Meal Planning

So...who does it? How often do you do it? When you have a family of four, children involved in extra curricular activities, both parents work...meal planning is crucial to maintaining a healthy diet. Relying on grabbing fast food is not going to get you far, your healthy options are limited, and it can totally bust your budget. Spending a little bit of time once a week is all it takes to make sure you stay on track. If you have a routine that is pretty steady without much fluctuation, you could probably do this once a month and make shopping lists for each week, all at one time. If you are like me and your schedule is constantly varying, you might want to shoot for planning once a week for the upcoming week, so that you can keep your schedule in mind and plan around that. We've recently been doing the 21 Day Fix plan by Beachbody, and meal planning has been very important key to success on this plan.  I've actually started enjoying picking and choosing what we're going to have, and having it printed out to keep me on track. Plus, on those days when I'm too busy to think, it's nice to not have to come up with a last minute idea for meals because it's all ready planned out. This is one habit I'm going to stick with and plan to maintain. So, here's a few tips from me to keep in mind when you're planning your meals:

1) How many meals a day do you want to cook (meaning, how much time do you want to spend preparing each meal)? If you don't have time to cook a big breakfast, make choices that are easily prepared like fresh fruit, yogurt, whole wheat bagels, oatmeal, etc. Items that your kids are able to help prepare themselves are great, too. In our house, our standard breakfast is Shakeology. My husband and I have it every weekday, and most weekend mornings. Our kids have it sometimes, as well, but my 14 year old son wants a regular meal most days, so I try to cook something. Generally, because I work from home, I'm able to cook a breakfast of eggs and bacon, or biscuits and gravy (his favorite unhealthy breakfast). I really should work on finding a healthier way to make sausage gravy. I also try to purchase some prepared items to cut time on prep. Buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it, keep it handy in the fridge to throw on a salad or add to a recipe that evening. If you have a Costco or Sam's, they are typically cheaper there than in other grocery stores. I can buy one at Winn Dixie or Publix for around $7 or $8, and got a larger one at Costco yesterday for $4.59. I recently purchased these precooked chicken burgers (gluten free, no preservatives) with mozzarella and kale. There are 10 patties in the box, 2 patties vacuumed sealed together (so 5 separate packs per box). They were really good, low calorie, low sodium and easy to heat up. I've crumbled them up and put on a salad, or eaten on a whole wheat Sandwich Thin with lettuce and tomato. Easy peasy, and my kids like them too! (BONUS!)

2) Keep in mind what your day has in store for you. If you are going to be running errands most of the day, or stuck at your desk, try to choose options that you can prepare that morning that will be ready to eat when you can. It's easy to throw together a salad, sandwich or wrap in the morning. If you have a soup thermos, heat your soup that morning and put it in the thermos, it will be warm for hours and you won't have to find a microwave. If you are like us and have kids playing ball, you know how limited the options are in the ballpark concession stands. Try to eat or take a meal with you that you can eat at the park or before you go in (some don't allow outside food and drink). Just last night, my husband and I sat in our car and had chef salads I'd prepared at home that morning and grabbed out of the fridge on my way out of the door. It gave us a few minutes to enjoy together while our daughter was warming up for her game, and kept us on track with our meal plan and budget.
Here's a meal we had last week that I preheated and put in a cooler to keep warm (Grilled pork chops, steamed green beans and baked sweet potato)

Another time, we had a beach cheer competition that was 2 days at the beach. Eating out for a family of four can be expensive, and hard to stay on track with your diet. We went by Publix and packed a cooler with fresh, easy to eat foods that kept us on budget and within our diet options. 

3) This is a great time to plan for new recipes that you want to try out. I know we've all got pins on our Pinterest board that we haven't tried out yet. This is a great time to choose a few each week to throw into your regular go-to meals. One that I recently tried out for 21 Day Fix was a baked ziti. Here's the link to the original recipe: http://rxforhealthyliving.com/2014/07/01/baked-ziti-21-day-fix-approved/
I only made a few changes by using venison Italian sausage instead of ground turkey. It was amazing, my whole family loved it, and I couldn't believe it was considered "diet food". So yummy, it will be a mainstay on our menus.

4) Budget. Have a plan for your money first, and then plan your meals based on what you can afford. I'm sure we'd all love to have steak and seafood every night, but our budget most likely won't accommodate that. If you can purchase meat in bulk and repackage before freezing, that's a great way to save money. If you are going to have a special day during that week, adjust your budget for the other meals so that you don't break your allowed funds.

5) Make it a family event. Ask your family for their input. Get them to request a meal each week, and help choose recipes, shop for their ingredients, and then have them help you prepare it on the day you have it. It's a great way to get them in the kitchen and give you help, and teach them some cooking basics. My daughter loves to help with meal prep, and now that she's a little older, I can let her chop vegetables for salads, stir things on the stove, etc. Choose age appropriate things for your children to help you with, and get them involved.

6) Keep your family's dietary needs in mind. If you have someone in your household that is lactose intolerant, diabetic, gluten intolerant, etc..keep these things in mind when choosing your meals and ingredients. Most grocery stores today have special diet options available, and many of them are easy to prepare, or prepared all ready.

I'd love to hear your ideas for meal planning, and what you do to get it done (when, how much time you spend planning, etc). What are some of your go to meals on busy nights/mornings? If you'd like help creating a meal plan for your family, let me know! I'd love to help you get started. Here's an example of a week of meals that we have done while on 21 Day Fix (which explains the color coded columns with numbers):

Let me know if you are interested in help with meal planning, 21 Day Fix, Shakeology, or any other products offered by Beachbody. You can take a look at my website, www.beachbodycoach.com/rmbmajor. I'd love to hear from you!