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Do you want to eat better, but always find yourself grabbing something easy and convenient when it’s time to eat? I used to be there too. Now I plan my meals (also known as meal planning) every week. Just doing this has helped me lose weight, keep it off, save time cooking, and even save me money!
I’d like to share this little secret of mine with you so it can help you achieve the same things for yourself (and perhaps even more).
I’ll go over:
- What meal planning is
- My top 8 tips to make meal planning easy
- A bonus tip on how to make planning your meals even more impactful for you
Let’s jump in!
What is meal planning?
Meal planning is a way of organizing the meals and snacks you make for a given period of time. You usually make this before you go grocery shopping, so you can use it to make your grocery list.
I prefer to plan one week at a time. My husband and I eat the same meals each day of the week plus two extra meals for the weekend. We both do one 24-hour fast during the week so we plan to eat one meal 4 times (lunches) and one meal 5 times (this breaks our fast from the previous night). So far, that’s just what works best for us.
Regardless of how often you choose to do this though, when you have a plan, you will be less likely to spend money on fast food or convenience meals.
Top tips to make meal planning easy
1. Have a meal planner
There is something about writing down what I intend to eat that week that helps it stick and keeps me motivated to eat what I’ve planned. Here’s the exact meal planner I use. Click here to check it out for yourself.
2. Set aside a time for you to devote to the meal plan
This is a biggie for me. I set aside 15 minutes to plan everything out and get excited for the next week’s meals. However, I’ve found that if I don’t set aside the time I feel rushed or may not even get to it. That’s a recipe for disaster and I want you to be able to avoid the same mistakes I made. So, pick a time to sit down and meal plan!
3. Get inspiration
Scroll or search on Pinterest for delicious, healthy recipes! This is where the majority of my recipes come from. My top search criteria for great recipes include “AIP recipes,” “gluten-free recipes,” “dairy-free recipes,” “whole food recipes,” and “healthy recipes.” I do not follow the AIP diet, but these recipes are usually very high in nutrient content and also dairy & gluten-free.
You can also follow me on Pinterest to get a jump start on finding delicious healthy recipes. Click here to go to my Pinterest profile.
I go more in-depth on why I am gluten & dairy-free and focus on whole foods in my upcoming post on my Top Essentials to Prevent Early Aging.
4. Start with what’s on sale or what you already have
Take a look at what food you already have or what’s on sale at your favorite grocery store to get ideas on meals and snacks for the next week. It’s one of the best ways to save money!
5. Balance the macronutrients
Macronutrients are the main energy building blocks that we get from food. They are proteins, fats, and carbs. It’s best to eat a meal or snack that contains at least some of each macronutrient to make sure you don’t forget any, that your blood sugar doesn’t spike, to keep your fuller longer, and keep body-wide inflammation down.
Keep in mind that some foods have good amounts of more than one macronutrient. If you include one of these foods, you can count it for both. For example, nuts are largely made of protein and fats.
6. Plan your snacks too
Snacking is where I get into trouble most when it comes to grabbing what’s convenient, so I do actively plan to have nutritious snacks to eat.
7. Plan to eat leftovers and think of other ways to use them
I eat the same thing all week, but if that’s not your style that’s okay! It will save you time and money however, if you at least eat the leftovers from dinner for lunch tomorrow.
You do not have to eat the leftovers exactly as you ate them the previous night, however. Get creative and repurpose the food in another form. Did you have burgers last night? Break up the burger into chunks to put on top of a salad. Had rotisserie chicken? Cut up the rest and make a quick chicken salad. This helps keep things interesting if you have trouble eating the same thing several times in a row.
8. Use your meal plan to create your shopping list
Once you’ve planned out what you want to eat, compare the ingredients you’ll need to what you already have. If you need more or don’t have something, add it to your grocery list. In no time, you’ll have a grocery list of only the things you need for that week. Making your grocery list this way will help you avoid going down aisles you don’t need to go down and picking up unnecessary items, which both helps avoid having things in the house you don’t want to eat as well as saving money!
Bonus tip to make planning your meals even more impactful
My #1 tip to tag on to meal planning is meal prepping. I’ll be doing a post with more details on how to meal prep soon, but having all my meals cooked and portioned out has not only completely taken out the guesswork and temptations for my nutrition plan, but it’s also saved me an average of 4+ hours every week!
So whether you meal prep or not, meal planning is a life, health, weight loss, and household organization must! If you’re new to meal planning, I hope at least one of my tips today have inspired you to begin. If you’ve already been meal planning, I hope one of my tips may make the process easier for you.
Remember that the first step is to have a meal planner (bonus points for if it’s also super cute so you want to use it). To make getting started easier for you, I’ve done that part already! Click here to get your meal planner now.
Do you have your own meal planning tips? I’d love to hear them! Comment below and let’s share.
For easy recipes to add to your meal plan, check out my posts on my Favorite Fool-Proof Recipe and 6 Easy & Delicious Meatball Recipes.
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