Secret Weapon #2: There are lots of ways to eat healthy, but for me, it is the easiest when I plan ahead. Knowing what I am going to eat and having it prepped ahead of time makes it much easier to stay on track. I am going to share with you my easy way of meal planning for myself and my family of 4. This means only one trip to the grocery store, 1-2 hours of food prep for the week and a the menu never gets boring! It's definitely not fancy, but it's PRACTICAL and this method has served me well!
I thought about typing it up and making it look nice. When I create meal plans to share with my customers I do that, but I wanted to share what it looks like day to day, in my house. I do not take the time to make it look fancy. I want something that is quick and easy. A routine that is simple to keep up. This system works well for my family.
The first thing I do is write down my menu plan. I LOVE to plan, and with my family's busy schedule it is easiest for me to plan every meal and snack for the whole week. Here is my meal plan for this week:
I printed off my Meal Planner and put it in a sheet protector. I write out all my workouts, meals and snacks with a dry erase marker so I can easily change it next week. I keep it on my fridge for easy access and for everyone (including the husband) to see. The current version is what I have planned for myself and my husband to eat. Next I will add to this in a different color what my kids will be eating for breakfast and lunch. From this meal plan I create my grocery list. One trip will last us all week!
**Fellow moms: I know you can appreciate only dragging the kids to the store once a week!
So how I do I decide what we are eating every week? It's easy! Behind the Meal Plan in the sheet protector hanging on my fridge, I printed a blank calendar that has a month's worth of meals I know my family loves already written down.
From this calendar I choose what we will eat that week. Sometimes I will look at the ad for our local grocery store and choose meals that have items on sale. Other times I am in a hurry and just pick whatever is easiest, but mostly I just choose whatever sounds the most delicious to me at the moment. I love trying new recipes so I usually include at least one new recipe each week (thank you Pinterest!)
"Ummm...Kayla? You keep saying you plan for the whole week but most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday are blank? What do you eat on the weekends?"
Great question! (This is one I get a lot!) I will fill in the weekend about midweek, because at my house even the best plans never go exactly as planned. So, by midweek I will know which dinners were bumped because we had too many leftovers, or which night we will go out to eat, etc, :)
I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment if you are going to try this at your house!
Have a Happy, Healthy Day!
Awesome meal planning tip!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carolyn! I hope it works for you too! :)
ReplyDeleteYay for meal planning! I'm finding it super tough to care/plan while Reagan is gone but normally I am right there with you. Feeling a bit inspired after reading your post to try out some recipes on the 4-year-old. As long as it doesn't involve anything spicy, an orange vegetable, or potatoes in any form, he might just go for it. :-)
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