Meal planning advice

autumnslioness

Hi

I'm looking for advice to make a meal plan so that I can start eating better, and it will also help my grocery buying.

I know how many cals I can intake, I'm just looking for the chest method of making a plan from breakfast to dinner with my snacks so I can eat "mindlessly" I guess.

gypsy_spirit

If you want to stick with this long term, it's important that you eat foods that you enjoy. Making a food plan is very individual. My advice for you is to make sure you are meeting you calorie goals every day. Once you are doing that, then work on meeting your macros (protein, fats, carbs) so that your nutrition is in place. This helped me a lot with learning what food combinations got me to those goals.

Take it one step at a time. If you change too much at once, it makes it hard to keep going. The best way to be able to relax and eat is to pre-log your day. Good luck!

knra_grl

Sit down and plan a menu for the week before shopping and portion it out accordingly.

Generally I like breakfast sandwiches in the morning so I will cook an entire package of Turkey Bacon for the week and I can grab it and just warm it for 10 secs in the microwave. So for my breakfast sandwiches I buy whole wheat english muffins, weight watchers bagels or thin buns, egg whites in the carton and cheese (not the processed slices) - I use 2 sliced of Turkey bacon, 1/4 cup of egg whites, 1/2 oz of cheese and whatever muffin, bagel or bun.

I buy individual serving size greek yogurts, fresh fruit, nuts, etc for snacks

I buy the veg I want and precut and wash it for the week so it's grab and go or quick for meal preparations

Cook the proteins you like and portion them out for the week. Boiled eggs are handy if you are in a rush.

If you like soups make a pot of soup.

I guess it all depends on what you like to eat - it's hard to make a meal plan for someone not knowing the foods they like to eat.

cardbucfan

I'm disgustingly organized when it comes to meal planning! Here is what I do, take from it what you wish.

First off, I have an excel spreadsheet with the things I buy most often (organized by aisle/department of my grocery store). Every week when it's time to make my grocery list (Tuesday night for me-I shop on Wednesdays) I take my list and see if I need any of those items and just check off what I need.

Then I get my calendar out (paper!) and cross off any times I know I won't be eating at home or that my husband won't be home for dinner. Then I start filling in the remaining days for dinner. We will have chicken one night, pork tenderloin one night, beef in some form (usually flank steak or filets), something with ground beef/ground turkey, some type of fish/seafood, an easy peasy night like soup and sandwiches and almost always one night out.

Then I start either looking through cookbooks, looking online at my favorite sites (skinnytaste.com, allrecipes.com) or just thinking of things I like that I haven't had in awhile and start filling in the calendar. I have my usual sides that go with different things and I'm pretty picky about vegetables so salad is often my go to veggie of the night.

Then I add to my grocery list the additional ingredients I need.

I typically eat the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch is either leftovers or a big salad and my snacks rotate among the same ones so those are already on my initial grocery list.

I've been on MFP for 3 years so most of my established recipes are already in my recipe database and I have a really good idea of the calorie count for things which helps a lot.

I also periodically will cook up big batches of chicken breasts in the crock pot and freeze them and will make big batches of soups and freeze those so on those nights I don't feel like cooking I have stuff on hand and don't have to resort to fast food.

Good luck!

kaylatee0

This topic is very to each their own.. But this is what works for me:

•Every Sunday I make my lunch protein for the week, ground turkey, chicken etc.. I usually make the same thing for all 5 days
•every Sunday I also portion a weeks worth of raw veggies for snacking, a fruit for the week (I portion grapes or strawberries or melons etc into 1cup ziploc tupperware) one for each day
•every night before bed I make my breakfast for the next morning (usually eggs or oats) and I decide what I want with my lunch protein so maybe a salad or some cooked veggies or a sweet potato.
•every morning before I leave I just grab my breakfast, lunch, fruit cup, veggie bag and a banana and off I go!

I basically plan all of my food from morning until the end of the work day in advance, then at night I'm flexible for dinner and dessert!