I’ve learned in my 30-something years in this life that planning is the key to eating healthy. Sometimes I slip (like just two weeks ago when I started a new job and did not plan my lunches), but eventually I always go back to my planning ritual.
I pick a day of the week when I’m off, like Saturday, and that’s also the day there’s the farmers market so I can stock on fresh produce. For most people with normal jobs the planning and shopping day will be Sunday. Grocery shopping is the single most important thing when it comes to staying on track with a healthy eating plan. Also, Salad Samurai has awesome meal planning guide along with their amazing salad recipes, so check it out if you feel like you’re out of ideas. These are not your regular boring salads.
6 Steps of my Weekly Meal Plan
Review the contents of the fridge, freezer, and pantry, making a note of anything that needs to be used up int he next couple of days, or incorporated to the upcoming week’s meal plan.
Get inspired by cooking books, food blogs or Pinterest. Pick new recipes I want to try this week.
Make the plan by filling calendar for the week, making first day’s meal something easy and quick to throw together. You could use Sunday to prep it (wash, soak, cut etc.) so that Monday goes smoothly.
Compare recipe ingredient list to what you already have at home and then, make a shopping list.
Go shopping!
As soon as you get home wash and cut produce, soak, cook lentils, beans, quinoa, rice and toast nuts, seeds, croutons you are going to use in the next 3-4 days and store in containers/bags. This way you are ready to throw together a meal in matter of minutes.
[…] said before, planning is the key to eating healthy. I’ve written about meal planning before here and wanted to give you an example how I keep healthy eats available for the work week. These are […]