Getting ready for the week ahead can be overwhelming enough, but when you add in kids’ activities, church activities, and your own activities while still trying to eat healthy and incorporate exercise into your routine, it can get downright exhausting. Some weeks can seem so overwhelming that you just throw your arms up in frustration and say, “What’s the point?”
You have probably heard from numerous “health gurus” that you need to plan, plan, plan, but meal planning is just one more item on an already exhausting list of things to do. Then again, wandering up and down supermarket aisles looking for dinner at 5 p.m. when you’re hungry, and with tired kids in tow, isn’t cutting it either.
Something’s got to give. And the answer is NOT this:
Meal planning doesn’t have to this dreadful duty you have to perform to get healthy. Taking a little time to plan ahead will help keep you on track and give you a plan of attack when time gets short. Plus, you will save some money and, most of all, your sanity.
Here’s how to get started:
- Mind-set change: Your perception of the process is EVERYTHING! Menu planning is the first line of defense in creating healthy changes. Instead of saying, “This meal planning is dull, tedious, and takes up too much of my time,” think, “I am making healthy choices for my family and me.”
- Look at your weekly calendar: Decide when you will need quick meals (crock pot meals/SouveVide meals, meals with less than 5 ingredients, etc) and when you will be at home and can take your time.
- Decide when you will have to take snacks with you to run errands.
- Write it out on a calendar and post it on the refrigerator door.
- Double protein amounts for easy snacks and leftovers. For example, if you are baking chicken for the evening, make enough for lunch the next day and enough to put into the freezer for another night. This may entail purchasing extra meat at the market, however, you will save time and energy on the flip side.
- Double meals and eat it another night during the week or the following week.
3. Be flexible: Meals aren’t written in stone and things always come up. Life happens; it’s okay. With meals planned and ingredients on hand, it is easy to juggle your menu plan when circumstances require.
4. Make it a habit: As you do this more and more, you will find yourself on autopilot.
5. Recycle old menu plans: Don’t throw those old menus away! Once you have three to four months’ worth of menus, you can start rotating through them. By this time, the meal planning with be old hat and easy peasy.
Planning Nutritious Meals
- Every meal and snack needs to have a protein source paired with a veggie and fruit. Protein (fish, eggs, beef, chicken, etc.) should be about three-four ounces for meals and one-two ounces at snacks (this is just a guideline and vary depending on goals and activity level). Fruits should be limited to one a day (Again, this is a guideline. Your needs may vary depending on activity, goals, and current health situation). Non-starchy vegetables (green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, all lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc) are unlimited, so go to town on them.
- Add high-quality fats to your meal (olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, ghee, avocado).
- Never eat carbohydrates alone (grains, fruits, starchy veggies). This causes blood sugar spikes and can leave you hungry within as little as forty-five minutes. Doing this over a long period of time can leave you at serious risk of diabetes.
- Eat every three to four hours. I’m sure that you have heard about intermittent fasting. I do believe that fasting has its place in a healthy lifestyle, but I DON’T recommend this approach for individuals that just starting out on this new journey, are highly stressed, have adrenal issues, nor those that have serious health issues like diabetes. It’s important to have steady hormones levels before attempting to fast.
- Incorporate your “will not break up foods” into your weekly meal plans twice meals per week to help you not feel deprived. I’ll be honest, at first, here will be times that you are going to want to indulge, that you’re going to miss some “old” foods, and that you will want to have a “treat” at the holiday party. IT’S OKAY! Let me repeat myself, IT’S OKAY, YOUR NORMAL….In fact, if you don’t want the occasional cookie (or whatever your weakness is), I’m gonna think your lying to me. Its fine to still have the foods you love, and you shouldn’t have to stress that every single meal fits in line with your meal plan. What foods you chose to , “not to break up with,” is up to you. How you chose to “cheat” should depend on what your goals are, how far away from achieving those goals you are, AND your current health situation. Some foods are ABSOLUTE no-nos for some individuals (Your nutritionist can help with this).
- Keep a food journal to see where your trouble spots are so that your health coach can help you strategize.
- Stay away from processed and man-made foods.
Need help getting started? That is what I’m here for. Visit my health coaching page or leave a question/comment below.