If you’re like us, you eat better meals and more #FitFuel foods when you map out your meals in advance. When we’re short on time it can be easy to make less than stellar choices – who wants to make a chopped salad while feeling famished? A FitStar once shared a quote with us that resonates this time of year, when goals and healthy habits are at the forefront of our minds:
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
You’ve probably heard this phrase before (maybe you saw it on Instagram), and you might find it to be cliche, but it’s true: a solid plan is critical to success. Meal planning is a huge time and money saver when you want to eat better and feel better about your health and overall wellness.
Recently Cooking Light shared 6 stellar tips for making meal planning work for you – check out their article for all the details, but here are the highlights:
#1 – Decide to Actually Do it
Much of meal planning is making the meal plan. It sounds silly, but the practice of brainstorming foods and meals to make, writing them down and planning for them is fundamental. Think about what you want to cook and eat, chat about your plan with whomever you share your table (even kids!), and decide to give it a shot. Once you’ve made this commitment, and have a plan in hand, it will be easier to grocery shop and make your meals.
#2 – Settle On A Style
Are you going to map out a week? A month? Ten days? Do you want to roast two chickens or make a double batch of soup, one to eat tonight and the other for two weeks from now? Many experts recommend the “cook once, eat twice” strategy – where you can stretch a dish across multiple meals by freezing a portion or mixing it up (i.e. roast a chicken to eat with a salad one night, and later in the week have chicken tacos). Think about how many dishes you want to make, how much time you want to spend learning to make something new, and how often you’ll want or need to lean on old favorites. We recommend loosely mapping out a month’s worth of meals, and filling in the details a week or two at a time so you can edit for schedule and other life changes (you don’t want to plan to make a roast on softball night!).
#3 – List Before You Shop
Write down your grocery list! Whether it’s plugged in the Notes section of your phone, or an email you sent yourself, or on actual paper, write down what you need to make your meals. Bringing a list with you to the store will help you curb any impulse purchases, too, which is great for your wallet.
#4 – Have A Strategy
Many people shop at the weekend, some shop throughout the week. Think about #2 above, how frequently you’ll want to buy fresh ingredients, and what’s the most convenient time for you to go to the store. We like to avoid a weekend rush so shopping on Mondays and Thursdays is a FitStar Team favorite.
#5 – Savor Foods Before They Spoil
Did you get fresh leafy greens or score some wild salmon? Make sure you cook your perishables as soon as possible and enjoy them at their peak. Then you can use up your rice or eggs later in the week and the quality of your food won’t be impacted.
#6 – Evaluate Your Efforts
Was a meal a hit or a miss? Did day or week go particularly well? Make a note of what worked, what didn’t, what tasted good, and what you don’t want to make again – ever. This is a process, but the more notes you take, the easier it will be to streamline your meal planning in the future. Soon you’ll have a whole list of meals you love and know you can make, and grocery shopping lists that you can easily pull from to whip together dishes you and your family will love.
Do you have any secrets for successful meal planning? Share your ideas and best practices in the comments below!
Make It Happen,
– Team FitStar
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