Planning Meals for Those with Chronic Conditions
If you are diagnosed with a Chronic Condition or have a loved one who has, planning meals can seem daunting. There are many considerations, added sugars, sodium, and saturated fat are all present in so many processed foods. They are also present in large amounts in most restaurant food. The easiest way to combat this is to eat simply. Choose whole foods that are not heavily processed and when eating out, choose simple combinations of foods. We are going to give you some basic meal ideas and then give you some hints and suggestions for building your own. One of the biggest ways that we go off track with our diet is not preparing ahead and giving ourselves choices that seem easy in the moment, but add up over time. This can be hitting the snack machine at work, driving through a drive through on the way home, or stopping for coffee on the way to work and adding on a “second breakfast.” These decisions individually don’t have a huge impact, but if there are several of these in a day or week, they add up. Below is a formula that will help you plan ahead and with a bit of planning and prep once a week or so, you can have meals planned with no decision making. We will break down each meal below.
Breakfast
As you can see above there are three things you can include with breakfast, a whole grain, protein or dairy, and a fruit and or vegetable. The whole grain provides fiber which contributes to regularity and also lowers cholesterol by grabbing onto it and taking it out of your body. You may remember a few years ago watching commercials for cheerios and oatmeal that claimed that they lowered your cholesterol. This is absolutely true. Fiber also contributes to fullness and so you will feel full for longer than if you eat something like a pop tart or biscuit.
The protein or dairy is going to help contribute to fullness as well. It will help you not have that mid morning slump. Protein also contributes to building muscle and healing any injury.
The fruit or vegetable will give you a boost of vitamins. There is fiber in whole fruit as well. It is much better to eat whole fruit than having fruit juice. Fruit juice after the first serving which offers a few vitamins, will be no better than having a soft drink. Fruit juice has a large amount of sugar without the benefits of fiber and bulk that the whole fruit adds to keep you full.
Some other considerations for breakfast are:
You can definitely have cereal and milk if you like it, but be very careful with added sugars with cereal. Also note the serving size. A serving of cereal is often much smaller than you would think and this affects the nutrition facts.
For some reason in the U.S. we tend to overload breakfast, or any meal for that matter, with added sugar. Many “breakfast” foods like cereal, bars, and breakfast pastries are very high in sugar. We also use syrup and jelly at breakfast often and may not think to count that in our sugar count for the day.
If thinks like biscuits, toast, waffles, and pancakes make you want butter, syrup, jelly, and bacon, you may want to save those for special occasions rather than something you eat every day. If you notice, I didn’t include these in my suggested meals for breakfast because they are a great deal of calories for a meal that shouldn’t have a large calorie count.
Lunch
Lunch is another meal that, if you are working full time, can get away from you. It’s very easy to say, “I’ll pick up something,” but when it comes to split second decisions, we often don’t choose what is best for us. Having a set lunch you eat each day, or planning a week of lunches at a time, eliminates or at least lessens your desire to get lunch out. Restaurants and those making processed foods don’t think about health when planning. Their only focus is on getting you to buy from them again so they don’t limit sugar, fat, or sodium. Even “healthy” meals like salads can be loaded down with cheese, fatty or sugary dressings, or croutons that can be an unexpected source of things you are trying to moderate.
Some things to consider when choosing your lunch
Choose items you enjoy, especially if its things that keep. If you don’t enjoy them or you are tired of them, you will be tempted to grab something that is not in the plan just because the food you have will last.
Beware of snacking and unexpected dessert. Offices and workplaces will often have donuts, cakes, and cookies randomly pop up. It is ok to occasionally indulge, but if one person brings donuts and someone else brings cupcakes for lunch, you may need to choose one or the other. Sometimes a quick snack can have as many calories and more sugar than an entire meal.
Whole grain versions of many crackers, pastas, breads, and grains are available. Especially if you are adding seasoning, sauces, and dressings, you don’t notice that things may be slightly different. Whole grain versions also have a kind of nutty flavor that can enhance certain things.
If you are not the type of person who needs to “chew” to feel like you have eaten, smoothies are a super easy option. Check out this video for a very easy smoothie: https://youtu.be/e4jjeEyEIVM You can make it ahead and put in a tumbler and it will keep until lunchtime. I have a smoothie every day for lunch and it’s awesome that I don’t have to think too much about what I will have. I keep the supplies easy to access and switch up fruit and sparkling water flavors to switch up flavors so I don’t get bored.
Greek yogurt is a great option for dips or for the base of lunches. It has a lot of protein in it. There are vegan versions as well if you prefer plant based options.
If you are eating something like crackers and peanut butter, take your serving of crackers out of the container and put the container away. If you are mindlessly eating at your desk, you can eat the whole box before you know it.
Snacks
Snacks are an area where you can get out of control very quickly. We tend to snack when we are hungry or bored. These are two feelings that lend themselves to very little self control. Like I mentioned with the lunch pointers, serve out your portion of snacks and put the container or box away. If you like to have dips like hummus or ranch, split it up into small containers that you can grab quickly and will stop when you finish the container. If your dip is greek yogurt based or hummus, you don’t have to worry as much about amount since you are getting nutrients from it as opposed to sour cream or mayo based dips.
Dinner
Dinner is an area I struggle in a lot due to being super tired at the end of the night. This is where planning becomes super helpful. The less decisions that you have to make later in the day, the less likely you are to make poor decisions. Having a plan or framework in place helps you to make better decisions that don’t go off the rails because you pass by a drive through on your way home. Below are some quick, easy ideas for a dinner plan.
Any of these options can be mostly prepped ahead so that you are not having to think too much. I also like to choose things to make during the week that have less prep time. If I can dump it in a dish with some seasoning and throw it in the oven, its so much easier. After teaching kids to cook all day, sometimes the last thing I want to do is have a meal with a whole lot of prep work.
Leave us a comment about which meals that you would prefer to make!