Tuesday is my normal grocery day. It's when produce is the freshest it seems and the shelves are fully stocked. As I wandered through the store today I took note of a few of the other shoppers, women mostly and the same look I had on my face that they had on theirs. What to eat? Breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks, school lunches, recess....is eating all that we do?!?!?
We all struggle with knowing what to get to eat, and then shopping for preparing the meals! No one with a life (home, family, spouse, job...) is immune from this seemingly mundane and never ending task. But there is a way to make it all just a little bit easier. It takes a little effort once a week but in the end saves time, money and a lot of frustration.
Planning! That's it. It is simple. Make a chart or graph of some kind. And plan all of your meals and snacks for the week. Yes I am serious! Plan leftovers for lunches the following day. Now you don't always to get so specific but the more detailed the easier it is all the same. You could say monday afternoons snack will be fruit without saying 1/2 cup of peaches if you know what I mean.
But if you take the time to plan all of your meals and spend a little time after shopping to prep your fruits and veggies if need be then it will save you a lot of time during the week as well as make your grocery shopping easier too. You will have a pre-made list!
If you are not all that hung up on planning the week or two or three then the other option is to create a list of breakfasts, lunches and suppers, and snacks too that you can glance at and choose from.
We all tend to cook the same things the same way all the time and we forget about things that we used to make a few months back or even a few years ago. Also commit to trying one new recipe a week. There are hundreds of thousands of healthy cooking websites with great and simple recipe ideas. In fact Kraft is one of my faves! Simple ingredients that we can even get HERE!
This is a sample day on my meal plan:
Breakfast: oats, blueberries, flax seed; one egg plus 2 whites
Snack: fruit
Lunch: Leftovers from last nights supper or maybe a sandwich or wrap
Snack: yogurt and almonds
Supper: Salmon, brown rice, veggies
Snack: fruit (nature's candy! Especially good in the evening to curb sugar cravings)
Always cook extra! Extra meat, chicken or fish can be used in wraps, in salads or on sandwiches or just have the same meal over again if you don't mind.
Remember, you are what you eat. When it comes to eating "healthy"...quality is more important than quantity. Is most cases you can eat MORE and still consume less calories. As one camper pointed out, learning to love good clean healthy food can take some time but in the end, HOW YOU FEEL will prove to you that it is worthwhile (aside from the scale).
In the meantime, I will be posting some of my favourite recipes in upcoming posts. You are more than welcome to include yours too in fact I'm begging you to!! I run out of ideas sometimes myself.....
Oh and one more thing...when you plan your week be sure to include a few meals/snacks to break the rules a little. If you deprive yourself of your favourite foods (even the not so healthy ones) you are setting yourself up to fail! And isn't the whole point of this to set up for success?
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