Plan a Healthy Diet

Planning is essential. It simply requires taking a few minutes to think through the mealsyou will eat for the week. You will find that some items show up weekly on your list, which makes planning even easier over time.

Would you like to know the first step to a healthy, realistic diet? Here it is: Plan, Plan,
Plan.

How many important concerns in your life require zero planning? Probably not many. We plan our days and weeks down to the hour. I even subscribe to a system that syncs my internet calendar with my phone calendar. On top of that, I have a paper calendar at work for my daily to-do list. I sound crazy, but I don’t think I’m the exception. Most of us always want to know what’s going on because we understand the importance of planning. So why do we think things are different when it comes to our food choices? Do you include consuming meals on your daily to-do list? Do you incorporate cooking meals in your datebook? I would feel quite absurd if someone looked at my schedule and found that every day I had penned in, “Breakfast 7-7:15 am. Snack 10 am. Prep dinner 6-6:30pm. Eat dinner 6:30-7pm.” No, we don’t have to record every meal on our agenda. We don’t even need to forecast our entire shopping list for the month at one time, but we DO need to allow a little bit of time in our busy schedules to think through our food choices. Here are a few simple tips that I have put to the test, and now I could not live without:

Plan a Healthy Diet

1. Plan your food choices one week at a time. Think through all the meals you will need to prepare. (i.e. If you know you havea work lunch on Tuesday and are going out to dinner with a friend on Thursday
evening, you get two free passes from planning!)

2. Breakfast: Most people stick with a similar breakfast choice daily. I like to have enough bananas, cereal and milk on hand to last the whole week.

3. Lunch: Grab some lunch meat, cheese and bread at the store. Make all of your sandwiches for the week at the same time, then wrap them individually in foil. The first day will take a little while, but for the remaining days, you will be thankful you planned ahead. After the sandwich, throw in a baggie of grapes or an apple, yogurt, granola… and maybe one fun snack to get you through the day.

4. Dinner: This takes a bit more planning. Be realistic with the amount of evenings you will have time to make a full-onmeal. Then choose a matching number of recipes and add any necessary ingredients to your weekly grocery list.

For the nights you are limited on time, consider making a meal in the crock pot. This method allows you to use fresh, nutrient-rich foods and still save time in the kitchen.

Planning is essential. It simply requires taking a few minutes to think through the meals you will eat for the week. You will find that some items show up weekly on your list, which makes planning even easier over time. Your week will likely fill up as quickly as last week flew by, so remind yourself that planning ahead boosts healthy eating amidst a busy week and keeps you out of the drive-thru line.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Shana Stull, RD, LD is a registered dietitian, licensed in the State of Ohio.  Shana is the Wellness Pro for Venturepax, a company dedicated to providing local outdoor opportunities for its users.  Visit Venturepax.comto start experiencing the outdoors in Cincinnati today!

A registered dietitian is a food and nutrition expert who has met specified academic and professional requirements. However, a registered dietitian is not a doctor. Please be sure to consult with your medical doctor regarding your personal health/nutrition concerns.