Meal Planning: A Guide to Help You Get Started

The key to successfully eating healthy is to plan and prepare.  In this blog post, I am going to take you through how I create meals for an entire week.  

The first step is to choose what meals you want to create for that week.  Keep it simple!  You don't want to try to make a complex and new meal every night.      

Sample Week Menu:

Day	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
M	Greek Yogurt Almonds Blueberries Cinnamon	Apple  Peanut Butter	Chicken, Vegetable and Rice Bowl	Protein and Water	Chicken Salad on Greens
T	Greek Yogurt Almonds Strawberries Cinnamon	Apple  Peanut Butter	Chicken, Vegetable and Rice Bowl	Protein Peanut Butter Balls	Mahi with dill sauce Steamfresh vegetables
W	Greek Yogurt Almonds Blueberries Cinnamon	Banana  Peanut Butter	Chicken, Vegetable and Rice Bowl	Orange Juice and Protein	Shredded Chicken with Barbecue sauce  Side Salad
Th	Greek Yogurt Almonds Strawberries Cinnamon	Banana  Peanut Butter	Mahi Sweet Potato Green Beans	Protein and Water	Chicken and Strawberry Spinach Salad with Walnuts
F	Greek Yogurt Almonds Blueberries Cinnamon	Apple Cheese Stick	Salmon Sweet Potato Green Beans	Protein and Water	Salmon on wilted spinach
S	Scrambled Eggs on a wrap with cheese and asparagus	Pear Cheese Stick	Mixed Salad Mahi Brown Rice	Edamame	Chicken and Steamfresh vegetables
S	Scrambled Eggs on a wrap with cheese and asparagus	Apple  Peanut Butter	Fish Tacos Mixed Salad	Protein Peanut Butter Balls	Taco Salad

Now that the menu is planned, get out the recipes and create a Grocery List.  After your trip to the grocery store, choose what day(s) you will prepare and cook your foods.  I typically cook everything on Sunday.  This is how I would prepare the above menu:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
• Wash all fruits and vegetables
• Put Chicken in the crockpot with some broth and seasonings
• Chop, slice, peel all fruits and vegetables that are being cooked that day
• Roast vegetables and sweet potatoes
• Cook brown rice
• Make Protein Peanut Butter Balls 
• Cook Mahi in a pan
• Cook Ground Beef in a pan 
• Once vegetables are roasted, lower the oven to 350 degrees and then cook Salmon
• Steam Asparagus and Green Beans
• Make a big container of mixed salad

Once everything is cooked, then you will package everything up in separate containers and refrigerate or freeze.  

• Make Chicken, Vegetable and Rice bowls by mixing all together (these also freeze well)
• Make Chicken Salad and put in a container
• Place Mahi, Salmon, Chicken and Beef in separate containers, each being a single serving
• Place Asparagus and Green Beans in separate containers, each being a single serving
• Freeze Protein Peanut Butter Balls
• Place Roasted Vegetables in separate, single serving containers
• Put single servings of Peanut Butter in containers

Now your week of food is ready and can be easily served with a small amount of prepping.  I put my breakfast together when I get up in the morning and then pack my cooler for the day with both snacks and my lunch.  I make sure to pack a large water bottle, too.  For dinner, I just heat up the meat and vegetables and dinner is ready in about five minutes.  

It does take a little time to cook the food all in one day but it makes for an easy week and I never have to worry about what I am going to eat.  Any time I end up with extra food, it goes in the freezer and is ready for those times when I am not able to cook on Sunday.

Meal planning and preparation is the way to stay focused on eating well.  The more you practice, the better you get at it.  Start simply and keep it easy!  For more ideas and recipes, go to my Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/TheTrainingToole and click on the Food! Album.