Our weekly calendars are intended to make meal planning easier. They help to hold us accountable for what we will eat during the week, making us less likely to become overwhelmed at a given moment and give in to unhealthy choices. They also serve as a food diary to which we can refer to when assessing your progress. View a sample meal plan. Although it may be hard to believe, Meal Planning is one of the KEY steps to successfully transition to health!
The following are steps and strategies to creating your meal plans and preparing your meals:
1.Organize your meals for the week. Choose a variety of foods, making sure that they are starch based and that some of the weekly foods are rich enough to prevent a sense of deprivation. Remember that you CANNOT live off of greens for ALL meals ALL week long, you MUST include starches with every meal.
2.Develop a shopping list for the week based on the meal calendar you created. This will make shopping easier because you can get it all done in one shot. Also, this helps with food preparation because you will know in advance that you have the ingredients at home ready for you to make your meals.
3.You can decide to cook all your meals on one day, (ex. a weekend day) and then freeze them (this is an especially good idea for people who know they will be busy during the week), or choose a few days during the week to make your meals.
4.You can make extra for dinner and then have leftovers for lunch.
5.You can partner with a buddy to develop a meal plan and then break up the cooking responsibilities. Another option is to make one person “the shopper” and another “the cook” for the week and then switch. There are many options, choose the one that works best for you.
6.Make sure to include any plans for eating out (if you know where you are going and what you will be having you can write that in, otherwise fill it in after the meal.)
7.Again, this will serve as your food diary so please make sure to include EVERYTHING you eat – snacks, desserts, treats, etc. This way, we can have something to review should it become necessary in your transition program.
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