Let me paint you a picture for you. Bear with me, this is strictly anecdotal. Well, sort of. You start a diet in order to lose body fat and become more healthy. Two weeks have passed, you’re killing it. You’re marveled by your success. Then comes the third week. You’re at work a couple hours in and you’re having a very bad day.
As a result your body perceives stress and your adrenal glands which make and release cortisol (stress hormone) into your bloodstream. As a result, your appetite increases drastically.
But suddenly you have an epiphany, which leads to a solution. You tell yourself that I will combat all of this stress by indulging in a Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza with everything on it. Oh and don’t forget the soda. Sound familiar? Let’s unpack this more. You may have your training in order, your supplements down to a science and for the most part your diet is pretty good but if one thing is going to impede you from flourishing it’s not prepping your food.
One of the main reasons the United States leads the world in obesity is because of the influx of stress eaters. And we all know when stress creeps up on you we become emotional, all of sudden are emotions becomes the puppet master and we become the puppet. This leads us to a question. Does eating certain foods combat stress and emotion? The answer is “yes.”
According to an article published in the 2013 The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (a peer-reviewed journal), found significant evidence that foods that are fatty/high glycemic carbohydrates (pizza, chocolate, chips, ice cream soda and cookies) stimulate dopamine.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for motivation, arousal and pleasure. This neurotransmitter is also known as the “reward hormone.” For instance, when one consumes cocaine or other narcotics its secretes of dopamine gives them the pleasure and euphoria, not the drug itself.
This similar feeling can also be attained by eating the foods I’ve mentioned. It may sound bleak, but when most people who are subjected to a enormous amount of stress go after this “feel good hormone” by making unhealthy choices.
Now I’m trying to state that in order to lose body fat, you must eat like a monk, In other words eat for function not taste. I don’t mean to sound terse, but good luck making that a life style.
One of the fastest ways to fall off a diet is constantly feeling miserable and dreading the food you have in front of you to eat.
That’s why having your food prepared for the week is one of the key variables for your path to lose body fat, gain muscle and becoming healthier. But I’m gonna take it a step further, I’m not gonna suggest that you don’t do the cooking and prepping, I’m going to suggest that you go through a third-party. A company that offers these meals.
Here are some reasons why.
Let’s say you have the time to prepare meals but you’re not Emeril or Mario, okay your a decent cook or even a good cook. But do you really see yourself day in and day out week to week preparing new meals with new recipes and various cooking equipment. This takes a lot of work. Remember what I said earlier one of the fastest ways to fall off a diet is dreading your meals, and if they’re not tasty, they’re not going down your throat.
A lot of companies that serve healthy meals have very creative menus. The more creative the menu, the less boring the diet becomes. Remember it cannot just be healthy, it needs to be delicious.
The second reason kind of goes hand-in-hand with the first, when you prep your meals for the week, you’ll save money in the long run. Why? Because the food is already made waiting for you and now you have less time to think of what to eat. No temptation, no more stressfully thoughts of what to eat will clutter your brain. These thoughts usually lead you to a drive-through or a huge Chinese food takeout.
The next reason is the tutelage you will gain from portion control and understanding the right numeration for macros and calories. You will have a good sense of how much food you should consume, understand the good vs bad ingredients and it’s substitutes.
The last one and probably the most important one is time. As human beings we are tourists on the planet earth. We want to use are time as efficiently as possible.
Time is the most valuable asset a human posses. Sooner or later the clock will stop and you can always be doing a lot more fun and productive things then cooking and prepping your meals yourself.
Don’t get me wrong cooking requires an tremendous amount of prowess and excitement for many. But if this isn’t you, then keep reading. If you’re a person that falls off the wagon when you are subjugated to overwhelming stress and don’t feel liking chopping some onions or you think it’s too trite and tedious to constantly discover new recipes, spend hours at the grocery store and then wash, cut, measure, cook and box your meals every week.
If the answer is yes to some or all of these questions, then may I suggest you work with a food prep company and buy back your time. Remember you can always m get money back, but you can never get the time back.
