How To Plan Your Meals For The Week

With how chaotic our lives are, the last thing we need to do is embrace the chaos and eat whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. Unfortunately, many people see planning a meal as a chore, just another thing to add to a to-do list during a day where they barely have any time at all. However, there’s plenty of reasons to take time out of the day to plan your meals for the week.

Healthier Food Choices

Let’s start with the most obvious reason to plan your meals: you’ll be making smarter food choices. Instead of consuming convenient and overly processed food, you’re getting more vegetables, grains, and proteins into your diet. Processed fast food is growing as rapidly as their normal consumers. They’re quickly cooked from frozen and full of harmful chemicals, salts, and sugars.

They're a large source of high-fructose corn syrup and added sugar. This makes them empty calories. The whole idea behind junk food is to promote overconsumption so you will purchase more. The way they're designed with artificial chemicals and meant to be addicting. They're meant to tap into the reward sensors of the brain to crave more. It's almost like an addiction. Since they're lacking in essential vitamins and minerals, your body will need to consume more in calories before it believes that it's full.

Meal prepping healthy food is better for work lunches compared to grabbing a fast food meal to go. Consuming a fast food meal will have you feeling sluggish and tired for the rest of the day, which could affect your productivity.

Not only that, processed food will end up ravaging your body because the food breaks down into carbohydrates and will spike blood sugar, which could potentially lead to type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some cancers. Over time, the more weight you put on, the more pressure you’re putting on vital organs such as your lungs or heart.

Processed food also throws off your hormones. It’s important to consume healthy foods such as a combination of different fruits and vegetables in order to keep the hormones balanced. This is especially important for women who already have their hormones thrown off due to pregnancy, a menstrual cycle, or menopause.

Preparing your own meal helps you avoid any of that. It might be hard at first to eat fewer calories because your body is so used to consuming high amounts of fat and carbohydrates, but once the body realizes you’re consuming more nutrients despite fewer calories, it will start to feel satisfied.

That's why it's important to choose nutrient-dense foods such as leafy greens, whole grains, fruits, or oily fish. Consuming more nutrient-dense foods helps your body get more vitamins, fiber, minerals, and protein without unwanted fat or calories. Instead of a cheap slice of white bread that contains very few vitamins or minerals, you'll want to consume whole-wheat bread instead that has more nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, and potassium.

Adding more nutrient-dense food to your eating plan is as easy as making some simple changes to how you eat or drink. If you normally carry a can of soda into work with you, bring a bottle of unsweetened tea instead. Of course, it’s always best to carry water too. If you’re going to make a sandwich, use whole wheat instead of refined white bread. When filling the sandwich, the American Heart Association recommends roaster chicken instead of processed deli meat.

Just because you're prepping healthy meals doesn't mean you have to give up on your snacks. Your snacks are where a lot of your energy should come from throughout the day. Unfortunately, we've become so accustomed to only consuming snacks high in fat, sodium, and sugar while only drinking carbonated sodas or sugary sports drinks. Instead of packing a sugary candy bar, try yogurt, fruits, or nuts instead. Meal prepping helps you make healthier choices, but it can also save you money.

Meal Prepping Saves Money

Many people believe that healthy food is expensive. That's why they choose burgers over salmon. However, meal prepping can save you money in the long run, especially if you buy in bulk. When you're meal prepping, you should purchase food that won't go bad too quickly. Purchasing a whole salmon and cutting it up, freezing it, and thawing it out for the day you know you'll cook it is one example.

Don’t be afraid to go with frozen vegetables. They might not be as nutrient-dense as fresh vegetables, but if you’re trying to save money, vegetables are still vegetables. They’re still better than frozen tv dinners. Don’t be afraid to utilize your freezer when it comes to meal prepping. Depending on what you’ve prepped, you can either store it in the freezer or store them in the fridge. Don’t make any more than a week’s worth of food, especially if you’re using fresh produce.

When you're meal prepping, you could save yourself hundreds a year. Besides eating healthier foods, it's definitely one of the best reasons to start meal prepping. Indirectly saving money by not running your dishwasher as much, saving gas going to the grocery store, and being tempted to grab something quick through a drive-thru on the way back home as a "treat."

Now that you know why you should meal prep let's take a look at some tips on how you should meal prep.

Tips For Meal Prepping

We know meal prepping is healthy and saves you money, and it’s a good habit to have, but where do you start? How can you meal prep effectively?

Like anything in life, you have to start small, don’t go to the store and go nuts trying to pack as much as you can into a small container. It defeats the purpose of meal prepping if you think it’s only putting whatever you wanted into a container. If that was the case, people would put as much pizza and chocolate into a container and call it a “meal prep.”

That’s why you need to try to cover each food group when meal prepping. Don’t have your container only filled with fruits. Fill it with fruits, vegetables, grains, healthy fats, proteins. That container is a blank canvas where you can balance as much healthy food as you can while having control over how much salt or sugar you’re adding.

Speaking of containers, don’t just grab any food storage containers. Make sure you purchase ones that are freezer-capable, microwave-safe, and can be cleaned easily. Glass containers are some of the best ones for meal prepping. Investing in the right containers will save you money in the long run. Mason jars are also a good way to store salads or soups, and they’re microwave friendly.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with the meals you’re putting in the jar. As mentioned before, it’s a blank canvas you can work with. The nicer you make your meals look, the prouder you’ll be of consuming it. Don’t just throw everything into the container. You can, but the presentation makes it fun too.

Planning is the most important step when it comes to meal prepping. Don't go to the store and throw whatever looks good into your basket. You'll end up wasting more money that way, and a lot of the food will go to waste if you don't know what to do with it at the end of the day. Make sure you take the time to do research on your meals. Calculate the cost of meal prepping, download some apps to help you with meal prepping, or go online and look through other people's meal prep recipes. Find inspiration to help you save money. Write down on a calendar when you're going to eat which meal. Everyone loves to stay organized, so you have to find ways to stick to your schedule and develop good habits.

Another great meal prep tip is to diversify. Don’t be scared to have different meals throughout the weak. You don’t need to have an entire week where you’re only eating chicken breasts and asparagus. You need to make sure you’re getting a well-balanced meal of different fruits, vegetables, proteins, and fats. If you only have one meal the entire week, you’ll be more inclined to quit.

Don't be afraid to use whatever you have in your fridge or pantry already. Remember, meal prepping is about saving money. Don't go out and buy something new when you haven't used what you already have. You might come up with something you'll like. Make your own creations. You don't have to follow any specific recipes; just make sure you're not putting anything to waste.

Make sure you're setting aside time to meal prepping. Clean out all the clutter in your kitchen, so you have some peace of mind and get the busy work out of the way. Who knows, you might like the couple of hours you spend preparing and cooking food for the week. It can be calming and help you alleviate stress by putting on some music, turning on the television, or listening to a podcast as you're preparing your meals for the week.

You don’t have to be a master culinarian to meal prep. You can keep things simple. A vegetable, meat, fruit, fat, just keep it simple. You don’t have to make anything extravagant. It doesn’t have to be the envy of your office. As long as you’re getting the essential nutrients you need, then you’re meal prepping correctly.

You'll find that meal prepping will make you healthier, happier and saves you money in the long run.