Meal plan for success!

How do you decide what meals to have each day? Do you plan your meals, decide from one day to the next what you fancy, depending on what combination of ingredients are in the fridge? Or are you too tired to think about it and opt for an easy freezer-to-oven bake or a takeaway?

Without an element of planning your weekly meals, you’re leaving it to chance to get your full range of recommended nutrients.

One of the most challenging aspects of daily cooking is thinking up healthy meals that need to be quick and easy. How to go about adopting something new and inspiring? If you have got into a rut, and need a quick win, have you considered the benefits of planning your weekly meals?

Benefits

  • Helps to diversify from that staple handful of dishes that we repeat every week. Our digestive system, and particularly our gut bacteria, love a diverse range of the right foods. This can promote digestive balance, which can impact our whole bodies. When you plan 5-7 days at a time, you can ensure that your week’s meals incorporate balanced foods. By that, I mean a range of good protein sources, healthy fats, a wide range of veg, less reliance on white, starchy carbs, such as white pasta, rice, potatoes and bread products (pizza, wraps…)
  • You can ensure you allocate your two weekly portions of oily fish to boost your essential fatty acids and lots of bright colourful vegetables. This can have a wonderfully anti-inflammatory impact.
  • Meal planning removes the daily task of wondering what to cook, so no daily drain on your mental energy, making it easier to maintain motivation longer term.
  • It can save you pounds. If you are only buying the ingredients you need for your weekly menus, you can save money on all those random extras and impulse buys that make it into your basket.
  • Your confidence in the kitchen can grow, as you experiment with some new foods and recipes. Don’t get disheartened if all doesn’t go to plan straight away. This is normal! Perhaps try a more simplified version, give it another go, or move on to something else.

Meal Planning Methods

Schedule a time that works for you to sit down and plan the meals for the following week. Try to make this a weekly habit.

My free weekly meal planner can help you plot out your meals – even if you start with just the main meal.

Create your food shopping list from this, so you don’t end up wandering the shopping aisles. Reduce the temptation to add random ingredients and foods to your online order with no direction. It can save you ££. Some planning apps create a shopping list for you, based on your meal choices, and this can link straight to the main supermarket online shopping apps.

If you have a range of cookery books, you can go for the good old-fashioned paper and pen version. Sit down somewhere quiet and relaxing and flick through a different book each week for inspiration.

Otherwise, all your favourite chefs have free recipes on their websites. BBC Good Food is a good go-to resource.

Favourites amongst Nutritional Therapists will include:

to name just a few.

Apps

Of course, there are apps galore (most are free), that will suggest and create a planner for you, some include creating the shopping list too, and link to your online supermarket for delivery:-

If you are time-poor but have the budget, you could trial the growing range of freshly-delivered food box companies. Mindful Chef, Hello Fresh, Gousto and Simply Fresh are some of the popular examples right now. You can decide on the frequency of using these, and the options are constantly evolving. A fair bit of unavoidable single-use packaging though.

Get Involved!

If a meal catches your eye that doesn’t tick the healthy box, consider how you might add or substitute ingredients to raise its health status. eg add another vegetable, a tin of beans or pulses, reduce the sugar and salt content, replace red meat with white meat, fish or go plant-based if your red meat intake is high.

One tip – If you aren’t the main cook in the house, tread carefully! Perhaps food prep needs to become a team effort, it can be a lot of work for one person, and can also be a relaxing end to a busy day, especially when shared.

Try it and let me know how you get on.

Download the planner