One of the hardest parts of improving your diet can be figuring out what to eat and when. This is especially true if you, like me, work a day job.
That’s why I recommend planning your meals for the week out ahead of time. Usually Sunday is a good day for this because it’s right before the beginning of the work week and it’s a weekend day, making it easier for grocery shopping.
Every friend I have who practices healthy living swears by a weekly meal plan. While there may be times when you have to deviate from the plan (shit happens, right?), you’re much more likely to follow it if you have a plan in place.
Planning Made Easy
You don’t have to be super rigid with your plan in order for it to be effective. There are many different versions of meal planning.
I typically like to choose what I eat the day before I eat it, so I can’t make a meal plan where I choose all of my meals for every day of my week. Some people can, and if that works for you I say do it.
For me, I just make a list of all the things I want to cook/eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner this week. Then I write them on my Overview Meal Plan (see free worksheets in the guide below). That way I know what recipes I want to make, but I have more flexibility built in. I also do my planning this way because I like to grocery shop every couple days so I always have the freshest ingredients on hand.
My point is simple, planning is the best way to stay on track with your healthy living. But you don’t have to be rigid or detailed. Just do what works for you and your life.
The InkyBites Meal Planning Guide will give you the steps to take in order to plan your meals each week. It also includes blank meal plan worksheets you can print out and use. There’s a detailed version and a more freestyle version so you can find the plan that works for you.
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I don’t plan these things out. That’s a good thought though but I prefer taking each day by itself.
I prefer to take it one day at a time too, but when I don’t have a list of meals I want to cook each week (and the matching groceries in my fridge/pantry), I will end up eating like shit all week and that doesn’t work for me. So what I do is I make a list of 5 meals I want to cook each week, then when the time comes for me to make dinner, I look at the list and pick something. That way I’m leaving room for flexibility. It helps.
But everyone has to do what works for them!
This web site certainly has all the information and
facts I wanted about this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
Howdy. I’m wondering if you might be interested in doing a link exchange? I see your website: http://inkybites.com/meal-planning-made-easy-free-guide-with-printable-worksheets/ and my blog are based mostly around the same subject. I’d really like to swap links or perhaps guest author a post for you.
Here is my personal contact: george.pender@gawab.
com. I highly recommend you contact me if you’re even slightly interested. Thanks.