How I Meal Plan and Stay On a Healthy Diet

I have a pretty regular grocery day. For me, it is Friday. I have the day off so this is the day that I have to think about food. Have I told you before that I love food? So I am actually thinking about it all the time. But on Friday, I get to think about what I want to eat for the coming week.

I try to make things easier on myself by eating a very simple breakfast every day (usually homemade 24-hour yogurt, a Ba-Egg, or a smoothie).

I keep lunches simple too. I try to make enough dinner that I have leftovers for lunch the next day. This doesn’t always work- sometimes I don’t make enough. Sometimes I just don’t want to eat leftovers. So I always keep tuna, sardines, hard boiled eggs, some smoked or canned salmon on hand. Sometimes I will grill some chicken breast or steak and have this ready for lunch.

My actual planning and cooking energy is spent on dinner. And I know that I am likely to eat out away from home at least once a week, so I typically plan and shop for 6 dinners a week.

I have a lot of cookbooks with beautiful pictures. I have some favorite recipe blogs and follow some of these bloggers on Instagram. So, on Friday, with my coffee in hand, I search for beautiful pictures of food that I want to eat.

I also have my “go-to” meals. Dinners I can make without a recipe, that take very little brain power for me to make. An example of this for me is baked spaghetti squash with ground beef and tomato sauce- sometimes I’ll throw in some mushrooms and spinach or whatever veggies I have in the fridge. Or I can always grill a burger and make a salad. If I know one night in my week is going to be chaotic, I pick one of these super simple meals.

I have parameters, of course. For me, recipes have to fit into my chosen diet plan (specific carbohydrate diet) and they have to be quick (recipes that take 30 minutes or less to prepare). Like you, I don’t want to spend all night every night in the kitchen. Plus, when I am ready to eat dinner, I am hungry!

So, I peruse my cookbooks and websites and Instagram. I look at the family calendar and see what we all have going on. Then, I plan accordingly.

When I find something I want to make, I jot down the name of the recipe on a sheet of paper and next to it, I write where I got it. For example, if I want to make Bobbi’s Brisket from my website, I will write Bobbi’s Brisket and in parentheses next to it, write “w3drk” my shorthand for www.drklearman.com. This is so I can easily remember where I got the recipe and know how to access it when I am ready to cook.

I usually loosely assign each of my dinner meal ideas a day of the week that I will be eating them. That way, I can make sure my meat is defrosted in advance, and, when I get home from work I have no decisions to make. I already know what I am going to cook, my ingredients are all available, and I don’t have any stress at all about how to feed myself or my family.

Planning and preparing meals in advance is actually a huge time saver! It takes me about an hour to plan for the week, which is much less time consuming than trying to come up with something to cook on my way home, when I am already tired and hungry. Planning is even less effort than a stop at the store, or figuring out what everyone wants and where to order food. While these scenarios may seem like less effort than planning and cooking, it easily takes just as long trying to figure out what to eat as it would have taken me to cook a whole, healthy meal that I have planned in advance.

Truthfully, planning my menu is also good for my mental health. I feel so much better, physically and mentally, eating the foods that I want to be eating, cooking a healthy meal, and providing both myself and my family with nourishing meals that are made from scratch and with lots of love. Self-care is self-love and it feels so good!

I know that meal planning feels like a chore. Sometimes, even surrounded by gorgeous food photos, I feel overwhelmed and like nothing sounds good. Ask you family or friends for recipe ideas, keep things super simple (a protein and a vegetable makes a great meal), and just do your best. And remember that this is the way to help yourself stay on track with healthy eating, and even when it feels tedious, you are becoming the healthy person you want to be.