How to meal plan with a busy schedule gives you 5 quick tips to eat well without dedicating your life to cooking.
Believe It or not, meal planning is one of the most effective ways to live the FitLife for the long haul.
In fact, planning in general is the way to achieve long term success. This includes when you’re going to workout, how much you’re going to sleep each night and even when you plan self-care activities (massages, mani-pedi, vacation).
With a busy schedule, expectations change. And for sanity sake, we have to throw perfection out the window. To live the FitLife and get into great shape, perfection isn’t the only answer. And to maintain your results for life, perfection isn’t an option really at all. You see, we can do things perfectly for a short amount of time, 6 weeks or a couple months. And if the process is too strict, we go back to our old ways as soon as we finish that last day. Sound familiar? Look at any of the short programs that get people results fast. They’re very strict and can’t be maintained long term. End of rant.
Here are 5 ways to effectively meal plan with a busy schedule.
#1. Start with planning out 1 meal a few times a week. Meal planning can get overwhelming if you go for perfection and plan all breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for the week. It’s just too much too soon. You’ll do it one week, but next week it doesn’t end up happening. Instead plan out 3-4 dinners and start there. You can always plan more meals as it feels more like a habit.
#2 Decide if you’re cooking those meals or eating them out. There’s nothing wrong with eating most of your meals out. Especially if you have lots of lunch meetings or are leaving late and don’t want to start cooking at 8pm. You don’t have to cook everything all the time to reach your goals. When eating out, opt dishes with veggies and lean protein. Start with those are on your plate. Then add about a cupped hands worth of carbs.
#3 Create your menu. Write down your meals that your plan for the week. You can switch them around in the schedule. No strict rules needed here. There are lots of cute meal plan printouts you can use, you can write in your planner, or quickly jot it down in the notes app on your phone.
#4 Check the fridge and pantry, then grocery shop if needed. See if you already have some of the ingredients for meals at home before buying more. This is also a good time to go through the fridge and pantry and throw out any expired foods.
#5 Pre-prep. If you’re cooking at home, start cutting up some veggies, cooking some protein, or cooking some grains in a bigger batch so you have quick things to choose from. If eating out, look at menus online for options that support your FitLife as well as ways to make some of the meal choices just a bit better (side salad instead of fries, piece of fruit instead of the chips, taking half of your meal home to eat for another meal). And just as a perk, if you cook more the first time, you’ll have leftovers (I mean, you’ll have prepped food for the next day) which means you won’t have to cook again tomorrow.
Bonus Points!
If the grocery store is off the table, consider a meal plan service such as HelloFresh or Blue Apron. I have tried HelloFresh and think they’re a great starting point. I usually had leftovers for lunch. For me and my goals specifically, the carbs were a bit too much.
If you don’t want to cook at all, there are lots of meal prep services. Some even deliver the meals to your house or office. Many of these meal services can create meals to fit your fitness goals (read: more protein and portion sizes that support your goals). These services are easy to find with a quick google search for meal prep service or meal delivery service with your zip code.
What will you try out this week?
Life getting in the way of your fit goals?
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20 Responses
Jen
Love these tips. I’m all about food prep!
Atim Effiong
Thanks Jen! I agree, food prep is so helpful when we’re busy and still want to eat well.
Mother of 3
We only meal plan our dinners and I bring the calendar to the table during dinner one night. We all work together to fill in the menu with meals we enjoy.
Atim Effiong
I love that everyone is included in the process. It’s so helpful to take some of the stress off of just one person trying to plan everyone’s meals.
Jessica
I love this post!! I’m a meal planner all the way. 🙂
Atim Effiong
Thank you! Meal planning in some way is definitely helpful long term.
Jen @ pretty little grub
Great advice. I think meal planning should definitely be flexible. Most people think it’s regimented but it can include nights you know you are going to eat out. Or switching meals around.
Atim Effiong
Yes, completely agree! Being flexible makes it more doable and achievable for more people instead of trying to keep to something strict.
Alison's Allspice
#3, and #4 are my favorites! I always make a list of the meals we have all the ingredients for and pick what we feel like each night. I found you at the This is How We Roll Link up!
Atim Effiong
Yes Alison, I like to start from what I have before heading to the grocery store. Often we have lots of ingredients in house already.
Natasha Botkin
Once upon a time, I had a great system when the kids were younger. It really helps with your great ideas.
Atim Effiong
Thank you! If or when you feel up for it again, you can always prep a few things ahead of time as opposed to all meals for the week.
GiGi Eats
I actually never meal prep. Ever. Because my husband is very spur of the moment and likes to eat out a lot (and I don’t mind it much either). The last thing I want is to have leftover food just sitting in my fridge for days on end, eventually going bad, because we decided to eat out – that being said, now that we live together, we are eating a lot more at home which kicks butt!!
Atim Effiong
Totally understand. I enjoy eating out too and don’t like to waste food too often. You can definitely put those leftovers in the freezer for another week. Sounds like as you’re eating at home more, meal prepping to a point, will be helpful!
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Kathryn Grace
Terrific tips! I can attest to the usefulness of cooking extra grains (or dried beans or even roasted vegetables) and either freezing for pull-outs down the road or using throughout the week in wraps, omelets, stir-fries. They come in so handy. I especially love that you include “eating out” as one of your meal-planning tips. Then we don’t have to feel guilty about those days or nights we left our cape at the office or wherever and couldn’t turn into Wonder Woman.
Atim Effiong
Yes, we can’t be Wonder Woman all the time! You have some great tips too for using those precooked grains! I think a lot of times we feel guilty for not doing things perfect so I’m glad these tips helped you see that we don’t have to be perfect to have success.
Lexi @That Fit Fam
I love the suggestion to ease into it by planning a couple a week! great advice! I typically only plan out dinners, but I have a set breakfast I eat every morning that doesn’t change unless it’s the weekend when I have more time to cook =)
Atim Effiong
I’m a creature of habit with breakfast too. I’m glad you found the suggestions helpful!