The 4 Fundamentals of Proper Meal Planning

Is meal planning necessary for weight loss?

I think the question you should ask yourself is why not?

Determining how to eat properly and when is a lot like figuring out how are will get to the next city or how you will pay for those new pair of shoes. You need to have a plan.

Planning is essential in most everything you do nutrition included. Do you just aimlessly get in your car and start driving and hope you get to the proper desitination?

This is essentially what you are doing when you just haphazardly put food in your mouth and hope that you will eat less and lose weight.

Here are the benefits of mapping our your meals.

* You know how many calories you are consuming

* You control the nutrient ratio and don’t overeat too much of the wrong nutrients.

* You can easily make changes to your plan because you know what you have been eating and what is working or not working.

* You are less likely to stray with your eating

1. Your plan should be laid out so that you will know how many meals you will eat every day. Approximately when you will be eating these meals is also important so you can write that down as well.

2. Next layout how many servings from each food group you will be eating and at which meal you will be eating them. This is the key to avoiding wasted grazing and snacking on unhealthy choices. It also helps you define how many calories you will eat that day and in what ratio.

3. Then prepare your grocery shopping list so you know exactly what you are purchasing for the week and how much.

4. Finally prep as much food as possible by cutting up vegetables you need for the week ahead of time. If you are eating chicken and other meats cook them all at once so you just have to heat them up or pack them in your lunch and they are ready to be eaten.

Purchase many different tupperware containers to store your food in so that again it is easy to assemble your meals and you aren’t wasting time figuring out what you are going to eat and how you will obtain the food.

By following these simple, but essential steps to proper meal planning you will have a much higher success rate when it comes to weight loss and dieting.

A laid out planned meal plan is the same as a well thought out exercise plan. You have a goal or objective and you then have a plan to succeed with that goal. Now it is up to you to carry out that plan. I guarantee your chances for success will increase significantly and you will be loving yourself for following and sticking to your plan.

Meal Planning Benefits

Meal planning can help you to successfully organize the daily routine of preparing meals for your family.

If you often find yourself searching for something to prepare for dinner, meal planning may be just the thing you need to make meal time less stressful.

Below are some of the benefits of meal planning.

1. You’ll save time.

Knowing what you’re going to cook for dinner means you can get the meal on the table faster because you won’t have to decide what to make.

In addition, when you plot out what meals you’re going to fix for the week, you can simply make one trip to the store and buy all the food you’ll need for those meals.

You won’t have to search the refrigerator or freezer when dinner time arrives, and you can eliminate trips to the grocery store looking for something to eat that everyone likes.

2. You’ll save money.

Meal planning can also help you save money.

For one, when you know what you’re going to cook for dinner, you won’t eat out as much during the week because you can’t think of anything appealing to make.

By simply eating at home more instead of eating out, you’ll keep more money in your pocket that you can use for other important things.

3. You’ll be able to eat healthier.

If you tend to eat burgers and fries from fast food places a few times a week, meal planning can help you to eat healthier by replacing those meals with healthier ones.

Instead of greasy, fatty hamburgers or having pizza delivered, you could have a nutritious meal of vegetables, salad and a lean main course of chicken or beef for dinner.

In addition, if you need to restrict sugar or salt from your diet, menu planning can help you to consistently cook meals that fit your nutritional standards and stick to your diet.

4. You’ll be able to reduce meal time stress.

If you have your dinners planned out, you won’t have to figure out what to make while everyone is hungry and in bad moods.

You’ll already know what you’re going to make, and dinner time can go smoothly as everyone looks forward to the delicious meal they’re going to eat.

5. Meal planning is easy.

Planning what you’re going to prepare for dinner over the weekdays isn’t difficult.

It just takes a little time to decide beforehand what you want to eat, and then purchase the food.

You can plan your dinners for the week days, the entire week or longer.

However, start small by planning out, for example, five dinners for the weekdays.

Once you see what’s involved, you’ll have a better idea how many meals and how far ahead you’d like to plan.

Conclusion: Meal planning can help you to save money and time. Meal planning can also help you to eat healthier, reduce meal time stress, and isn’t difficult to do.

After you start meal planning, you may find that dinner time becomes family time again.

Menu Plan Monday – May 25 (Late)

I’m late posting my menu plan this week, but here it is…

Monday – pork chops, potatoes, green beans, rolls

Tuesday – hamburgers on the grill, mac & cheese

Wednesday – tacos, homemade spanish rice

Thursday – date night!  going out to eat

Friday – steak, baked potatoes, salad

Saturday – grilling out, probably a whole chicken and typical bbq fixin’s

Sunday – brisket (didn’t make last week), bbq beans

Don’t forget to head over to Meal Plan Monday for even more meal  and recipe ideas!

Menu Plan Monday – May 18 Edition

This week is full of graduations and graduation parties, so I only have to plan dinner for a few nights this week

Anyway… here’s my Menu Plan Monday for the week:

Monday – meatloaf, mashed potatoes, hot rolls

Tuesday – hamburgers on the grill, grilled veggies

Wednesday – graduation ceremony, will either eat out or eat leftovers

Thursday – dh’s birthday, plan is to go out to his favorite steakhouse

Friday – steak, baked potatoes, salad

Saturday – graduation party, will be eating at sil’s house

Sunday – brisket (yum!), homemade mac & cheese, corn on the cob

Hope everyone has a great week.  Don’t forget to head over to Meal Plan Monday for more great meal ideas!

Quick Healthy Dinner Recipes

photo credit: Bill HR

One of the challenges of meal planning is having dinner recipes on hand that your family will enjoy and eat.

Here are some of my favorite places to find quick healthy dinner recipes:

FoodNetwork.com – not only do I love watching the Food Network, I love trying out the recipes too.  You can find all of the recipes from your favorite shows and more on the Food Network website.

AllRecipes.com – this is my go-to website when I need dinner ideas or if I’m looking for a recipe.  There are thousands of recipes and ideas on this site.  One of my favorite sections is Budget Friendly Meals.

CookingLight.com – a great site to find healthy recipes for those who are dieting or just trying to eat better.  Check out the Vegetarian section, or my favorite, the In Season section.

EatingWell.com – this is the Eating Well magazine website.  In addition to finding tons of recipes you’ll also find articles on topics such as cooking for kids, food and travel, food and entertaining, and much more.

KraftFoods.com – this is another one of my favorite sites for finding meal ideas.   This site is frequently updated with recipes for the occassion.  For example, right now you’ll find Mother’s Day recipes and Cinco de Mayo recipes.  They also have a new BudgetWise section if you’re looking to stretch your food budget.

Menu Plan Monday – May 4 Edition

I can’t believe it’s time for Menu Plan Monday already!  Where did last week go?

Anyway… here’s my Menu Plan Monday for the week:

Monday – steak, stuffed pasta shells, salad

Tuesday – spicy beef sandwiches, french fries

Wednesday – leftovers! we (still) have tons of stuff in the freezer, so it will be a buffet leftover night

Thursday – salad, grilled chicken breasts, fresh green beans

Friday – pizza (still haven’t gotten the Papa Murphy’s we’ve been craving)

Saturday – ribs on the grill, corn on the cob, baked beans

Sunday – meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls (my favorite Sunday night dinner)

For more menu planning ideas, head over to Meal Plan Monday. Have a great week!

Make Meal Planning Fun

Meal planning can help you save time, money and energy, but sometimes it’s hard to come up with a fresh new meal plan each week.

One way to keep the meals fresh and fun is to get the kids involved.  Ask your kids what some of their top choices are for dinner for the week and choose one or two.  Your kids will be happy because they’re getting some of their favorites and you’re happy because you’ve got some dinner ideas for the week.

Another idea to make meal planning fun is to have theme nights or theme dinners.  Have a Mexican night one week with all the fixin’s for a taco bar or burrito bar, and have a Chinese “take-in” night the next week where you prepare your own stir fry at home.  You can make these nights even more fun by decorating or using fun plates for your theme nights, or including entertainment such as a movie or book that fits your theme for the night.

Although the point of meal planning is to make dinner easy, it helps to shake things up and plan some fun in your menus as well.  Have fun!

Tired of Mealtime Frustration?

Menu Plan Monday

Here’s my Menu Plan Monday for the week…

Now that tax season is over, I’m looking forward to really cooking again (did a lot of carry out and easy menus during tax season).

Anyway, here’s the menu for this week:

Monday – shake-n-bake pork chops, au gratin potatoes, green beans, rolls

Tuesday – chicken thighs on the grill, baked potato, home made mac-n-cheese, salad

Wednesday – will use leftover chicken from Tuesday to make chicken tacos or chicken enchiladas

Thursday – steak (got on sale last week and froze several), home made mashed potatoes potatoes, fancy green beans (with bacon and onion)

Friday – pizza (hubby’s been craving Papa Murphy’s)

Saturday – stuffed pasta shells, salad and garlic bread (yum!)

Sunday – dh is smoking some ribs on the big green egg (a ceramic grill that he can’t live without)

For more menu plans, head over to Meal Plan Monday.  Have a great week!

Meal Planning Made Tax Season Almost Bearable

Those of you who know me know that I am a tax professional who prepares taxes for individuals and small businesses.  This tax season was one of the longest, toughest tax seasons I’ve had in a long time…

But, this was the first year that I was doing meal planning on a regular basis, and oh my goodness, was it a huge help!

Getting dinner prepared was no big deal this tax season because I already knew what I was going to make and I had everything on hand to do it.  Hubby even helped by getting dinner ready a few times!

I have to say we cheated and ordered out a few times, but even that was planned ahead of time, so it was no big deal.

I knew meal planning was a life saver before, but this tax season has me convinced about the benefits of meal planning all over again.  Whew!

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