Some Tips for Planning Meals and Meeting Your Cal Goal

sarahmaryfearnley

I have few new friends this year that are having trouble meeting their calorie goals since changing their diets and working towards a more healthful way of eating. I'ld like to share some tips that have worked for me. Some have become routine, some I still struggle with Progress does not have to be perfection.

Planning is key and MFP is a great tool for this.

1. Try to plan your meals and snacks a week at a time. I am ridiculous and love planning and excel so I actually plan my weekly schedule while I make my grocery list and meal plan for the week. It's ok if you don't follow the schedule exactly but it helps. Usually I plan for 7 different dinners, something different every night but due to leftovers, eating out, or life that plan usually lasts more like 1.5 - 2 weeks. This is a good time to seach for new recipies. I recently bought the Cooking Light App ($4) and am loving it. Allrecipies is a good online source and there are a plethera of recipies posted here, just use the search function. Planning will also help you focus. Pan Fried Chicken that takes about 3 hours of prep time will not be appropriate the night you work late or your kids have soccer or whatever.

2. Plug your plan into MFP for the week. It is much harder to go off track if everything is all laid out for you. This also eliminates the, "what's for dinner?" routine. I usually plug in my breakfast and dinner according to my meal plan and then figure out what will work for lunch and snacks.

3. Try eating the same thing everyday for breakfast and lunch for a week. That may get old after a week and you might want to switch it up. I love routine so I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday and usually the same thing lunch. Sometimes I will do leftovers for lunch is I'm worried about food being wasted.

I did notice when I started exercising that it was an apatite suppressant at first but that will go away. I remeber the 900cals net days when I first started Couch to 5k. After running this morning, I was daydreaming about lunch during those last 5min and could not get out of the shower fast enough. It was only 1030am.

kbmnurse

I agree eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch is key for me too. Thanks for the great tips.

chelleann777

Thanks for the tips! I already make a weekly dinner schedule (I hate the "what's for dinner routine and it helps save time/money in the grocery store), but I never thought of going ahead and plugging in the calories for week! That will really help when I make my breakfast and lunches!

GeoJenna223

Great topic Sarah!
I do the same thing for breakfast and my two snacks every day. And lunch is almost always leftovers from the night before!

My1985Freckles

What's the cookinglight app like? Can you save recipes to a recipe box? I get the magazine, but sometimes it is hard to keep track of what issue a recipe I like came from etc. And what the "exact" name is sometimes to find it on cookinglight.com.

What do you like most about the app and why would you recommend it?

pukekolive

bump

amandagyeoman

I need this! I love this! Thank you

sarahmaryfearnley

What's the cookinglight app like? Can you save recipes to a recipe box? I get the magazine, but sometimes it is hard to keep track of what issue a recipe I like came from etc. And what the "exact" name is sometimes to find it on cookinglight.com.

What do you like most about the app and why would you recommend it?

I've never had the magazine but one of MFP's is so all about it and posts pictures of these amazing, very healthy meals. I downloaded the app, which I thought was kind of pricey ($4) but it's worth it. It's set up by category: Poultry, Beef, Vegetarian, Sides, Desserts, etc. and you can scroll through various dishes in each category. It lists ingrediants, directions, and all the nutritional info but I can usually find the info already in MFP.

The best feature is that it will recommend a menu for any dish. Something I struggle with is I get the main dish but am stumped on sides. I've never cooked a full menu (main, 2 sides, and dessert) but usually just do the main and 1 side. I also like that you can save menus or dishes that you like so they are easy to find.

The worst feature is that there is no seach function. Bummer. I wish there was. I didn't know about Cookinglight.com, I will check it out. Thanks!