Persistence. It’s a rare treasure, and definitely worth its weight in gold. Some days you might have plenty to keep chasing your goals. Other days… not so much. This chapter is all about specific strategies for using Eat This Much to optimize the time and energy you spend on meal planning, which ultimately helps keep your reserves of motivation and persistence nice and full.
(If you have any questions about the following features, please email us at contact@eatthismuch.com or refer to our How-To guide.)
Hack Your Hunger
While keeping your macros and calorie goal the same, use the Meal Type options to control things like prep time and meal complexity (click the meal name to make changes). Not a breakfast person? No worries – make your first meal of the day more of a snack. Get super hungry in the afternoon? Shift your lunch a little later in the day without throwing your dinner off. Hacking your meals to suit your hunger is the best way to leverage your personal tastes and energy patterns for success. For every lean, athletic person who feasts before the sun rises, there are just as many strong, healthy night-owls who don’t start eating until the afternoon. It’s all about adjusting the number, size and timing of your meals to fit your body’s rhythm, while still hitting your goals.
Build on What You Already Do
Using ETM to augment your existing diet with small changes is not only easy, but very helpful in the long run. For example, if you manually load your day with a breakfast and dinner you’re comfy with (think Recurring Meals), the Generator will fill out the rest of your day to keep you on track. It’s the ideal blend of familiar and experimental, comfortable and adventurous.
Controlled Variety
Speaking of familiar vs. adventurous, use the Recurring Foods option to keep a set of meals in your rotation throughout your week without having to manually search for them. Use the Favorites tab in the sidebar to easily drag over multiple recipes without changing screens.
Stay Stocked
Staying prepared is crucial and the ETM Pantry makes it easy to quickly see what you do and don’t have on hand. Start by buying some basics in bulk and load them into the pantry. That way the generator will provide suggestions based on your stockpiles. Budget Friendly Tip: Set ready-to-go foods like whole fruits and veggies as recurring snacks to boost your diet AND prevent fresh food from going to waste.
With your goals firmly in sight, these strategies will staying persistent and positive about changing your diet much easier. The more you arm yourself with information, preparation and guidance, the better. Keep going – we believe in you!
