Hunter Habit – For Hunters Who Don’t Hunt
Upgrade Class – Multi-Dip Upgrade (up to 7 times)
Your Missed Meal Upgrade Commitment
Missing meals during your day, especially when you’re working, is common. Dangerously common. And the negative health implications of missing meals can be severe and long lasting. The Missed Meal Upgrade is your way to claim a day of the week whereon you know that you regularly miss eating a meal, and plan how to ensure that doesn’t happen on that particular day ever again.
Missing breakfast or lunch are the biggest problems with the most severe health consequences. Fix these days before you fix your missed dinner days!
Remember that the feature of a good health change is it’s sustainability, so don’t trick yourself with the impossible and resolve yourself to “just eat” – let’s figure out some ways to actually make that dream a reality. After all, if it were as simple as just eating you would have probably done that already!
Let’s explore some options for applying this Missed Meal Upgrade and getting your full dose of nutrients on the day of the week that you need it most!
The Science Behind The Upgrade
There’s a few ways to try and push yourself into experiencing the many varied health benefits of reinforcing your nutrition intake through missed meals.
The first thing we need to do is see why it is we’re skipping the meals in the first place. If you’re not eating a meal during the day because you think it will help you with weight loss – you are wrong. Dead wrong. Missing meals instigates a famine-response from your body which makes you put weight on – while simultaneously placing your body in a position of nutritional wasting. Which is bad for your organs. There are ways to reduce your meals without putting strain on your organs, but the equation – “if I eat less food I’ll store less fat” – simply does not work.
Your brain thinks that makes sense, I admit, but your body does not. Your body sees ‘flash starvation’ as a cue to start storing fat. This effect is pronounced by the gorging that people tend to do when they sit down to eat, eventually, after having missed a meal.
Maintaining a steady intake of nutritional foods throughout the day will ensure that your body doesn’t trespass into the dangerous territory of nutritional depletion. And it will also keep your metabolism running, which is how you actually burn fat.
That’s right – eating through the day helps you burn fat.
I know that doesn’t make sense for your brain, but it does for your body!
Your Options
Whatever option you choose it all comes down to planning and consistency. Stick to the plan, so make it simple and make it easy on yourself. Try one or more of the below techniques dependent on what works best for your situation. I know my husband used to miss a lot of meals due to how hard he was working. We solved that the same way you will!
- prepare a lunch that’s healthy (use my Healthy Meal Template if in doubt!) and can be reheated on prepared using a microwave or other simple ingredient – then use it when mealtime comes to save yourself the trouble of cooking it fresh
- remind yourself of the science – missing meals increases your weight, diminishes your energy and causes long term health problems. Don’t let the lies of diet-magazines serve as your motivation
- prepare a snack or several snacks (dependent on how many meals you miss) that you can munch on at the time you would be having your meal. Make it a healthy snack like nuts and fruit. Try one of my Healthy Snack Bundles for some times on snacks that will keep your metabolism running and your nutrients topped up
- re-do your schedule for that day in order to create a gap in your responsibilities that allows you the time to eat a snack, a prepared meal or make one from scratch
- if you’re at work or living in an apartment, find a ‘meal buddy’ to eat with during the missed-meal-moment of your day and both of you commit to preparing a lunch, bringing it with you and eating together at a specified time. This works a lot like a gym-buddy, the obligation to eat with someone will force you to take the time to go and do it. but make sure you pack a lunch as it increases your commitment (and your buddies!) to the routine
Jungle Tip
If you’re missing meals at work resist the urge to find a restaurant to eat at. Unless there is some particularly healthy restaurant that you work near that would tempt you. You’re upgrading your life and you don’t want to plug holes with cotton. That is – make your situation better by eating good food where once you ate no food.
There’s a lot of ways to eat wrong. When we fix this missed meal lets makes sure we fix it with a meal that is eaten right!
For tips on how to make healthy meals at home for storage – try my Recipes!