Meal Planning Simplified

My top 7 tips/ideas will have you meal planning like a pro in no time! 

Stop Chasing Wellness is an online wellness coaching company founded by two Holistic Health Coaches, Gina and Kristin. Be sure to check out all of our offerings including our book, Stop Chasing Wellness; Create It, and our growing catalog of Hormone Specific coaching courses. All of our courses and offerings are designed to help you feel and live your best life in a simplified way that works for you. You can find Stop Chasing Wellness on Facebook and Instagram

Transcript

Welcome to the Common Sense Nutrition Podcast.
This podcast is all about tips and ideas
to simplify your meal planning.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Common Sense Nutrition Podcast.
My name is Kristen Peterson and I'm really happy that you're here with me today.
Today we're going to talk about seven top tips to help make meal planning much simpler
for you.
But before we get started, I want to remind you to please go ahead and check out my website
at commonsensenutritionaz.com for more information on what I do as a health coach.
All right, well let's just dive right in and get started.
Let me start off by just first saying that I have often, I have so many people that have
asked me over the years, will you do my meal planning for me?
And my answer is always no.
And I know that that can sound harsh, but I really feel like it's my job as a health
coach is not to do that job for you.
It's to teach you how to do that job.
Because if you're going to be the most successful in being, you know, you being the decision
maker and you being in charge and in control of your health, your diet, what you put in
your body, I need to teach you how to do that.
So if I do that for you, you're not learning anything.
But I do, I understand this is, it can be overwhelming.
People are busy, whether you're working full time inside or outside the home.
If you've got kids, if you've just got other, you know, maybe you're caring for elderly
parents.
There's just a lot of directions that life is pulling us into have to have that, that
thing that we all have to do, like we all have to eat.
So to some degree we all do have to do some amount of meal planning and prepping.
And it's not something that we all like, like even me as a health coach, as much as I love
to cook.
It's really just like one of those things I look at, like I have to, I have to do this.
I have to plan, I have to plan my shopping list.
I have to plan what we're going to eat this week.
So I'm going to, I've got some tips to share with you guys.
So I do want to point out just really it's, this is something that you can't not do.
And really if you don't plan, then that means that, you know, you're going to, that's a,
that's a recipe just for desperation.
And when you're desperate because you haven't planned, come home and you've got, you know,
either I'm hungry or kids are hungry or I need to eat, I have to feed people.
If there's no plan, then that usually means that you're, you know, dialing up DoorDash
or running to a drive through for takeout food or eating fast food.
So you're, you're typically eating things that maybe aren't the healthiest, maybe not
the best choices.
You know, when you're, when you're desperate, you make bad choices, right?
You kind of got to have to, you get what you get when you don't have a plan.
So you know, planning and prepping and doing some work at home, it will save you money.
It'll save you a lot of stress and a lot of hassle.
So I'm going to help simplify some of this for you and I will point out just like anything
else that you do, if this is new to you, whether it is or not, just bear with me because anything
that you change, it's just something that you need to do consistently.
So if you're seeing this as, okay, we're going to do these things, I'm going to stick with
this because it's going to help me, I encourage you to do just that.
Stick with it because if you continue to do it, it's just going to become your habit and
your second nature and it will get easier and it will get faster, you know, from week
to week every time you plan.
So and it's eventually just going to feel very natural.
You're going to not have to put so much thought and effort into it.
It just starts to become the habit.
You know, just like I've ever been to like, you know, you have your favorite grocery store
and you know the aisles in that grocery store, like you can wear a path through the place
because you know what to get.
And then one day you go into that grocery store and then they've moved everything.
It's just so not fair.
And then it takes you like so much longer to get through the store cause you have to
go find everything again.
Well, just think of this in that same sense that if you just stick with this and you make
this consistent, you're going to be able to do this where you feel like you're just kind
of, you know, you're wearing that path through the store cause you know where everything's
at.
So all of these little changes that you're going to make really do add up to big results
if you stick with it over time.
So and this, what I'm going to teach you here in some of these meal planning tips, I've
got seven quick and easy tips.
What I'm going to teach you here is something that we also focus on in this clean eating
program that I lead each month.
So before I get started and offer my tips, I'm going to leave you with this statement
that a failure to plan is a plan to fail and that sounds very cliche, but it is super true.
So just think of that.
Like if I don't plan anything, I'm planning to fail and I know that your health is important
to you.
That's why you're listening to this podcast.
So let's dive in.
I've got seven quick and easy tips.
First of all, the first thing I do, I usually, I do like one big grocery shopping each week
and then I do like a smaller trip.
So the first thing that I do when I'm getting ready to put that plan together before I start
looking through recipes or writing anything down or you know, making a menu, I get up
and I literally just take inventory of what I have on hand and I go around and I open
my refrigerator.
What do I have?
Do I have, you know, just kind of get a visual look.
What's in my refrigerator?
What's in my freezer?
And I'm looking for things like meals that I may have made ahead of time that I can just
thaw and reheat or you know, things like, do I have some, what kind of fish, what kind
of animal proteins do I have or what kind of frozen beans do I have, things that I may
be able to use that I already have on hand.
Cause I also try to buy things on sale and freeze, you know, like if I buy a larger portion
of, you know, maybe chicken breast is on sale and I buy way more than I need, I put those
in the freezer.
So I always have things in my refrigerator freezer.
I look through my pantry, what kind of herbs and spices, what kind of canned goods do I
have?
And then what I do is I can use that mental visual reference to start planning and building
my meals based on the items I've already purchased.
Like I said, if I purchase something on sale, I've already got chicken breast in my freezer
cheaper than I might have to purchase it for this week.
And then the next thing I do is I review my weekly calendar.
So again, I'm taking inventory of my food and then I look at the calendar before I start
planning out, you know, five, six, seven days worth of meals because maybe there's, you
know, I'm a mother of a swimmer and when he was here before he went off to college
to swim, it was what swim activities do I have this week?
How many days a week did I, you know, I used to do carpooling.
And for those of you that work professionally outside of the home, do you have business
meetings or do you have to entertain clients in the evening where you might not be home
to cook a meal for your family?
So you want to plan your calendar of meals around what you have, you know, any distractions
basically that might take you away from being home to cook in the evening.
And if so, let's say, you know, you're not going to be home, but your family's going
to need a meal.
That's a great night where you can pull something, you know, maybe either make something ahead
or pull a meal out of the freezer that you may have made previously.
Once you start getting in a habit, you're going to start to stockpile meals in your
freezer, which is kind of nice.
So you can plan for those meals to just be a family meal for the nights where you're
absent or if you have busy weeknights where you are going to be carpooling or you're going
to be at a sporting event, you can, you know, make like, you know, like a lunchbox, you
know, meal to take with you if you're going to be sitting there watching your kids at
soccer practice, you know.
You can eat it like maybe more of a lunch type meal as your dinner.
So the third tip I have for you is keeping a list of recipes like you have your favorite
things, right?
And that could either be maybe you subscribe to a magazine or two because you like the
recipes.
It was notorious for this.
I used to pull them out and I would store them in a binder.
And once I made them, if I loved them enough, like I would make a permanent place for them
in my binder.
I would kind of just shove them in there and think, okay, I want to make this.
Like I said, once I made it, I gave it a permanent home.
There are lots of apps out there that you can find recipes on and save those apps on
those recipes or save the recipes in those apps.
And I love Pinterest boards for this.
It's I kind of almost gotten all the way away from paper anymore.
And I use my Pinterest board and I save, I basically pin recipes to, I have a few different
boards that I, so when I'm sitting down going, okay, what are we going to eat?
I open up my Pinterest board and I've already made that mental note of what the food I have
on hand in my fridge, freezer and pantry, right?
And then I'm looking through my Pinterest boards to see, oh yeah, you know what?
I had a whole bunch of extra chicken breast.
I can make, you know, this chicken bean chili in the crock pot this week.
So then I start kind of compiling, okay, here's what I want to make.
And I mean, it's, I try to keep things as simplified as possible like that.
And if I have, if I find it on the recipe or I see somebody post something, I can save
that into that Pinterest board so I can go back to it again later and keep making it
over and over.
And it's a great place for people to go to my board and take what I have off of there.
And that's about the closest I will come to meal planning for anybody is sharing a Pinterest
board with you so that you can kind of see what I've made, what I like and what I am
eating.
And the fourth tip I will give you is, especially for your breakfasts and your lunches, I say
keep it simple.
For your breakfasts, like I basically plan my dinners.
For my breakfasts I keep it simple and tomorrow's lunch is tonight's dinner.
So for my breakfasts I, when I'm making out my, my grocery list, not necessarily my menu,
but my grocery list based on my recipes.
I also want to make sure that I have things obviously on hand for breakfast and lunches
and snacks, right?
But when I'm making the grocery list, I want to make sure I have basic breakfast things
on hand.
Like, let's face it, we're all busy.
We don't have time to whip up some amazing breakfast, like maybe save that for a weekend,
right?
You might have one big breakfast like on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
But for the weekday breakfast, I want to make sure I have basic things on hand like, you
know, oats for oatmeal, eggs, you know, even if it's a good, you know, whole wheat bread
for toast or something or avocado toast, things that are easy to make in the morning.
And for me that's primarily smoothie ingredients because I make a smoothie almost every single
morning and I just want to make sure that I have the things on hand that I need to make
that easy for me so I can get going in the morning.
I don't have time to think about that.
So when I'm planning my dinner menu, I try to make sure that I'm going to have a little
bit extra in that meal that I'm making for dinner to have for lunch for the next day.
And then I can portion that off right away and set that aside.
Or even if it's just a small amount of something, I can have that, like I always have stuff
on hand for salads.
Like salads and vegetables are just always, there's always a drawer full so I can whip
a salad up and maybe take a little extra chunk of chicken or salmon or something or
beans that we had the night before and have that with a salad for lunch.
So keep those things simple.
Keep your breakfast and lunches simplified.
And then that way you're really only making one meal a night.
The fifth tip I'm going to give you is there are so many amazing grocery and delivery service,
you know, store pickup delivery, grocery delivery services available.
Oh my Lord, use those things.
I kind of feel like I got ripped off when my kids were little.
We didn't have any of that stuff.
And I'm telling you, if I could have gone back and done it back when they were little,
I would have been doing this, like I never would have taken my kids out of the car, right?
Just order your stuff online.
And again, that's another one of those things.
I've used these services from time to time and they actually come in handy when you're
traveling if you're staying in an Airbnb and you can have your groceries delivered to your
Airbnb.
But it takes a little bit of time.
And I'm telling you, just like with all these meal planning tips, taking the time to learn
the service for the local market that you love, it takes a little bit of a learning
curve, but it's worth it.
And once you get used to it, you'll be able to just start clicking and putting things
in the cart.
And ultimately, this will save you time once you get used to it.
And it will save you money.
You know, how many times do you go to the store and even if you have a well-prepared
list and then you see that bag of something or that, oh, I need that, or you go off the
beat and be like, oh, you know, I see a squirrel and now I'm going to make this meal.
Not that you're going to eat the squirrel, but you know what I mean.
It's just, it will save you time because it keeps your grocery list focused.
And then there's the added benefit of not only do you not have to go inside the store,
but you don't have to drag kids inside the store.
And that to me is just, oh my Lord, the stress level with that is no fun.
So take advantage of those things because it will save you so much time, money and frustration.
My sixth tip is that really have a backup plan because even the best of us, we do the
best planning that we can, if we plan, you know, we feel like we are on top of it, something
can happen, something can come up, maybe it rains and all of a sudden your kid doesn't
have that soccer practice that you thought you were going to have to go to or your business
meeting cancels and you will be able to be home for dinner at night.
Plans change.
And this is where I encourage you when you are making your meal and menu plan for the
week, once or twice or three times a month, try to make something that's like a soup or
a chili or something that can be made in a big batch and maybe double that depending
on the amount of people you're feeding.
But try to double that recipe or at least have enough left where you can freeze that
and put it in mason jars or in storage containers in your freezer so that you have that on hand
for that plan B, for that busy weeknight or where the plans changed or, you know, you
need to leave a meal for your family when you're not going to be there and they can
just heat something up.
So those meals or even just maybe you did plan something and you just at the end of
the day you're like, oh my God, I don't feel like it, let's just have this instead.
And you will love having that if it's there for you.
So have that backup plan.
And my seventh and final quick tip is to do some prepping ahead of time.
And this doesn't mean that you have to come home after you grocery shop and cook and prepare
and individually portion out every single meal that you have just shopped and planned
for.
But if you can do simple things like all the produce, put it in the kitchen sink and give
it like, you know, a couple of cups of the distilled white vinegar and some clean water
in your sink, give everything a good vinegar bath to get the bacteria off, lay everything
out and let it dry so your vegetables are cleaned and washed.
Maybe you have time to cut and chop and prep a few vegetables.
Maybe just portion out some snacks so that as you're packing kids' lunches for the week
that the snacks that go inside their lunches or backpacks are already portioned out.
One of the things I love doing is cooking my grains in advance.
So if I have time to just throw my brown rice or some quinoa in the instant pot and
have grains cooked in advance so that during mealtime I'm not waiting 45 minutes for my
brown rice to cook.
I love doing those things, you know, on the weekends or, you know, after I've grocery
shopped.
And then let's say you did purchase, like I said, chicken breast is on sale and you
want to purchase a larger portion of any sort of animal protein.
Really portion that.
I wrap it in plastic wrap, put it in, you know, larger freezer bags so that I have individual
portions that I can put in my freezer.
And then that way, whether I'm cooking for myself or I'm cooking for four people or more,
I can portion out the proper amount of those servings when it comes time for meal prepping.
So I think that those tips, those tips help me.
These are things that I teach people when I'm health coaching them and I'm hoping that
will help you as well.
So first again, take inventory of the food you have on hand.
Number two, review your weekly calendar.
Number three, find a place where you can keep a list of your favorite recipes like a Pinterest
board or an app or paper.
Number four, keep things like breakfast simple and make enough portion with your dinner that
it can be tomorrow's lunch.
Tip number five was to use those grocery pickup and delivery services.
Tip number six, have a backup plan.
And number seven, plan ahead.
Do as much planning and prepping ahead of time as you possibly can.
So I'm going to go ahead and wrap things up for us today and just wanted to give you guys
a huge thank you for joining me and listening.
I really appreciate it and I do hope you found this content to be of value.
And if you like what you hear, I do hope that you'll share this content with a friend
and be sure to check out my website, commonsensenutritionaz.com and feel free to shoot me a message and just
let me know what you'd like me to touch on in a future podcast.
And while you're in there, be sure to click on that programs button and learn a little
bit more about the Clean Eating Program that I lead each month.
I've taken my knowledge of holistic nutrition, health coaching, and preventive health and
I combine that with my knowledge of different dietary theories.
And I use this to help coach you through this lifestyle program with a 10-day monthly jump
start.
And I'm really excited for you to check it out.
So message me through my website once again, commonsensenutritionaz.com to get started.
And until next time, this is Kristen Peterson.
And thank you so much for listening to my Common Sense Nutrition podcast.
Bye-bye.