Having a simple meal plan for the week is one of the easiest ways to save money, save time and eat healthier. This also helps simplify and streamline our grocery list and budget. In this post let’s talk about how a meal plan can help you, what we do personally in our household, and how to incorporate breakfast, lunch and snacks in this plan as well!
How a simple weekly meal plan can help:
1. Reduce Decision Fatigue:
We make countless decisions every day, and the choices we make about what to eat can add to decision fatigue. Simplifying your meal plan involves creating a routine with easy-to-follow guidelines, reducing the mental load of deciding what to cook for every meal. By streamlining your choices, you free up mental energy for other decisions throughout the day.
2. Save Time and Energy:
The amount of time and energy that can go into planning what to make for dinner and then cooking it, can add up to a lot of wasted time. When you create a simple weekly meal plan you can save time and energy that can then be used towards other things in your day. Let’s say that you spend 20 minutes every day deciding what to make for dinner, and then and then a trip to the grocery store because you are missing an ingredient, and then 45 minutes cooking it. That is that is around an hour and a half spent every day- that comes out to 10.5 hours weekly. By creating a simple meal plan for your week, you can greatly reduce the amount of time spend thinking and preparing meals.
3. Create Healthy Eating Habits:
A simplified meal plan often encourages healthier eating habits. When you have a clear plan in place, it becomes easier to incorporate a balanced mix of nutrients into your diet. By focusing on whole, unprocessed foods and steering away from complicated recipes with excessive additives, you pave the way for a more nourishing and wholesome diet.
4. Minimize Food Waste:
Complicated meal plans often involve purchasing a wide array of ingredients, some of which may go unused and end up as food waste. Simplifying your meal plan allows you to buy fewer ingredients and use them in multiple dishes, reducing the likelihood of perishable items going bad before you can use them. This not only saves money but also helps minimize your environmental impact.
5. Enhance Family and Social Time:
A simplified meal plan can also contribute to a more quality family time and social connections. When meals are straightforward and easy to prepare, there is more time for shared experiences around the table. Enjoying meals together creates a sense of connection and strengthens relationships, providing a valuable opportunity to unwind and connect with those you care about the most.
When creating your simple weekly meal plan, here are 5 things to consider:
- Determine Your Goals, Schedule and Season of Life:
- Consider you and your household’s dietary goals and preferences. Are you aiming for eating healthy, maintaining a balanced diet, or just get food on the table?
- Take note of your weekly schedule, including work hours, kid’s activities, and any social events. This will help you plan meals that are convenient for your lifestyle. On nights with busier schedules plan a crockpot meal, or a meal that you have prepped and can just heat up.
- Taking a moment each season to check in and see what shifts need to be made with schedule changes is important.
- Be Flexible:
- Allow for some flexibility in your meal plan. Life happens, and it’s okay to make adjustments.
- Create a Shopping List:
- Based on your meal plan, create a shopping list template. This will help you stay organized and reduce the chances of impulse purchases.
- If you do the same meal plan each week, you only need to create your grocery list once!
- Prep in Advance:
- Consider doing some meal prep on weekends or when you have free time during the week. This can include chopping vegetables, cooking proteins, or preparing batches of grains.
- I love to prepare a lot of different ingredients to make meals easy to put together quickly.
- Don’t forget that you can by prechopped or prepared items to help with this.
- Don’t forget breakfasts, lunches and snacks:
- Having healthy snack options can help prevent grabbing junk food.
- Take a few minutes to prep healthy options so they are ready to grab.
Here is our current weekly dinner template:
- Monday: Burgers (salmon burgers, veggie burgers, turkey burgers)
- Tuesday: Tacos
- Wednesday: Leftovers
- Thursday: Bowls
- Friday: Bowls
- Saturday: Eat out
- Sunday: Soup and Salad
Personally, I find it easier to keep things pretty much the same day to day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. See below for details about the importance of each of these meals and what I personally have:
- Breakfast, ever wondered why this is called “the most important meal of the day”? Read more here to find out why
- Protein yogurt: plain Greek yogurt+ protein powder (Just Ingredients) + PB fit + granola + banana
- Lunch: Do you spend your lunch time multi-talking at your computer? Read here, why it is worth it to take a lunch break.
- dinner leftovers or soup and salad
- Snack: Snack is where a lot of things can go awry, read here to find why eating snacks, can help you with your health goals
- carb +protein/healthy fat
How I can help you take charge of your health and wellness!
1:1 Wellness Coaching
- Working 1:1 together to build routines, confidence and a life that you love!
- Schedule your complimentary consultation!!
Join my monthly membership: Register here
As a member you get:
1) Daily wellness challenges that are practical and doable even with a busy schedule! These are emailed right to your inbox each morning.
2) Healthy recipes created for meal planning/prepping for your week.
3) Weekly meditation & wellness deep dive via zoom, recorded versions will be available.
5) Monthly community walks- let’s meet up and walk together.
6) Office hours once a month
7) Book club- let’s read a different personal development book together and then we can get together and discuss. A personalized guide will be provided by me.
And get ready for this…. you get everything I mentioned above included for only $29 a month!!! That is less than $1 a day!
My podcast!! Listen in your way:
Weekly Wellness Newsletter
- Just for signing up for my newsletter, you automatically get access to your guide to starting on your wellness journey.
- Receive an email every Wednesday with a different way to make wellness simple in your life.
Follow me on Social Media:
See what wellness looks like for me in my everyday life & you get more pictures of Lilo!!
- Instagram– follow my stories and reels
- On Pinterest – come pin with me – check out my boards for my favorite meal planning ideas and more!
- & if you want to dive into wellness a more, join my FREE private Facebook Group: Wellness for Real Life- body, mind and spirit
Be well,
Faith
***Some of the links in my posts contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. I pinky promise I will always give my honest opinion of any product and would never recommend something if I did not use and love it!!
D I S C L A I M E R Anything that I discuss about making any lifestyle changes is from my own experience and/or other clients personal experiences and may not be suited for you. It is strongly recommended that you consult with your health professional before making changes in your own life. By engaging in anything that I talk about, you agree that you do so at your own risk.
