The Importance of Meal Planning for Weight Loss And How To Do It

The Importance of Meal Planning for Weight Loss and Health and How To Do It

Meal planning becomes an important part of achieving optimal health and weight loss. If you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to eat, you may end up grabbing whatever is fastest and most readily available.  This often means that you’ll be consuming fast, and processed food or junk food with not only low nutritional value but will harm your weight loss attempts and your health if consumed regularly.

What Is Meal Planning?

Meal planning is simply deciding in advance what you’re going to have to eat. In may also be wise to plan several days’ worth of meals and snacks. It makes shopping, cooking and preparing food, and eating, a much simpler and healthier process.

Here are nine steps to make meal planning fun and easy.

#1 Decide how often you can shop. 

If you can only shop once a week, then you’re going to want to plan an entire week’s worth of meals. If you can shop every three or four days, then you only have to plan those meals.

#2 Plan for snacks too. 

Include snacks into your meal planning. It’s too easy to grab something unhealthy when you don’t have a snack plan.

#3 Make it tasty. 

Make sure the recipes and foods you put into your meal plan are actually foods that you want to eat. Sure, you can plan to have carrots and celery sticks as a snack. However, if you don’t like carrots and celery sticks, they probably won’t be eaten and instead you’ll find yourself going out for some unhealthy fast food option.

#4  Identify recipe sources. 

Where are you going to find your meal ideas? Identify a handful of great sources of nutritious, healthy recipes. Check out some of my healthy vegan recipes HERE.

#5 Create a plan. 

Create and organize a plan. For example, maybe you hit the supermarket on Wednesday and Sunday. Sit down at your table and make a full meal plan before you shop. Add ingredients from each recipe to your shopping list, so you go to the store knowing exactly what you need to buy.

#6 Get the family involved. 

If you’re cooking for a family, get others involved in the meal planning – and maybe even the preparation! When people feel that they have a say in what is served, they tend to be more excited about it. You might, for example, let each child choose one meal a week. They can also help prepare that meal.

#7 Have contingency plans. 

It always makes sense to have some backup food. You might not have leftovers that you expected from last night’s dinner, and now you have nothing left for lunch. If you have some backups, then you’re ready to go. I always have spare bags of pasta and brown rice handy, a jar of chopped tomatoes and some peas in the freezer. These foods remain fresh for a long time, and I can always make something tasty with them even if I have nothing else available.

#8 Make it ahead. 

If you live a super busy life (and who doesn’t), then consider a few make-ahead recipes. These are healthy recipes that you can prepare on the weekend, freeze, and thaw and heat for lunch or dinner. Casseroles are great for this. Crockpot recipes are also wonderful. You can put everything together in the morning and come home to dinner.

#9 Try something new. 

It’s easy to get into a meal planning rut. Pasta Monday, Rice Tuesday, Noodles on Wednesday and so on. While that does provide a framework to make planning easier, it can also start to feel limiting. Try to include one new recipe each week. It’s good to feel excited about your food.

Meal planning can take some getting used to. It requires you to create a few new lifestyle habits. However, once you’ve integrated these habits into your routine, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. It’s a great way to make sure that each meal is nutritious and delicious.

Check out my video: The 8 Steps To Overcoming Food Temptations And Succeeding With Your Diet HERE

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you are serious about improving your health no matter what your age or circumstance are, and are ready to achieve better results with your weight loss attempts, guaranteed, then join my mailing list where you will receive my weekly newsletter with groundbreaking health, motivational content, recipes, supplement recommendations, easy workouts, as well as many FREE bonuses and special offers. Click HERE to subscribe. Or visit the Guerrilla Diet Website for my health advice, offers, programs and free information HERE.