Organized Chaos
If I were to pick one skill, just one, that helps people live healthier lives……its organisation! You may be surprised by this, but organisation is the one area where I see people struggle with their nutrition. Many people have a general understanding of what to do with healthy eating, but lack of organisational skills often leads to falling back into old habits of eating (skipping meals, take out, etc). A lot of people think of this as just batch cooking on a weekend. While that is one example of organisation, it goes much further. If organisation isn’t your strong suit, then lets chat about how organisation helps you and ways you can develop stronger planning skills.
It sounds simple and a bit of a ‘no brainer’, but this is lifestyle part in diet and lifestyle change.
Organization is a necessary skill to provide an efficient system. What do I mean by that? Your body is a system. It likes to run efficiently and know what to expect, and in order to do that we need to be organised enough to eat, sleep, exercise at consistent times. We call this homeostatis, or quite literally “the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes”
When we have irregular meal patterns, sleep cycles, or exercise patterns then the body can have a more difficult time regulating itself. This can lead to hormonal and appetite changes, and difficulty maintaining body weight. Developing an approach or skills to create patterns of eating, sleeping, and exercising can help you better manage body weight, health conditions, and improve mood and quality of life.
So what does that look like? Organization skills with food look like menu planning, eating at consistent times, and batch cooking. Thinking ahead for what you have going on in a week, such as events after work or school plans. Thinking of meals that will meet your time commitments, cooking skills, and budget needs. Then creating a grocery list of the necessary items for those meals, and then doing a shop so those foods are available. It also looks like creating a structured eating plan, eating meals and consistent times each day. If you aren’t used to eating mid-day or having breakfast, then it can take some oganisational skills to pack a lunch or make overnight oats the evening before.
Organisation skills with sleep look like creating a good bed time routine, often referred to as sleep hygiene. It means creating a consistent bed time and a rise time most days of the week.
Lastly, it looks like creating a movement and physical activity pattern. Maybe its engaging in organised sports, or maybe its simply blocking time in the day to take a walk.
Now lets talk about ways to strengthen organisation with food.
Step 1 - Clear off space. An important part of having consistent meals is having a place to eat those meals. So clear off a space to eat. If you have a table, then make room to ensure you can sit down to have a meal. And try not to have that meal in front of a distraction like a TV or Computer. Yes, eating alone can be boring but you will be much more mindful of your hunger and fullness cues.
Step 2 - Think realistically. If making a homemade dinner 7 nights per week is unlikely to happen, then pick how many nights you could feasibly cook and start there. Think of easy to prep meals or cooking methods that are convenient (i.e. steamable veg, using an air fryer, or maybe a slow cooker or instapot).
Step 3 - Schedule tasks. For some people, this looks like setting an alarm to stop working and eat lunch. For others, it looks like scheduling time on the weekend to fit in a grocery shop or batch cooking.
Step 4 - Prioritise. If you have several tasks, then prioritise them as high, medium, and low. We often prioritise feeding children and animals, and oddly less likely to prioritise feeding ourselves. For example, perhaps feeding ourselves is more important than doing the laundry. Are there any tasks you can combine to make life more efficient? Such as setting aside left overs when you make dinner so you have a pre-made lunch for tomorrow. Or batch cooking at the weekend, so you can have ready-made meals for the week without having to worry about cooking on busy nights.
Step 5 - Create a list. Write out the meals you plan to make this week and which days you intend to make them. Then create a shopping list when you go to the store. This will help solidify the plans in your head and ensure you have all the necessary ingredients.
