One of the most difficult things to do when you are on a diet is come up with the meals that you should be eating. You want to eat healthy, but then life gets in the way and you have to run around for sports, activities, work and school. Often you may find that meals are on the go and horrible for your diet. One way that you can avoid this issue is to plan meals for a week in advance. With this activity, you will spend one night making all of the meals that you need for the whole week. Then you can just throw them in the oven and eat something healthy every day of the week. Here are some of the steps that you can take in order to plan meals for a week to help make a healthier you.
Do some homework
Take some time to look through different recipes to see what you can make. You could go with a specific diet if you like that one or just find some healthy recipes that you like and know will be easy to cook when you plan meals for a week. Look through recipe books, online, or even ask friends for ideas to get started. Write down the recipes that you would like to use for this week and then take some inventory of your kitchen. Do you have some of the ingredients already in your home so you could save some money and time at the store?
Check that they are healthy
When you plan meals for a week, it can be tempting to just find recipes that are easy. Instead of doing that, take a look at the ingredients you will be using and see how healthy they will be. Do they include a lot of fruits and vegetables as well as lean protein sources? Depending on the diet you pick you may also have to watch the carbs or the dairy that you are using. Just check to make sure that you have enough of the good food groups present and less of the bad stuff.
Plan out the days
Once you have the amount of meals that you need for a week, organize them for each day that you would like to have them. This allows you to see if there is enough variety and plan ahead for those really busy days of the week. Make sure to spread out the food groups when doing this plan.
Get them made
Now that everything is organized and ready to go, you need to head to the store and get the necessary ingredients. Have a list prepared ahead of time so you do not forget anything.. Bring all of the ingredients home and spend a couple hours one night making all the meals that you will need. This might seem like it takes a lot of time, but when you’re able to just pop them out of the freezer and into the oven on busy nights, it will not seem so bad to plan meals for a week for your family.