Meal Planning

Meal Planning

When I first heard about a meal plans, it made total sense. Who would have thought about planning out your meals for a week and then on those days make what your meal plans said to make! What a concept! I used to go to the grocery store and just put random food items in my shopping cart without a plan and then I would get home and half the stuff on my list would never get made and eventually it would get thrown away.  I used to spend on average between $200-$250 every two weeks just on food items. Now that I have a meal plan,  spend on average $145-165. I actually save money AND I am buying items that are healthy.

I'm not going to lie, it is hard to adjust if you been doing it the way I did before, BUT now that I plan my meals each weeks, I can't imagine doing it any other way. So how do I complete my meal plan, WELL, I usually start with my snacks to be honest. I usually go through spurts where I want specific items. So I make up meal plan I like to give myself two snack options for my morning snack and two snack options for my afternoon snack. On your snacks you want to mix a complex carb such as fruits and vegetables and mix this will a protein such as nuts or peanut butter. This gives you both energy and keeps you full until your next meals.

Once I have my snacks I will then start on breakfast. I usually batch cook most of my breakfast items. I get up at 4:30 and have to get two children up and ready before 6:00am, so my mornings are very limited in the morning. So if I choose to have boiled eggs, I will batch cook all eggs on Sunday.

For my lunch I usually drink Shakeology. This is my one meal that will give me all my vitamins and nutrients for the whole day. It curves my cravings that I usually give in the afternoon and it gives me energy.

I always plan dinner last, I don't know why, I just do. I have a binder full of recipes and I go through and choose meals depending on what I have going on for that night of the week. Example, if my kids have something going on after school one night, then for dinner I choose something that is going to be quick and easy so I'm not spending a lot of time in the kitchen. If I know that I might have to drink shakeology for breakfast one day, then I choose a meal that is going to have left overs so that I can take something in my lunch. Once I have my plan together, then I start putting my grocery list together. I will go over that is my next post.
(Below is an example of the template that I use-email me if you would like the template)