October 18, 2017
5 Tips For Meal Planning
We all know that eating right can help us maintain our health. Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, cooking meals at home will help in doing that. Planning meals ahead will help you stay healthy and help you achieve your goals.
Before starting a meal plan, making a catalogue of all the recipes you know and categorize them into types of meals for example: high protein meal, quick to go meal or a traditional meal (for breakfast or lunch). This will come in handy!
Tips For Meal Planning
- Decide the day and time for planning all your meals. It is the most important step and the first step in having a good meal plan.
- Next is to decide what you want to eat. We all need a balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals in our diets distributed over 3 to 5 small meals to sustain a healthy body. Knowing what you are going to eat the next day or for a week will relieve you from
- stress.
- Make a grocery list based on the meal plan and go to the store with your list.
- Prepare the ingredients ahead wherever possible. For example soaking beans or chopping vegetables a day before so it’s easy to grab and go.
- Follow through with the meal plan and enjoy home cooked meals as much as possible!
*While planning meals:*
- Include your family in meal planning.
- Choose mostly whole grain, fresh fruits and vegetables. Preferably locally grown.
- Double the quantity for another day of prepping. This can save you time the next time you have to cook.
- Check the weather, interestingly, a rainy day or cold day calls for something warm, spicy and fatty. It can -sometimes- be planned ahead. 🙂
- To make it interesting, you can make a special themed week like Mediterranean, Mexican, or Italian and incorporated it into your meal plan for that week.
References:
www.blog.myfitnesspal.com/meal-planning-for-beginners/
http://www.thekitchn.com/10-tips-for-better-weekly-meal-planning-reader-intelligence-report-177252