I think the number one struggle on some days is MOM, WHAT’S FOR DINNER? It weighs on me. I know that around 2 or 3 pm, that question is coming, whether I like or not. Some days I just don’t feel like adulting, but the truth of the matter is that I do have a responsibility to feed my family healthy meals. If I have a plan, that dinner anxiety literally vanishes. It doesn’t have to be magical and it hardly ever looks perfect around here, but spending 30 minutes at the start of my week planning out some meals makes for a more successful {and healthier} week for everyone. Mom guilt eat your heart out.
TIP #1: Cook a meal that makes big quantities at the beginning of the week.
When I sit down to plan, I will make something like chili, a healthy casserole or turkey meatballs for dinner on Sunday and Monday. We always have leftovers with these types of meals which gives me and my husband a few healthy options for lunch in the upcoming days. Plus, it just makes me feel like I’m ON IT.
TIP #2: Repetition is your friend.
It’s true, and I think most of my healthy friends do the same. We tend to find a few things we love and eat them over and over and over. I eat a lot of eggs with spinach for breakfast. I love apples and peanut butter for a snack. Ground turkey with a little southwest seasoning, a sweet potato and some green beans almost always sound appealing to me for a quick lunch. It’s easy to have those things on hand and it’s easy to make some of them ahead of time so that you all you have to do is reheat and EAT. Find what you love, and keep it simple. This also helps reduce your grocery budget.
TIP #3: Plan your dinners first.
Sit down with your meal planner and instead of planning in the order of your day, plan your dinners first. Dinners are just the most complicated meal of the day. Making everyone happy and delivering a tasty meal at the same time is no easy feat. Once you’ve planned your dinners, you can reverse engineer your day to make sure that you have fed yourself well. I like using these cute little color coded portion control containers to ensure that I’ve got a well rounded plan on my hands that fuels my workouts for better results.
FREE! If you don’t have a meal planner that you love, I’d love to email you mine. Just fill out this quick little form here so that I know where to send it.
TIP #4: Don’t be afraid to supplement.
This truly helps me stay on track and it eliminates my need for a Diet Coke and M&M’s around 3:00 just to get through the rest of the afternoon. Yes, that really used to be my reality. I treat my body like an athlete now, my perspective has changed and I know that pursuing God’s best for myself also involves what I put into my body. So I don’t do that anymore, instead I fuel up with an awesome, superfood, nutrient dense shake that makes me happy. If you don’t have one you love, I’m happy to recommend one for you, just fill out that link to the meal plan listed above and I’ll send you what works for me.
TIP #5: Limit yourself to trying one new recipe per week.
Oftentimes, we get super motivated and want to become an overnight healthy food chef sensation. I can vouch from experience, your family will be much happier if you don’t go all Rambo on them overnight with the new stuff. I’m saving you from dinnertime drama, sisters. Trust me on this one, k? It’s great to try new things and expand your recipe file, just take it one healthy meal at a time. Your family still wants spaghetti on some nights and that’s okay.
Again, if you don’t have a meal planner that you love, I’d love to send you mine. Just fill out this quick little form and it’ll be on it’s way! Until then, just remember that a little meal planning goes a long way. You’ve got this, sister!
