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| Samantha J Goodwin |
If you focus on all the food that you can eat, most detox diet plans allow for varied and interesting meals that should satisfy both your hunger and your love of good, tasty food.
However, you do need to put some effort in to planning your meals, particularly snacks, in advance.
"Failing to plan is planning to fail"
If you want to succeed with a detox diet plan, and get the great results you are
looking for, it's vitally important that you leave nothing to chance!
Menu Planning
Determine your weakness, and plan accordingly.
For example, some people know that their weakness is when they are at work. When they are at home, there is only 'good' food in the house that they control. But at work, there are cafes and restaurants selling wonderful food, not to mention the dreaded snack machine in the office itself.
If this is you, when you plan what to cook for evening meals, at the same time plan to prepare your lunches and snacks, while spending the minimum amount of time in the kitchen.
For example, if you do a roast chicken followed by gluten-free apple crumble on a Sunday night, just add a quick salad to the leftover chicken for lunch on Monday. Leftover apple crumble with yogurt also makes a great afternoon snack, and will keep you away from thoughts of chocolate from the snack machine.
If your weak area is when you are at home, you need to be ruthless with regard to the food you keep in the house. More on this later.
Get Inspired!
The cook books you already have can be a great source of inspiration. With your detox diet plan guidelines in mind, dust off your cookbooks and take a look through them with a fresh pair of eyes. Most importantly, look at the ingredients. Even if the recipe title doesn't immediately catch your imagination, the list of ingredients might.
Plan on snacking!
Plan to eat something every 2-3 hours. This is good for your metabolism, and also by never allowing yourself to go hungry you are putting yourself in a better position to make sensible food choices when you need to.
Make sure you include both a morning and afternoon snack in your meal planning.
Write it down!
Try to plan all your meals, including your snacks, at least a day ahead. And it's very important that you write the plan down.
So, when you wake up in the morning, you already know exactly what you're going to be eating that day. In fact, you may already have prepared some of it.
Now of course you may end up deviating from the plan, if for example you decide you want broccoli and cauliflower with your chicken instead of carrots and spinach. The goal of planning ahead isn't to crush all spontaneity or the spirit of choice!
It's a tool to help you feel in control. Knowing you have a lovely day of healthy meals ahead of you, it should be easier for you to resist temptation if it crosses your path.
When disaster strikes!
If you haven't planned ahead, a dangerous time can be when you get home and look in the fridge to decide what to have for dinner. I'm not sure what's worse, looking into the fridge and having nothing there to eat, or having plenty there but wanting none of it!
If you've planned ahead you just get on and prepare what you'd planned. You don't need to think about it, and you are less likely to respond to either fridge scenario with "stuff this, I'm calling out for pizza."
Now, if you do find yourself in a situation without a plan, try the Apple Approach. When faced with a situation where you may make a bad choice, have a fresh, juicy green apple and a large glass of water first. This tried and tested technique will leave you feeling fresh, as well as taking the edge off your hunger. You'll then be in a much safer position to make food choices.
This works well just before going to the cinema or to a restaurant too!
Samantha Goodwin is the author of the popular Nutritional
Responsibility Guide. This is a nutritional program for the real world
where you want to look great but at the same time not feel handcuffed by
an overly strict regime that you'll never see the end of. You can read
more about the program at http://www.nutritionalresponsibility.com/
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