By Lizzie Streit, MS, RDN, LD 

Planning ahead can ease stress and help you stick to your goals. This is especially true when it comes to nutrition. 

Making unhealthy food choices due to lack of preparation or out of convenience is a familiar scenario for many people. While it can be a hard habit to break, there are lots of ways to gradually change this behavior over time. 

This post provides tips for how to use healthy meal prep and planning to the fullest so that you can stick to your goals. 

Meal Planning Tips 

Meal planning can be divided into two steps: sketching out your meals for an upcoming period of time and the actual food preparation. Completing both of these steps can make it easier to stay on track with healthy eating. However, some people choose to do one or the other. The best option for you depends on your preferences and schedule. 

Here are some options for meal planning and prep: 

• Plan out a week or a few nights of meals. If you’re someone who thrives on making schedules and plans, you may benefit from writing down what you will have for dinner on each night of the week (or just a few nights!). Choose recipes that resemble a balanced plate and include non-starchy veggies, complex carbs, a lean protein, and healthy fat. Feel free to plan your breakfasts and lunches too. But if you’re new to meal planning, starting with dinner is an approachable first step. 

• Plan out a week of meals and prep some components. Once you get the hang of planning your dinners for the week, you may benefit from prepping some meal components in advance. For example, if you plan to do burrito bowls one night for dinner, you could prep shredded chicken, cooked brown rice, and salsa in advance. You’ll save yourself time when you’re hungry and want to put together a meal quickly. 

• Just prep some components. If you are someone who likes to decide on what to eat closer to when you’re actually having the meal, consider just prepping some healthy foods to keep in the fridge. Hard-boiled eggs, shredded chicken or turkey, chopped veggies, overnight oats, and healthy dips are all great options that can be added to a variety of meals. You add the boiled eggs to a bed of greens or use them to make egg salad sandwiches. The shredded chicken can be used in quesadillas, sandwiches, or burrito bowls. The opportunities are endless! 

If you’re new to meal prep and planning, remember to start slow. It can be overwhelming to come up with a plan for an entire week. Start with planning out two or three dinners that make enough leftovers that you can eat for lunch the next day. Work your way up from there. You can also incorporate meals from a meal prep delivery service (like HFLM!) to fill in the gaps. It’s much better to start out slow than to go overboard at first and lose the motivation to continue. 

Note from Healthy For Life Meals: Interested in having prepared meals in the fridge but overwhelmed by meal prep and planning? Let us do the work for you! Get started with one of our 1200, 1500, or 2000-calories per day plans today to set up a meal prep delivery that will help you stay on track with your healthy eating goals.