Plan to Eat and Eat the Plan

March 19, 2009

If you’re anything like I was, you hate the thought of having to plan your meals in advance. I used to tell myself I just didn’t have the time to plan ahead and for heaven’s sake, how did I know what I would want to eat 3 or 4 days from now. Sound familiar? Not only did I not want to plan ahead, I didn’t want to have to cook at home every night. I always admired my friends who could be that organized but it wasn’t for me.

Life is very different now and much to my surprise, I’m actually having fun with it. I knew that if I was going to adopt a healthy lifestyle, I couldn’t leave it to chance. When faced with “what do I make for dinner tonight?” it was too easy to resort to ordering pizza or Chinese, or going out to eat. We still order in every now and then but now it’s a treat rather than the norm.

These days, my husband and I make meal planning a joint effort. We sit down once a week and decide what our dinner menus will be for the week and then we make a list and shop together. We’ve turned meal planning and shopping into a couples activity that I look forward to each week. For those of you who have kids, you can make meal planning a family event. Take the time to teach your children about food and how to create a balanced menu and let them take turns picking their favorite recipes. They’ll be excited when their meal comes up in the weekly rotation.

Here are a few tips to make your meal planning a “fun” event:

• Set aside an hour each week to plan your meals
• Make a shopping list before you go to the store
• Reduce meal planning stress by having a few favorites that you can add to the menu each week
• Make it fun by trying at least one new recipe a week
• Try to pick recipes that don’t require a lot of preparation time for your weeknight meals — save more elaborate menus for the weekend when you have more time
• Invest in a couple of healthy cookbooks that have tasty recipes
• Build your daily menus to fit your nutritional needs (calories, carbohydrates, fat, etc.)
• Involve your spouse, partner, and/or children — make it a family event

I cannot stress how important it has been to me to have my husband’s support and involvement in this process. If your spouse or partner is not interested, ask them to try it for a month then make it a fun time for them. Spend the time to and from the grocery store talking about things that are important to them. Ask their advice in the store. Involve your spouse/partner in the shopping activities rather than just tagging along. My husband is in charge of the list and making sure we get everything. If you’re involving your kids, let them find some of the things on the list or help them read labels to understand nutritional values.

It took me many years to figure this out but meal planning does not have to be drudgery — it can be a time for reconnecting with loved ones and working together to build a healthy lifestyle.

My advice….. plan to eat and eat the plan.

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