We all know that eating right is very important.
A balanced diet helps you maintain a healthy weight, gives you more energy, boosts your immune system, improves physical performance and wards off some serious illnesses… sounds pretty great, right? So why do most of us still eat poorly? because it’s easy.
Unhealthy foods are everywhere, and are more abundant in variety than the healthy kind.
BUT, did you know that eating right is EASY too? most of us instinctively recognize “healthy foods”, we simply do not stock them in our refrigerator, so when dinner time comes around, we are left with lousy options.
PLANNING will be your best ally for success when it comes to nutrition. The same way that a planned workout will get you the best results, a little meal planning will go a long way in helping you reach your goals!
Why meal planning is so important:
- Planning will help you stay on track and avoid unhealthy choices. If you have healthy meals ready to go in the fridge and keep healthy snacks handy, you’ll be less likely to go through the fast food lane for lunch!
- Saves you time AND money. Go to the store knowing exactly what you need to get for the week. You will save time and money on those 4-5 extra trips you make each week, and it will help you stay away from sugary temptations that aren’t on your list.
- It also saves you the stress of scrambling to decide what you’ll make for dinner that night.
So, if you want to get your diet in order, and improve your health in pretty much every way possible, here are a few simple tips to help you start planning:
Planning Tips:
- Take time to pick out your meals in advance: on Sundays, take a few moments to choose a few healthy meals and snacks you’d like to have that week. (keep it simple, think meat / fish, veggies, nuts and fruits).
- Make a shopping list: websites like myrecipes.com make it SO easy! you can browse meals, drag and drop them in a meal planner, and in one click you can add all the ingredients needed for those recipes into your shopping list!
- Stock your fridge with healthy options and try to minimize unhealthy temptations. This might seem obvious, but most of us keep unhealthy foods around and when a snack attack creeps up on us, we have to decide: is it going to be the apple or the bag of chips?
If you start following some of these planning tips, you will find that a healthy diet is in your reach, you just have to take the guessing out of your meals and you’ll be on the road to diet success!