I know I have already had plenty of meal planning posts in the past but I really can’t stress how important it is.  I hear so many excuses as to why people cannot meal prep from not having enough time to not knowing how or where to start.  I wanted to compile all my important tools that I use for meal planning to try and lay out how to meal plan successfully and hopefully make it a less scary experience for all!  Without planning your meals ahead you are really setting yourself up for a disaster or at the very least a very bumpy ride.  Even a year into my weightloss journey and meal planning if I miss one week I fall off the wagon.  I look at all the uncooked food in my fridge and think “McDonalds is already cooked across the street…” or “Lunchables are a balanced meal, right?”

Here are my (not so) secret weapons for successful meal planning

1. Time – If you read nothing else but this key point then you are well on your way.  This is the biggest excuse I hear is “I don’t have time”.  What I really hear is “I don’t want to make time”.  If that is offensive in anyway I am sorry but it’s true.  I am fully aware people are busy and do have kids, husbands, jobs and life beyond their diets but think about if something you really wanted to do came up in your “busy” schedule.  Would you make time for that?  I bet if you were able to rearrange your schedule you absolutely would.  Meal planning shouldn’t be any different than that thing you really want to do.  We are on this journey because we really want to lose weight.  How can we do that if we aren’t make time for it? Just waiting for it to magically happen?  Think of it this way..Taking a couple hours out of one day of your week frees up that time for the other six.  That’s a total win in my book.  Yes there are days where I do not feel like meal prepping but I know what it will do for my week ahead if I don’t.  Schedule meal planning just as you would something you really want to do.  Because in the end you are trying to achieve something you really want!
2. Lists – I feel the list part is easy.  It is following the list and not straying from it that is hard!  I first write out what I want for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then make a list of all the ingredients to make this happen.  This is the hard part…go to the store and put the blinders on for anything beyond your list!  The only time I make an exception with this is if there is a really good deal I was unaware of going into the store.  And no, I do not mean buy one get one free Oreos.  I am talking like super saver meat deals like BOGO steaks or something.  This won’t just help you with staying on track but it will also save you a lot of money.  How often do you go into a store for one thing and walk out with a cart?  That’s okay when it’s fun stuff like new workout clothes or something..but this can be a disaster if you walk out with way more food than you planned on getting.
3. Open Mind – Another excuse I hear often is there is not a lot of variety when it comes to meal prep.  You are making the meals for the week which can sometimes (most often) mean leftovers. Unless you want to take up even more hours in your day and make a different breakfast, lunch and dinner for every day of the week then this is something that you’ll have to accept.  This does not mean you will eat boiled chicken, plain white rice and steamed broccoli for 7 days straight.  I tend to pick about 4 recipes and I mix and match if I want them for lunch or dinner.  I may make chicken and beef for example but change my sides so it’s not the exact same meal everyday.  Variety is important so that you don’t get bored and end up wanting to binge on something that you may find tastier.  You can still have variety with meal prep!  This is more of a concern for people who are cooking for themselves or two.  For people with a family variety is far easier to make a crock pot meal or a casserole that is different for everyday.
4. Kitchen Essentials – “I don’t have a chef stocked kitchen!”  Yes I know I am a chef and therefore I have so many toys.  However! There are only a select few things that I use on an absolute regular basis that does not take up a bunch of space and is most likely in everyone’s kitchen.  My favorites include: *Floppy cutting boards in assorted colors – I use these to be able to prep meat and vegetables with ease without having to wash the cutting board every time.  They are super easy to store and I can use one and toss it in the sink and grab a new one.  They are simple to clean and keep the food safe from cross-contamination. *Plenty of wooden spoons and rubber spatulas.  When you are cooking with a variety of pots and pans and dishing out into your tupperware containers it’s annoying if you have to keep washing the same utensils.  Have plenty of back-up..they are cheap! *Herbs & Spices – Stock up on as many herbs and spices as you can! Build up a good pantry to keep your food exciting.  More flavor = less missing those bad foods.  *Clorox wipes – makes cleaning so much easier between prep.  Really..those are the things I use most often.  People can live without a vitamix and 10,000 tools from pampered chef claiming to make your life easier.
5. Containers – Stock up on containers of all shapes and sizes to make it easy to portion out your food.  My favorite containers are the kind you find at restaurant supply stores.  I like having the same type of container for each of my meals.  Call me OCD but I don’t like if one type of meal is in a square, rectangle and a round container.  I like to easily distinguish which meal is which so I can grab n’ go!  The ones you find at supply stores tend to be a lot cheaper for a whole ton of containers that you can stow away until you need more.  If you do not have this luxury of having a restaurant supply store nearby you can find just as good containers at somewhere like Target or Walmart.  Also having different sizes zipper bags is nice to have too.  Snack size, gallon size, sandwich size..I don’t discriminate.

Well those are my secrets folks!  Meal prep doesn’t have to be a scary thing.  It just takes some organization and definitely some dedication.  It may take some time to get into the routine of making your meals but I am telling you that when you get home from work and don’t have to worry about making a meal from scratch – you get addicted to it pretty quick!  Still confused about how to jump in and meal plan? Send me a message!  I would be glad to help you get on track to starting your new meal prepping lifestyle!

I am so proud to say I have completed my 21 day sugar detox!!

I thought about posting about it when I started but sadly I really didn’t think I could do it and I didn’t want to be resembled if I didn’t succeed at it.  My goal was to get rid of all sweet candy, snacks, additives and the hardest part for me..diet soda!  When I first had this idea I bounced it off some friends just to sort of see what it felt like to say out loud.  I told myself that I really needed to get a handle on how much I relied on sugar.  When I finally set a date I am not kidding when I say I had a panic attack.  I felt like I had to message my friends back and be like “just kidding! not happening!” I really had no faith in myself that I could do this!

I don’t have a binge issue with chocolate.  I don’t sit down and eat a box of cookies or a whole bag of candy. I can literally just have one piece of candy and be content.  However I noticed I would only have one piece but multiple times a day..usually around lunch and dinner.  I noticed I really had an issue when I told myself “Ya know..you really can skip the chocolate at dinner..you had some at work today” and for a second I would be okay with this but panic would set in.  I no longer just wanted chocolate..I needed chocolate!

I have also had an issue with diet soda.  I did like most people do when they start out eating better.  Ditch the full calorie soda for diet.  Now im healthy right??  So many outlets would preach about how diet soda is even worse than regular.  It causes you to eat more and crave more sweets.  I would totally ignore this and wave it off saying “maybe for other people..this certainly doesn’t apply to me”.

My one dilemma that has held me back from ditching the diet drinks is that I don’t have many options when it comes to beverages.  Water is great and I really have upped my water big time.  But sometimes you just need something flavored!  I have an auto-immune disease that causes really bad reactions to a lot of ingredients.  Mainly anything even remotely sour.  This takes away a lot of juices, sports drinks, any packaged ice tea (citric acid) and I can’t even have those water flavor packs or liquids.  I had to learn to love fresh brewed hot and cold tea.

The start of the detox was a little hard because of the reliance of caffeine.  Honestly it only took about 3-4 days for me to be over not having a soda.  I had some headaches but not too terrible.  I learned that I do like coffee..and I love tea!  Funny thing happened though..that whole idea that the cravings and snacking didn’t apply to me because I am somehow special…totally not true.  I noticed my first week I didn’t snack at all.  I had to actually remind myself to eat.  I used to constantly snack at least every 2 hours.  I started packing less and less food and snacks to go with me to work because I simply didn’t need them.  I know for sure that this was the soda.  I will say I do miss it a little bit because I do love cherry dr pepper..but it just isn’t worth it to me anymore.  I have no desire to keep it in my house anymore.  I can’t even trust myself just yet to even treat myself to sip just yet.

As for chocolate…I feel I have a good grasp and game plan for it.  I do love dark chocolate and recognize there can be benefits to it.  However I have made an agreement with myself it has to be high quality dark chocolate.  It seems much easier to deny chocolate when its expensive rather than a cheap item you pick up at an impulse counter display.  Im a girl..I have needs..I need chocolate.  Haha

Anyway..I am very proud of myself because this was a huge accomplishment that I really didn’t believe I had in me.  I just keep surprising myself everyday 🙂

And now folks…here’s grumpy cat..