Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Meal Planning..Crazy Making or FUN??

Do you find yourself giving in to less than stellar foods and even eating meals out a little too often and are left feeling yucky due to not preparing well? This is an issue for many people. No matter what your life looks like, we can pretty much bet that most people are juggling many things these days and meal planning and prep has gone to the wayside. It's easy for this to happen, but the reality is, when your health declines because of it, you will soon discover what you can do without in order to get the priorities straight again and recover your health and vitality. Often times what we are "busy" with is keeping up with the Jones's and let's face it.....it's tiring, and running us down. When we have a solid foundation in our health, we can then pick and choose how to spend the rest of our time from a more balanced place.

The number one place to start, as with anything, is to DECIDE. Decide that your health and well being have to come first. If you do not have your health, you cannot enjoy much of anything else. Decide to make this a priority and to commit to learning how to do this in your personal life and circumstances.

Pick a couple days out of the week where you can dedicate some time to planning and prepping your meals. This takes a minute to figure out but like anything, the more we practice the better we get.
 Prepare your meals in larger portions than for just a single meal. Pack a lunch from the extra and have the leftovers for your next dinner. Prepare easy to grab foods during your busier schedules and leave more elaborate recipes or cooking for when you have the time to be creative and relax. Every meal does not have to be gourmet to eat really well. Chop and pack fruits and veggies, cook extra protein and eggs to toss into salads and add some avocado or nuts for healthy fats. 

Determine how many mouths you have to feed, figure up the next few meals and write a grocery list. Stick to the list at the store and come home to prepare. Staying focused helps a lot. It is easy to get distracted with all the tempting goodies at the store. By all means, have fun...just stay on task too! If there is one particular person in your family that really enjoys the prepping, cooking and kitchen shenanigans then enlist that person. It is entirely possible to find the way that works the best in your home and your circumstances.

Decide, commit and take action! The rest will take care of itself. Some weeks will be amazing and work out really well. Others, could be better. No biggie....keep making adjustments. Life is not the same all the time. We have to adjust things as the river of life flows. Once your nutrition is dialed in, you will just know what to get at the store and your home will be stocked with health supporting foods.

Here's to making your nutrition and health a priority!!

Here are your steps:

1. Decide to make it a priority and commit to learning as you go.
2. Plan your meals a few days in advance and make the grocery list.
3. Go to store..
4. Cook and pack extras for meals to take with you.


If you need nutrition guidance and overall health and fitness guidance..contact us via email to find out about our programs. jami@mackperformancefitness.com or keith@mackperformancefitness.com




2 comments:

  1. I have a pretty good idea of what to eat and what not to eat, but getting the ball rolling (and keeping it going) has proven difficult. We always set out with good intentions but lose focus after only a few meals. So I came to this site expecting to dig around for a while and find some solid advice on making the transition from crappy to healthy. And like you knew I was coming, this post is staring me in the face as soon as I get here. Perfect! Thanks, Jami and Keith, for the information and inspiration!

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  2. You're welcome, Dylan! Thank you for your feedback...We learn as we go as well. This is the only way it works for us: we plan, we cook, and we have food on hand (healthy options). It's when we don't have a plan that the "compromise" will happen. We have to be Active Participants when it comes to our nutrition choices, otherwise we can be driven off path easily... It happens. People think eating "healthy" is boring, hard, no fun or all of the above. The truth is, there are so many resources and recipes out there that it really is fun to cook real, healthy food. We just have to plan and set ourselves up for Success.

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