Setting yourself a healthy meal plan for the week ahead provides a myriad of benefits, from helping you budget to saving time and energy. Here’s why it’s a great way to stay healthy, too:
- Set your intentions in advance without getting distracted. For instance, is your main purpose to reduce snacking by focusing on low-GI, high-protein meals? Or are you setting a daily calorie limit? Once you’re clear on your ‘big aim’, you can plan your meals to fit round that.
- Looking at the week as a whole before you start gives you the ability to ensure you’re getting a varied, balanced diet across the whole week.
- You can shop and meal prep in advance to avoid those pain points when there’s ‘nothing to eat’ or you’re too short on time to cook.
So that’s WHY creating a healthy meal plan is important. Here’s HOW to do it:
- Again, be very clear on your primary intention. It’s easy to let other ‘nice to haves’ distract you, but know what you need to achieve your main aim and have that front of mind when you choose your meals.
- Think about what else you have planned for the week. How many people will be eating dinner? Which days will you have longer to spend cooking? Do you need to allow leftovers?
- Factor in key healthy eating recommendations (for example, five-a-day of fruits and vegetables, 30g of fibre, two portions of fish – one of which is oily; no more than 70g red or processed meat a day).
Try the Good Food app for a wide choice of plans already put together to suit you – whether you’re after high protein, mood boosting or healthy family dishes. You can use the in-app shopping list to collate everything you need for the week, too.
