A New Way to Meal Plan

I had an accountability text with my personal trainer awhile back, and she asked about my goals for the week ahead. I told her I wanted to have a more fluid relationship with food and that I have placed so much on what to make for breakfast, lunch and dinners that it stresses me out to meal plan, and prep meals.

Rather than scouring the internet for fun and new recipes to try for lunch and dinner I wanted to shift to a new system. One where we were shopping for food and not for ingredients. And to my pleasant surprise it has not only taken the stress out of meal planning but it also has saved us so much money when grocery shopping!

There are 4 main groups that I focus on eating within a day. We almost always have herbs and spices on hand for different flavorings and I found that it was easy having a variety of items from each food group readily available.

Fats:

• Mixed nuts

• Nut butters

• Olives

• Cheese

• Avocados

Proteins

• Greek yogurt

• chicken

• chickpeas

• Cottage cheese

• Ground beef

• Shrimp

• Salmon

• Eggs

Carbs: Whole Wheat/Grain options

• Bread

• Rice

• Any boxed pasta

• Farro

• Quinoa

• Beans

• Potatoes

• Sweet Potatoes

Color

• Organic fruits and veggies

• Lettuce and Spinach
  

This way of meal planning has also led to less trips out to eat, mostly because we cook what we feel like eating and have made sure there are options around to choose from. I found that I was limiting myself day by day, week by week and food and cooking were boring mundane tasks. I have more fun cooking now, and I enjoy my meals better, all because I took the complexity out of planning it all!

Hope this helps someone like it helped me :)