My Top 5 Tips to Begin Meal Planning

So how do I begin meal planning??  This is one of the most common questions that I hear from my challengers AND patients at the pharmacy when we discuss healthy nutrition. 

When I began focusing on my nutrition a few years ago, I avoided meal planning because I thought that it was a waste of time and that I didn’t need it.  I just didn’t want to take the time to learn about meal planning because I thought that I could handle it all without planning.  This was quite strange because I’m a total planner in most areas of my life.  
When I finally began meal planning – even if it was just a few days at the time – I saw drastic improvements in my eating habits.  Drastic improvements in how I felt.  And of course, I lost weight.

I want to share with you how exactly how I began meal planning with 5 simple tips.  These tips will help you also embrace meal planning and begin yourself!
So let’s get started!

1. Know your nutrition goals.  Know how much you need to eat each day.  How many servings of protein, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats do you need each day?

2. Create a master folder or electronic file with all your favorite recipes and your family’s favorite recipes.  Pinterest is a great way to keep track of recipes – just be cautious of the unhealthy choices!!  Eating the same foods each week IS NOT BAD.  I eat many of the same foods each week – especially breakfast & lunch – it’s simple for me, it’s less that I have to plan and it still satisfies me.  Healthy people often keep the same  foods in their weekly rotation just because it’s simple and they choose nourishing foods that they love.

3. Make a master grocery list of your staples that you need each week (proteins, almond milk, eggs, fruits, veggies, nuts/seeds, whole wheat breads/pastas, quinoa, etc). Then all you have to add to your list are the specific ingredients for what you’ve planned to cook that week.  Shop from your grocey list – if it isn’t in the house, you won’t eat it and you’ll stick to your meal plan.

4. Write out your meal plan – either electronically then print OR write on paper.  Keep it posted in the kitchen.

5.  Do as much prep work as you can on one or two days of the week so that your week is easier!