Healthy Eating Routines

Do you think Martha Stewart uses meal planning? I don’t think she does but I am guessing cooking a meal for herself and her Frenchies isn’t that stressful. Maybe she doesn’t even cook for herself… What does Martha Stewart have to do with me or with you? Nothing, nothing at all! We live in the real world where food doesn’t fall onto the table three times a day, we don’t have endless hours to spend in the kitchen with oodles of fancy gadgets, and (most of us) don’t have (just) four-legged family members happy to eat anything we throw at them.

 

Statistics show that the more often you go to the store, the more you spend because of impulse buys. The same can be said when you go to the store hungry--such as picking up something to cook for dinner shortly before mealtime. Putting thought into what you will feed your family means you will also be putting thought into your grocery spending. Meal planning can work for every budget because it costs less than winging it at dinner time or going out to eat. I don’t know many families who don’t have at least one night per week where cooking a meal or even throwing a frozen pizza into the oven is daunting. Dining out on those nights sounds way more appealing but what if your dinner was already thought out ahead of time? 

Prepare your monthly or periodic staple shopping list here and set it up to be delivered automatically!

Having a meal plan means purposefully buying groceries from a prepared shopping list. Most Americans waste about 40% of the food they purchase every single week. That means for every five bags of food you buy, two of them you end up tossing in the trash...52 times per year! That adds up so fast.

Simply having a meal plan will improve your diet in a multitude of ways. Your plan will incorporate fresh foods instead of prepackaged meals that are naturally lower in quality than homemade and higher in things like sodium, preservatives, and unhealthy fats. Lower quality food is generally less satiating, which means you will be hungry sooner. You have total control over what you are eating so you can focus on whatever dietary needs you or your family have. For my family, we prioritize eating food that is in season, raised humanely or without chemicals and pesticides and mostly locally produced. Having a meal plan allows me to take all of these factors into consideration with less effort than you might realize!

If you commit to meal planning it isn’t very likely that you would plan to go to the store and grab boxed macaroni and cheese, white bread and bologna. Instead, you will be able to focus on real, whole food items that fit within your budget and that match the recipes you have chosen. Once you have purchased this beautiful, fresh, high-quality food, I doubt you will watch it spoil so you will have no choice but to stick with your plan. See, meal planning is like having your own accountability coach!

There are some people who believe they hate cooking. I used to be that person until I discovered cooking fresh foods that are in season...oh, and flavor! When food tastes amazing, I am way more excited to cook it. I guarantee that after a few months of cooking from scratch, the prepackaged, store-bought meals you once loved will taste far less fantastic. Ragu pasta sauce and instant oatmeal have absolutely lost their appeal to me even though they were staples in my kitchen for years!

Having a plan for your meals doesn’t mean eating the same thing day after day, week after week. This type of routine is an easy one that many families who do not utilize a meal plan follow to reduce stress. With a meal plan, you can throw in new recipes and eat with the seasons. Variety is definitely the spice of life when it comes to food!

One of the most important factors of meal planning is the “plan it and forget it” phenomena that occur. I plug in my recipes, compare it with my inventory sheets, make a grocery list and bring the food home. Once it is in my house, I really don’t think about food anymore. I know I can trust my meal planning formula to only provide a meal for me that I have time to cook, is in season and contains only the ingredients my family wants to eat. How many times do you go to the grocery store with a partial list and still stand staring blankly at the shelves of food wondering, what am I hungry for? Too many times, that’s how many!

Because your meal plan incorporates seasonal food and more variety, your family is less likely to get sick of the food you are making. Now, I can’t promise you won't have at least one picky eater at your table (mine is usually my husband) but I can assure you that you can squash complaints with a simple: “This is just what’s for dinner tonight, not every night.” My family gets to rate the meals as long as they are polite. We use a thumbs up or thumbs down rating method. Words like “Gross, disgusting and hate” are not allowed.

Knowing your meals are planned out and your shopping list was complete means you don’t have to stress about feeding yourself or your family. Preparing a meal that only requires you to follow a recipe should free up your mind. Your family will quickly notice how much happier you are when preparing meals. When I (rarely) flub up my meal plan, my family can tell immediately. On top of my own anxiety over what to prepare on the fly is the “hanger” seething from my children (and sometimes me and always my husband!). Hanger=hungry+angry. It is apparently genetic.

A total bonus to all of this is that having someone over for dinner unexpectedly is something you can do because you have planned your meals. Do you ever notice in “old” movies that women invite others to stay for dinner moments before dinner is about to be served? Just how in the world did she have enough food to offer a seat at her table? What if she wasn’t planning to make anything tasty? My theory about that is the foods they made then were more fresh and balanced. It was just a part of life than to serve up a meat and potatoes meal paired with dessert and bread that was delicious. While women today no longer feel the pressure to make such a meal for the man in their house, thanks to a meal plan, I can serve another family nearly every night of the week and I know the food will always be share-worthy.

Above all the health benefits and money, saving is the time-saving effect of meal planning. From grocery shopping to cooking, meal planning will save you time. Having a weekly plan means shopping one time or potentially breaking up produce purchases to twice a week but still only going to the store intentionally and not because you aren’t sure what to make for dinner in 30 minutes.

Another aspect of meal planning time savings is efficiency. Speaking of efficiency, Thrive Market is one of my secret tools for staying efficient. Check them out here.

Your family may love tacos so you can plan ahead and make a double or triple batch of taco stuffing and freeze it for later in the week. If you are already baking up a batch of breakfast muffins, there is not much extra effort in doubling it and storing one batch in the freezer.

Making a meal for someone who has just had a baby or is under the weather is simple with a meal plan. You can just double your recipe when you head to the store for ingredients. Or, you may already have frozen meals or soup that you had double batched. When a Meal Train comes out, you can now be the first one to sign up because you know you have at least one meal in the freezer that would be nourishing and delicious. I know before I had a meal plan, I always wanted to contribute a meal but the anxiety over having a recipe that was tasty enough to share was just too great. I have a whole host of awesome recipes to share now and I always have at least one amazing soup in the freezer.

So what are you going to do, become the next Martha Stewart? Me neither. Dive into meal planning like your life depends on it because it does! My family uses RealPlans. After years of trying a multitude of different meal planning methods and programs, Real Plans is the ultimate winner (of my heart).

Check out some of the other services I've tried and see what might fit you here. 

Get a Reboot On Food and Support with some of my best recommendations here.