Choosing the foods you eat in advance can help you stick to your healthy diet. Recent research shows the benefit and significance of picking what you eat ahead of time. “…when there was a significant delay between the time a person ordered their food and the time they planned on eating it, they chose lower-calorie meals…’If a decision is going to be implemented immediately, we just care about the immediate consequences, and we discount the long-term costs and benefits,’ Dr. VanEpps [a post-doctoral student involved with the research] said. ‘In the case of food, we care about what’s happening right now – like how tasty it is – but discount the long-term costs of an unhealthy meal’…On the other hand, when you order a meal in advance, ‘you’re more evenly weighing the short-term and the long-term costs and benefits’…You still care about the taste but you’re more able to exert self control.” Additional studies and research support this theory that meal planning can help you improve your diet.