14 – New Habit: Plan Meals
If we fail to plan then we plan to fail.
If you’re constantly wondering “Oh what’ll I have for lunch now?” then spend so much time trying to decide, resulting in grabbing the quickest crap to hand to instantly satisfy your hunger… then going forward you need to put a bit of thought in before you reach that point.
You *don’t* need to live out of Tupperware for the rest of your life, but in order to reach and maintain your goals, some sort of structure needs to be in place.
And don’t beat yourself up if you’ve no options but to ring for a takeaway – just revert back to slow down, stop when full and move on to plan the next meal 😉
New Habit: Plan Meals
If you are already planning your meals on a regular basis, good. Keep it up. The next question is are you consistently following your plan?
If you have never planned your meals before, you are in for a treat. Once you make your plan, you don’t have to rely on your brain at every meal to think about what you are going to have. Your stress levels will be reduced greatly because you will have one less thing to worry about during the week.
Any Rebels Out There?
Are you the type that rebels against structure and is determined to do what you want when you want to. You want to eat what you feel like eating when you get to a meal. You can still plan and make this work as well.
Your plan could be vague like eggs and veggies for breakfast. Then at the moment, you can decide whether you want an omelet or scrambled eggs and avocado.
Structure Your Plan
The plan is simply an outline and doesn’t need to be 100%. The important piece is taking time in advance to think about your week. Think about what struggles you might have this week.
Is it a busy week with kids games on Tuesday and Thursday?
Do you have 3 days of travel?
If you take a few minutes to think about the week ahead, you will be able to develop a plan to overcome any barriers that might come up. Then when the stress hits, you already have a plan on how to handle it.
Most people like to plan on Sundays, but do what works for you. Some like to plan 3 days at a time, some like to plan the entire week. Some plan at night for the next day. The strategy isn’t important, taking action is. Try a strategy and see how it works. Pay attention, analyze, and decide if you should continue with that same strategy or try a new one for better success.
Just Tell Me What To Do
If you just want to be told what to do here is your plan:
- Plan the entire week taking into account obligations you may have. If you know you are going to be busy three evenings in the week, bulk cook, or slow roast so you don’t have to cook on those nights. Bulk cook & you still have good food available when you get home.
- Check fridge, freezer, and cupboards for essential goods, then go food shopping to get remaining items on your ingredient list.
- Bulk cook proteins and starchy carbs to pair together and complete meals for the week.
- Put everything in containers and store in the fridge.
- Sit back, put your feet up, and take a moment to bask in your success.
Review:
- Create your plan, menu, for the week.
- Bulk Cook.
- If planning your entire week makes your head spin, start small and plan tomorrow. Then tomorrow plan the next day. Take it one day at a time.