Meal Planning

I preplan all my meals. I've been preplanning since before my weight loss journey due to being broke, so I had to be careful due to lack of money.

Basically, I just fill in my meal plan at night. I try to meet all my macros with my food choices, but I started by just trying to get enough protein, since that is the most expensive part of my menu.

To speed up the process, save your meals and just add in the whole meal quickly. If your plan is interrupted due to an impromptu invite out to lunch, just look up the menu online and pick something that will be close to your original plan (nutrition wise. Calories, fats, carbs, protein. Don't worry about sodium when dining out, restaurant food is crazy high in sodium. It just can't be helped).

Another option is to invite your friend to join you for lunch, he/she brings his/her own food, you do the same and enjoy the company and not the extra calories.

I found that I usually do really well on breakfast and lunch but would go home at night and just eat everything in sight. I started planning my supper meals on Sunday and then I would do my grocery shopping to get everything I need for the week. It helps me immensely to know what I am going to eat each night. I stay on track more and it's less stressful if I don't have to run to the grocery store after work to buy something to make for supper.

Meal planning is simple or tricky, depending on what you are trying to achieve. For example, if you do lots of exercising, including cardio, say, training for a 10 mile race, then planning can be tricky. I have been struggling myself because I am triathlon training and trying to plan my meals around calories I have not yet burned, but going on my recorded average calories burned from prior year. This is tedious and annoying...and I am not doing well at planning.

If you are just doing light amounts of working out where you are not burning a ton of calories during each session, then planning is pretty simple. I typically eat the same snacks, breakfast and lunch during the work week. So that is easy. I have a library of about 30-40 different meals that I commonly eat, so I added them into MFP (I do this b/c I put in healthier ingredients). I then plan out the upcoming week, usually on Friday or Saturday night. That leaves Sunday for grocery shopping and any cooking prep I can do ahead of time. Now if only I could make the meals based on my estimated calorie burns.

I preplan our meals a week at a time. I also complete my food diary the night before (occassionally a day or two before LOL). I usually know at the beginning of the week if we are planning to eat out some night and I preplan that day, but if a coworker invites me out to lunch or I get a surprise "let's go to dinner," I generally say yes and go with it. If it fits in my cals GREAT! If not, oh well, tomorrow is another day and this is a lifestyle change. I'm not going to give up eating out for the rest of my life.

not a planner

Planning makes it a lot easier, I plan for the week. The easiest to plan for is breakfast up until dinner because that's just me. So those meals/snacks are absolutely set and consistent calorie wise. Dinner is harder because it's more complex. If you do the work ahead of time it will make it a lot easier to eat within budget. Even though I've planned the overall dinner for the past week I neglected to calculate out how much if it I could eat, so I'd spend 15 minutes after serving the family figuring out what my portion would be, LOL.

When I get caught by the unexpected "let's go out!" I find the best approach to be ordering something obviously healthy and then only eat half of it and take the rest home. Later I can look up the actual nutritional values, plug them in, and know for next time.

Almost all chain restaurants/fast food places have their nutritional information online. If you can, look this up prior to going so that when you get there you know what you're healthy options will be, and how much. My last trip through this I went through all of the fast food places I'd eat at and picked out everything on the menu that fit within my nutritional budget so that anytime I went to one I already knew exactly what I could eat from there.

Also, with snacks like fruit, nuts, etc. I find it best to measure them into ziplocks rather than just eat out of the bag can. Like, get a bag of grapes, then put 100 calories worth in individual bags. When I want to munch just grab a bag, eat it, note it, done.

I plan daily and if plans end up changing (ie. office brings in lunch or forgot my lunch in the fridge) I change my day around what I end up consuming.

Most of the time it actually works for me, I eat at every meal and feel fulfilled while 95% of the time being under on calories for a day.

It depends on what works for you, if things pop up every so often through a week then planning daily might work or if you don't have a lot of change through the week then why not plan a week ahead.

I plan - this helps me at the grocery store (budget wise and not buying extra crap) and during the week and cuts down on the going out to eat.

On Sunday I sit down and plan the menu for the week and post it so there are no surprises for my family - My kids are involved in sports so I usually plan about 3 nights of crock pot meals or will make up some type of dish that I can freeze and easily heat up later in the week.

I cook my breakfasts for the week on Sunday and divide out and I also divide out my snacks - greek yogurt/nuts etc etc - This really helps me with time in the morning before I leave for work and also when I get home in the evening and I have noticed that it definitely helps with the grocery shopping by having a plan I can get in and out of the store faster and I def save money

I plan my dinners and have an idea of what I will eat for lunch, breakfast and snacks.

I create a calendar in Publisher and plan dinners for an entire month. I usually plan six dinners per week with one night where everyone is on their own (and this is so that if something does come up - plans with friends, a night out with my husband - I move that night's dinner to the next night). Having pre-portioned servings of chicken breast or salmon in the freezer allows me to throw something together that sixth night if we end up not going out that week.

To plan, I just go through my cookbooks and pick out recipes that make meals under 450 calories and put them on the calendar. I try to put like ingredients together in the same week to save money (so all recipes with cilantro will be made one week). I then make a shopping list for each week. When it comes time to go to the grocery store, I only add things like milk, items for my kids, snacks, etc.

It works very well for me and saves us money, but I am a crazy planner so realize this isn't realistic for everyone. however, it only takes about an hour to plan meals for an entire month, including making weekly shopping lists of ingredients.

I do a monthly plan - as much for budget/time management as for health and weight loss. For example, I know that Mondays I drive for swim team practice and we won't be home until at least 7PM, so Monday is crock-pot night - Wednesday we eat supper on the road in between one activity and another, so Tuesday night I know I have to have a portable supper packed for the next evening -

Planning ahead means less trips to the store, so less opportunity to be tempted by impulse-buys (better for health AND budget) -

time management for me is HUGE! - less time in the store, less time rummaging through cupboards, stressing about what's for dinner, better time management - for example - I knew I had time Sunday afternoon, so I put together Monday night's Minestrone (lots of chopping) so it was ready to go for the AM, and made Naan for tonight's chicken gyros - the meat for which is in the crock-pot as we speak - so even though tonight isn't a 'running around like a mom with her head cut off' night, I'll only have 15 minutes dinner-prep, so I might fit in an extra workout (or more likely, and extra couple of loads of laundry, lol)

so, you can use the money and time you save to your benefit - buy a new workout DVD, take a cross-fit class, whatever....

my 'plan' is nothing pinterest-worthy, either - it's usually a calendar-like grid, pencil drawn onto the back of one of my kids' old worksheets, with a meal scribbled into each box - I keep it taped to the inside of the cupboard door just to the right of our fridge

HIGHLY recommend making at least a weekly plan.

I plan all my meals on Sunday for the week. Then I know what to get when grocery shopping and I prepare all my dishes in serving size containers. Then all week it is just grab and go which works the best for my busy schedule.

Breakfast is usually oatmeal
lunch is usually: soup and salad or stir fry with rice depends on if I commute by bike
snack is usually apple with peanut butter, veggies with hummus or fruit and cottage cheese
Dinner: pasta dish, stir fry, soup and salad, or burritos

I try for 300 - 400 calories for every meal.

I do try to plan in advance but quite often I'll come home and someone has already made me dinner or something so I just have to change my food diary. Even though it is a really nice thought for them to make me something and I do appreciate it, it does get annoying and really difficult for my weight loss

I plan 80% of the time. I usually do the next day's diary the evening before. So tonight, I will figure out what food I have for tomorrow (like what left overs I can take for lunch) and then build the rest of my day around that.

Agree.
I plan my next day in advance. However, I have made changes on that day if I don't feel like having that particular snack, etc.

I usually plan my dinners for 3 days ahead of time. Especially if making a recipe. I take time to enter it for calorie count.

I suck at planning. I walk into the kitchen and think "hmmmm, what have we here?"

Do you plan a day, week, month?

Usually I plan about a week ahead, but we have food stuffs for further than that (pantry and freezer), they just don't have a planned date of consumption yet.

Do you plan out all meals and all snacks? Do you plan a certain number of calories for each meal?

Usually just dinner, and sometimes that "plan" is just a basic--Mon Chicken, Tues Fish, Wed Out and About, Thursday Leftovers, Fri--Company possible Option A or B, etc

We're more likely to plan out breakfast and lunch on weekends or to pencil in options if we expect to have company to entertain.

I take a lunch to work each day. I usually pack it the morning of or the night before. It's usually left over or a Hodge podge of sliced veggies, hummus or something else to dip with, and a sandwich or lean cuisine. When I didn't pre-pack a lunch, I get a salad made at Publix on the way to work and have them put the dressing in a cup on the side.

Also, do you plan to have a meal out or do you just work it in your plan when the opportunity arises. Say your spouse comes home and says "lets go out to eat". Or your sister calls and asks to go to lunch. Do you tell them NO because it's not on the plan, or do you go and just make it work?

Usually we just bump the menu plan to fit the situation. If I had planned to cook today and eat out tomorrow then I'll just swap them. The plan usually has some wiggle room in it. For example a day marked "left overs" can be easily deleted because I'll just take the leftovers for lunch instead.

I'm just curious about the HOW of how people do this. I think that's always been my problem. I've never preplanned dinner even. Because it never fails that I'll set something out to thaw and 1) we'll decide to go out to eat instead or 2) whatever I set out will be the LAST thing I'm in the mood for.

Yeah I know that feeling. BUT we just bought a house and planning saves money AND my waistline, so we do our best to stick with it. I think Hubby also enjoys knowing what to expect and what day's he's responsible for.

I need to change the way I think about food. I can't keep living by "what I'm in the mood for". I need to view food as nutrition.

I think that's why we don't write our plan in stone. It has room for a little wiggling--Aka Tonight is Chicken... we planned to grill it but you know I think I was to made fajitas instead... etc. Or, How about we save chicken for tomorrow and tonight have that fish?

How you shop matters too.
Our routine is best for us in the summer:
Saturday AM--farmer's markets "Hey look Eggplants are in season!" "Oohh, tomatoes look good--cheap too."
Saturday Afternoon--Grocery store--We discuss plan possibilities as we shop. "How about I get breadcrumbs since we're almost out and on Monday we'll have eggplant parmessan. We have cheese and sauce already."
Sunday Noonish--Sam's club if applicable. We get frozen fish and chicken, some veggies--especially frozen stir fry, etc. Plus razors and products are often cheaper in bulk.
Sunday Afternoon--Write down the plan on the marker board in the kitchen
Tues-Wednesday-Grocery store again if applicable as the new sales flier is out.

As for MFP, I fill that out in the AM, after I've packed lunch and as I'm eating breakfast (cereal, yogurt, fruit, or a glass of chocolate soy milk). That way I know if I have room for a snack or if I need to plan on skipping the pasta with dinner and just having veggies as a side instead. It doesn't affect the plan for hubby, but it's good for me to know where I stand for the day.