People ask me all the time, “how do you stay so fit? How do you stay so healthy?”
Well, it’s actually quite simple.
Proper nutrition.
I don’t like things to be difficult and don’t particularly have time for that. I cook in large quantities and make my meal plan very simple and leave it with some wide open space for change. Having an exact plan isn’t my thing. I like to have a basic idea. But I recommend doing what fits you best. If having it all planned out down to 3 meals a day, the type of salad you’re preparing, have it on a chart and printed with cute stickers, do it.
Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I take that seriously. Counting calories, doing portion control, making lists, and making meal plans, all of that can be great if you have the desire, the time, and the patience to do this, but again, it is not entirely necessary if you’re not into that.
What is necessary though, is to have a plan, of some sort, and then stick to it. Be sure that you have a variety of foods that include fresh fruits and veggies, complex carbs, dense, whole grains and plenty of naturally fatty things such as nuts and seeds.
It is important to take the time to do some sort of planning. Counting calories shouldn’t be the focus.
Proper nutrition is key to feeling and looking great. Overcomplicating it is key to failure.
Pay attention to what you’re eating; pay attention to eating at regular times in your day, and pay attention to how much you eat. Not in measurements, not in calorie counting, but in how you feel. Don’t eat until you’re stuffed, eat until you’re satisfied, and eat good, nutritious foods.
Counting calories is just a waste of time if your nutrition isn’t what it should be.
As we go on this journey together, I look forward to showing you how to eat for satisfaction and what nutrition really looks like; cause, really… who’s got time to count calories, anyway?
For more information on what proper nutrition looks like for vegans, I’ve written an article all about protein and where to get it! Go here for more.
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