Friday Focus: Meal Planning

This week's meeting is all about meal planning.

And you know what they say: A failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Let's be honest we all know it's important to plan and prep for the week. Doing this one thing can make a huge difference between staying on the program or going off the rails. It helps you know your points for the day. If you know what you'll be eating and when, it will help you to avoid surprise foods (can you say cup cakes in the break room?) and keep your hunger in check throughout the day.

But how do you do it? If you're not a seasoned meal prep pro it can feel like a very daunting task. So here's how I do it.

1) Breakfasts - for me these are all made ahead of time so I can grab them on the way out the door. I rotate between a few different things... over night oats, yogurt/berry parfaits, egg muffins, protein shakes or breakfast bars. I'll add a banana to pretty much all of those because they are awesome portable fruits.

2) Lunch - this I don't rotate. I'll admit it is super boring but I literally pack the same lunch every single day of the work week. A turkey sandwich, two clementines, a cheese stick, an apple, a pear, a bag of baby carrots. My MIL once asked if I get bored eating the same thing, but the truth is I'm always working through lunch (yeah, I could write a whole other post about that) and so I don't even really taste what I'm eating. I just shovel it in so I don't get hungry later. I make five sandwiches on Sunday night. And yes, they're a little soggy by Friday but again, I don't really notice it...

3) Dinner - On the weekends I make a plan and do my food shopping. We have a pretty busy weeknight schedule and so I use weekends to make ahead a lot. On Sunday I'll cook two meals - one in the crock pot, and the other a roast of some kind of meat (chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, flank steak, etc.). The crock pot will get me two week nights worth of dinner, and the meat will get me two meals as well. And so I'm not eating the same thing twice I'll cook the meat two different ways. Maybe one day is steak and a baked sweet potato and then the next day I'll slice it thin on top of a salad. Chicken one day is greek seasoned and another day it goes in my tacos. Pork one day is served with a veggie side, and another day it goes on a Cubano sandwich. This week I have a lot of leftovers in the freezer so my entire week is just using those up (because I'm seriously running out of room in there!)

Those are the basics of how I do it. I also mark the points of my dinners on my weekly menu so that I can see how many points I have to spend during the day on snacks or Starbucks. Yum.

I hope you find some of my tips and strategies helpful. And I hope they inspire you to get ahead of things and get your plan on. Without it, it's too easy to fall prey to fast food neon lights and high points convenience foods. Have a great weekend!