Meal Planning for Busy Lifestyles
Eating healthy can be a challenge for individuals who have a lot on their plate. It is easy to resort to convenience foods or dining out because you think you may not have time for cooking and planning meals. The idea of cooking to a lot of people means spending hours in the kitchen every night. I am here to tell you that being organized with meal planning and incorporating efficient cooking methods into your weekly schedule can make all the difference in healthy eating!
Below is a list of suggestions to help you make healthier choices easier to manage in the hustle and bustle. Choose one or two suggestions that you think you can manage. Being perfect is not the goal… doing our best is.
1) Choose a day in the week (Sunday works for a lot of people) where you can take the time to prepare healthy foods ahead of time to make meal-making convenient during the week.
- Make a fruit salad and cut up vegetables to keep in your fridge for easy access.
- Bake some healthy breakfast muffins ahead of time instead of going for the fast food variety in the morning.
- Cook batches of whole grain rice, quinoa or lentils in bulk so you can use them for lunches, dinners and salads during the week.
2) Make your own list of delicious healthy recipes and plan out your dinners ahead of time for the week. This will help to prevent those last-minute fast food decisions that are made when you get home and realize that you haven’t thought about what you are going to have for dinner yet.
Use your meal plan to make buying groceries a once a week, one stop shop. Try:
- Salmon Sundays
- Vegetarian Mexican Mondays
- Surf and Turf Tuesdays
- Wild Card Wednesdays (Leftovers)
- Tortellini Thursdays
- Roast Chicken Fridays
- Night on the Town Saturdays
With your weekly menu, try to find ways of dual purposing the cooking. For example cook extra whole grain rice on Sunday so it can be used for dinner that night and also for vegetarian Mexican on Monday. Have leftover pasta from Thursday as a side with your roast chicken for Friday.
3) Make healthy snack options available at work. Organizing a communal healthy snack shelf is not only a great way to have healthy snack options available at work, but also a way to share new healthy foods.
4) Cook extra food at dinner time so you have nutritious food to eat for lunch. This is a popular strategy to ensure a healthy lunch and save on food costs too! If the leftovers consist of meat and carbs (rice, potato, pasta), just make sure to balance out your lunch with some fruits and vegetables.
These are a few ways to help you plan healthier meals into a hectic lifestyle. It’s important to find the methods that work best for you!
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