It is said that failing to plan is planning to fail. This saying holds true for not planning to eat well. That is why many people are paying dearly for their bad food choices.
If you do not put plans in place to eat well, you end up eating any food that comes your way. Many people plan for everything else apart from the food they eat.
The first thing on many minds in the morning is how to beat traffic and get to work early on time. Food has no place in this scheme of things at all. So, on their way to work, whatever they see is what gets consumed – hausa koko and koose sold under the tree in the corner around the office, waakye sold somewhere in the area around the workplace, beans and fried plantain sold around the office are among the foods that get to be bought and consumed as breakfast. Some people also have breakfast ready waiting for them at the office.
I am not suggesting that any of the above listed foods are bad for breakfast, no not at all. But let there be a plan for what you want to eat right from breakfast to supper. If it happens that your breakfast must be something that you buy near your workplace, that is fair enough. But just do not let it be that you just had to eat because that was the food available.
In deciding and being deliberate about what to eat, you can choose what is right for you. Healthy foods then become the main foods that you eat.
Look out for balance in nutrients and food groups when choosing what food to eat. Will the food give you carbohydrates/starch? Will it give you proteins? Will it give you some fats and oils? Will it give you vitamins? Will it give you minerals? What about water?, well you can drink some after eating so no real worries about that.
Another consideration is that, the food should be made with as many ingredients as possible from the various food groups. This ensures that your nutrients will be available no matter what.
All these considerations should apply to lunch and supper as well. Further to these, write down the foods you plan to eat each day of the week in a menu format.
Buy the necessary ingredients needed for preparing the meals you have written on your weekly menu. And then go ahead and prepare some components of the meals ahead of time. For example, stews and soups can be cooked ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator/ deep freezer. Just make sure to store the stews and soups in small serving size bowls. By so doing, you can better manage your morning time such that some rice or yam can be cooked and taken along to work. Even in the evening, having stews and soups ready can be of so much help in getting supper ready early on time.
It is far better to eat what you cook and that is another advantage of planning one’s meals
So, plan your meals so you do not end up eating what is not good for you.