Before Planning Meals

One of the areas where people struggle the most is learning how to plan their meals. With life being busy and hectic it can be hard, if not downright impossible, to find the time and the energy to get your meals together each week. After all, planning your meals takes a lot of strategizing, you have to:

  1. Get your recipes together
  2. Figure out which day you want to prepare which meal (for instance it might be a bad idea to make that complicated new meal on the same day that you know you are going to be working late)
  3. Make your grocery list
  4. Go to the store

When you are talking about one or two meals these things seem relatively easy. But when you consider that you eat a minimum of 21 meals every week the thought of meal planning has just become much more difficult.

This is why it is so important that you have a strategy in place when it comes to planning your meals. If you don’t have a plan in place it is very easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated, causing you to abandon meal planning all together.

What Do You Want From Your Meals?

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you want to accomplish from the things you eat? It sounds silly but this simple trick is essential for you to find meal planning success. So let’s say that you look through your week and you realize that you have to be at work early one day. What will you need to help you get up and moving on that day? Whether it is something simple like apples with almond butter or something more complicated like eggs and sweet potato hashbrowns you want to know that you are making something that can help you keep up with your busy schedule.

What Your Meals Should Have

Remember, one of the keys to successful weight loss is not allowing yourself to get hungry. Hunger leads to impulse decisions and those impulse decisions can lead to disaster when it comes to your ability to lose weight.

In order to keep yourself feeling full you want to be sure that all of your meals have these three things:

  • The ability to keep your digestion flowing
  • Protein to keep you feeling full
  • Fiber to regulate your blood sugar

Look for meals that fit this criteria to give yourself the best chance for success.