Hi, I'm Monica Reinagle, and you're listening to The Nutrition Divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

I bet that a lot of you are just like me. I wake up every morning with the best of intentions. I'm going to nourish my body with

wholesome nutritious foods and avoid junk food and mindless snacking.

But sometimes, as the day goes on, I end up going off track.

I impulsively order an oversized muffin at the coffee shop. I find myself

munching on pretzels or m and ms at my desk. I get to the end of the day and realize I haven't

had a single vegetable. Of course we all have those days

once in a while but the other day I realized that this has been happening to me

more often than not lately. Obviously I still believe in the importance of making healthy

food choices. After all, I've made an entire career out of helping people improve their diets.

And yet my own choices aren't always as good as they should be.

And that's when I realized, or actually I remembered something that I've realized before.

The reason that my days don't go as planned is usually because I haven't actually got a plan.

Starting the day with the generic intention to eat healthy isn't enough. And waiting until you're hungry to start thinking about

what you'll eat next is usually a bad idea. I find I make far better choices

when I plan ahead and I bet the same is true for you.

One of the interesting things about human nature is that we tend to make different choices

for our future selves than we do for our present selves.

Choices that we make for our future selves are much more likely to be in line with our larger goals,

such as eating healthy or saving money.

But decisions that we make in the moment tend to focus more on

short-term desires and instant gratification and discount the long-term

...