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, 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.
Do you have any tips for meal planning on busy weeks? Comment below and let’s start a conversation!