In the SUCCESS plan for weight control, the second “S” is for schedule, specifically scheduling your meals.
First, it may help you to understand the schedule you are currently following. Take the time to make a daily list, for 1 whole week, of the times you wake up, go to sleep, and eat your meals/snacks. (If you’re going to all this trouble, you might also list what and how much you eat at each meal/snack, but that would be for another purpose). If your daily schedule is pretty routine, you may not need a whole week. Then, look for big gaps between meals/snacks and think about ways to eat something in those gaps.
Second, make a plan for each day for eating within 1 hour of waking, and every 3-4 hours until you go to bed, leaving a couple hours between your final meal/snack and bedtime. Plan out when you’ll eat your 3 meals, and when you’ll eat your 2-3 snacks. You may also need to plan what you’ll eat and how to make it happen – you may need to keep some food items in your desk or car. Eat on schedule even if you are not hungry. The point is to train (or re-train) yourself to eat on this healthy schedule.
It may take a while to get used to this plan, but research shows that eating regularly on a healthy schedule is a key to weight loss. It keeps your metabolism up and prevents you from getting so hungry you’ll eat anything in front of you.
Tags: healthy eating, healthy habits, weight loss