Today we are talking about one of my absolute favorite topics to talk about, the benefits of meal planning. If you are not meal planning yet, well you need to get started because guys, this was an absolute game changer in my life. Really quickly, I want to touch upon two different things before I talk about all the reasons why meal planning is so beneficial.
The first one is that meal planning and meal prepping are completely different things. So if already in your head you are sitting here going, I really don’t want a bunch of little containers in my fridge. And I don’t have space and I don’t have time and I don’t want to do that. Well, don’t worry, because that is not what we’re talking about today.
Meal planning is really just making a plan and 2nd thing I really wanted to talk about is why I started meal planning to begin with because I really feel like it’s important to understand. So when I had kids I had this main goal of wanting to teach them healthy living. It was always very important to me.
And I had my first son, and then I had my second son, and life got really busy, as you can possibly imagine. Everybody schedules are crazy, so one of the things that I really tried to stick to was showing my kids how to have a healthy lifestyle. To do that, I had to be cooking healthy meals and eating healthy meals, because we lead by example.
This was really important to me and as our schedules were getting busier and busier and busier it was, as you can imagine becoming harder and harder to do that. Something had to give somewhere. I had to find a way that I would be able to still achieve this goal while still having this busy life because both of them, for me, were non-negotiable.
I knew somewhere there had to be a way and honestly, it took a while to work out a lot of different kinks and try a lot of different things. But I really have it down to a good routine and it works great for us. With that being said, I want to talk about these benefits because saving that time, yes, that was one benefit, but there are so many others and I really wanted to cover them with you today. That way, just in case you really weren’t familiar with meal planning, you kind of have a bigger idea about what it is and how it can help you.
#01 Consistency
One benefit is to help you with consistency. If you are on any type of health or wellness journey, if you are trying to make better health choices, if you are on a diet, if you are trying to lose weight, any of those. Then being consistent is a key part to any of that and when we’re planning our meals it is helping us to be consistent because at the beginning of every week you are sitting down with your schedule. You are looking at all of your obligations and all the things that your kids have and your whole family has, and you are being intentional about how you were going to show up with your meals.
This is going to help you because you are taking that time to make sure that the meals that you’re putting into your week help you reach your goals. You are being realistic with your time, so you’re not going to plan on making this huge roast when you have a meeting after work and your husband or your partner is not home and your kids have soccer practice, clearly a roast is not going to happen. You need to not plan it for that day.
We’re being intentional and we’re thinking about our health goals. You might think I have about 1/2 an hour of cooking time. That is the realistic amount of time that you can spend that day. So you need to, in your calendar, figure out what meal will take you that time, and that’s the one you plan for that day.
So that was our first benefit, Itt helps you be consistent.
#02 Time
You’re also going to be saving time when you make your plan. For example, I make my plan usually on Friday for the following week. I sit down on Friday and I look ahead at my week and write in all the different meals that I’m going to make based on the time that I have.
For example, let’s say I know that Monday night I have a ton of things going on. There’s projects to do and I have a workout I want to get inn and somebody has a playdate or a practice. I know Monday is going to be busy, so to save me some time Sunday I might cook some of the taco meat ahead of time, and I’ll put it in the fridge. That way, on Monday, all I have to do is reheat it and assemble all the rest of the stuff for our tacos and I have a quick meal.
You have to use your time accordingly. When you plan these meals, it is actually helping you to save time because you can be strategic about it so if you know one day of the week you’re going to have more time than the other you can do things to help get yourself ahead on the days when you just don’t really have time. That is a great way to help you be successful with your goals while still eating healthy meals.
I know for me that was definitely a priority.
OK, so we are being consistent and we are saving time. The next one is definitely a big one right now.
#03 Money
I don’t know about you but food prices lately have been going through the roof. Everything is so expensive. So when I am meal planning, I am actually saving money. And I know, right, some of you are kind of already thinking like, yeah, OK.
But I’m being intentional, right? Being intentional is really the key here. I have made my meal planning list, because then what I’m going to do is take that list, go through my refrigerator, go through my pantry and decide, OK, what do I need to buy to make these things?
I might not need to buy as many things. But if I were to just walk into the supermarket and aimlessly try to put meals together while I was there, I am for sure going to be spending more money than if I had that list going in.
I would have my meals planned and I’d have a shopping list of everything that I would need to be successful to make those meals.
I do the same thing with breakfast and lunch for the week. I’m going to be deciding what my kids need for their lunch and what I need for mine. And then do the same for breakfast. I have an idea of what we are eating for the whole week, which then makes me be able to go to the grocery store and only have to buy what I need so I save money.
Always a win, all right?
#4 Being Less Overwhelmed
Anything that helps me be less overwhlemed is also a win! I know all the other things I talked about are super beneficial and awesome, but being less overwhelmed was a huge plus for me.
I get busy. I am so busy some weeks I feel like it’s a miracle that things even get done so I can completely relate when people say I just don’t have time. Now, if I didn’t have a plan for my meals, I would then be coming home from work, getting my kids, trying to do homework and of course they want a snack because, well, obviously! So I would have to give some time to helping them either put together a snack or get them a snack or whatever. Then I do my workouts when I get home from work because I don’t have time in the morning, so a workout has to be in there and then I have to figure everything else out to make our night successful.
The last thing I want to do is sit there and play chopped in my kitchen. I don’t want to have to just pull random things out of my fridge and see what’s in my pantry and try to create a meal with no plan. To me, that is overwhelming.
If I already know throughout the day, like, OK, I need to go home, we have to get homework done, my kids are going to want a snack. I’m going to do my workout and then I’m going to make the chicken bowls. I already have a plan so I can start cooking the chicken right before I do my workout, or I can have everything set up beforehand, it just helps me be in control, and for me, when I’m in control, I’m less overwhelmed.
Those are four benefits of meal planning. I said in the beginning it could be different for everybody. So the way you meal plan could be different from the way I meal plan. Maybe you don’t need to plan your breakfast or your lunch. Maybe that’s too much for you.
And hey, you do you? That’s completely fine. I wanted to talk about these benefits because they have. helped me so much to be successful. They helped me to be less overwhelmed, and when I’m less overwhelmed, we have a much happier house.
I know some of you are sitting here listening, thinking, wow, that’s great for her but you don’t understand what my schedule looks like or what my life looks like. And you’re right, I don’t. I don’t have any idea what you are going through, I can just tell you I thought very similar things when I first came across this idea, it was a lot. It seemed like putting an extra thing on my plate.
It doesn’t have to be that way. I understand things happen in a week. You might have a meeting that you forgot about and all of a sudden your plan is just gone. Listen, life happens. It’s going to happen. So go into this knowing there are going to be surprises, there are going to be curveballs, and you’re going to have to figure things out on the fly, it happens. It’s OK. Some nights when everything is just going wrong.
I order dinner.
I do.
It’s not a secret! I’ll order from the diner. We have Chipotle near us. I’ll totally order that. Or pizza. Yep, I eat pizza.
So you always have that in the back of your mind as a backup plan
I always have a backup plan so you can decide in your head what you can do on the nights that things go wrong! This is also a great time to have meals in your freezer that you’ve already cooked ready to go.
All right friends, those are my benefits of meal planning. I could literally talk about this topic all day. It is a total favorite of mine because of the impact that it’s had on my life and my family. So I’m really, really passionate about it and I have a little gift just for you.
If you head over to coffeedonutsfitness.com/mealplanningguide, I have a free five day guide that will be delivered right to your inbox.
It has all of my tips on how to be successful at meal planning, so make sure you go and pick that up, it’s coffeedonutsfitness.com/mealplanningguide.
And I hope I’ll see you over there.
