I'm delighted to have a special treat for you today - A fun informative guest post from Kristen at Slender Kitchen, a great Weight Watchers friendly food blog. I think you'll find her advice on meal planning as helpful as I did. And if you would like a little help with your meal planning, be sure to check out the end of the post for details regarding her generous discount and giveaway!
From Kristen:
First of all, a huge thank you to Martha for inviting me to talk about one of my favorite things today – meal planning. I love talking about meal planning because it was the "thing" that finally changed things for me. Not only was meal planning the key to my personal weight loss, it has also cured the dreaded nightly empty stare into the fridge waiting for dinner to jump out. I love it.
First, let me share a little of my story. I'm Kristen and I blog and meal plan over at Slender Kitchen. If we traveled back to ten years ago, I was 25 pounds overweight and I couldn't cook anything that didn't come in a box. Seriously.
I had also tried countless diets, lost and gained weight over and over again, and just couldn't seem to find anything that worked for me. But at the same time, I couldn't spend another day feeling the way I did. Something had to change.
To make a really long story short, I decided to join Weight Watchers and I loved it almost immediately. I started losing weight the first week, could still enjoy meals out with friends and family, and it felt like something I could stick to long term.
However there was one problem, I was living off Lean Cuisines and Smart Ones meals, 100 calorie snack packs, and anything low calorie and frozen. Outside of fruits and the occasional fresh vegetable, it was all packaged foods. I couldn't be bothered to learn to cook or calculate points. And as you might expect – this got boring and expensive.
So I set out to learn to cook. Luckily for me – I instantly fell in love with preparing meals, finding new recipes, and learning new techniques. I started eating real food and really began to notice a change in not only how my clothes felt, but more importantly how my body felt when I started feeding it real food.
However as you may have guessed, I still had one problem! I wasn't meal planning so when I got busy, which happened often, I reverted back to my old habits. So much like cooking, I set out to learn to meal plan and am excited to share some of the things I have learned with you today.
Meal Planning 101
- Set Your Schedule: Whether you decide to meal plan weekly or monthly, it is important to set up your meal plan schedule and dedicate time to find recipes and create your plan.
This should also include your shopping day(s) so you can make grocery lists. Personally I like to meal plan weekly. I create my plan Saturday mornings (although I save recipe ideas throughout the week) and shop on Sundays.
- Create Theme Nights: Starting each week from scratch can make meal planning take forever, so pick theme nights to speed things up and limit your recipe choices.
For example, I like to make a slow cooker meal weekly for Sunday dinner and use those leftovers for lunches throughout the week. Monday is Pasta night and Friday is takeout food at home – burgers, pizzas, etc.
I also always include one seafood dish, one chicken dish, one beef dish, and one pork dish weekly. This speeds up meal planning immensely since I know what recipes to look for.
Some ideas for theme nights could include – Taco Tuesdays, Grilling Night, Meatless Monday, Friday Fish, Pizza Night, Sunday Slow Cooker, etc.
- Create an Easy System to Save Recipes: One of the best ways to speed up meal planning is to have a go-to place full of recipes that you and your family will enjoy. That way you don't spend hours searching online. Pinterest is a great place for this.
You could also use a binder at home, Evernote, or virtually any system that makes it quick and easy for you to find a recipe. Personally I use Pinterest and then have a category for each theme above – slow cooker, pasta, chicken, seafood, beef, pork, and takeout inspired.
- Build Your Calendar: Now you want to build your calendar/meal planner. This can take any format – it just needs to be something that works for you.
For example, for a quick dinner meal planner, simply fold a paper in half the long way. On once side write your five meals and on the other side build your shopping list.
I like to do this by categories for quicker shopping. Then save those sheets in a folder or binder for easy access in the future. Print out, write out, or save recipe links as well for easy preparation. You could also do this electronically in Word, Excel, or Notepad.
- Anticipate: This is one of the most important parts of successful meal planning – anticipation. First – be realistic about how many meals you will prepare each week. If you always eat out twice a week, don't plan for those meals.
Additionally, consider your schedule. If Wednesdays are always incredibly busy, make Wednesday Healthy Pizza & Salad night and use healthy store bough pizza dough for a quick meal.
- Monthly Freezer Meals: Since we can never fully plan, I like to make 2-4 healthy freezer meals at the start out each month that I can pull out in a moment's notice.
Usually this includes things like soups/stews, enchiladas, lasagna, stuffed peppers, and other freezer friendly options. Then when I know a hectic week is coming I can plan on these or pull it out when needed.
- Start Slow: Perhaps the most important tip for beginning to meal plan is to start slow!
If you have never meal planned or followed a meal plan before, don’t start out by planning your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It will take you hours and hours to create the meal plan.
Instead start out by planning for 3 dinners and breakfast weekly. See how that goes and then add on as you begin to get better (and more efficient) at meal planning.
Slender Kitchen Meal Plans (affiliate link) – Weight Watchers® Friendly
Love the idea of meal planning but don't want to do all the work? Since I know that many people simply don't have the time to create their own healthy meal plans, we now offer them at Slender Kitchen.
Each healthy weekly meal plan comes full of delicious recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The meal plans come in regular, vegetarian, and low carb options.
All feature complete nutritional information, Weight Watchers PointsPlus®, and categorized shopping lists! There are also two bonus fallback recipes weekly in case there is something you don't like in the menu.
Healthy Meal Planning Made Easy Special Offer
As a special for Simple-Nourished-Living readers, you can sign up for a full year of meal plans today for the special price of just $25! That is less than $2.50 per month for a complete healthy meal plan packed with everything you need.
Just use the password SKMEALPLAN and it's all yours! Get started right here!
How Do You Win A One Year Meal Planning Service Membership?
Now comes the fun part! Kristen is offering one lucky reader a complimentary one-year membership to her meal planning service. All you have to do is leave a comment here between now and Sunday, October 12 telling us whether you currently plan your weekly menus. And why or why not.
This giveaway will end on October 12 at 11:59 pm PT. We will randomly select 1 winner.
The winner will be notified by email so be sure to use an email that you check frequently. I'll announce the winner by the following Wednesday, October 15, who will have 2 days to reply at which point another winner will be selected.
This giveaway is sponsored by Simple Nourished Living. Awarded prize may differ slightly (color, design, etc.) from images that appear here - based on availability. Giveaway prizes may be forfeited if not claimed within 90 days.
Thank you for reading Simple Nourished Living! Good luck in the contest!!
Disclaimer: Slender Kitchen provided me with a complimentary one-year membership for the purposes of this giveaway. I received no compensation and, as always, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.
*Points® calculated by WW. *PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT each plan's ZeroPoint Foods (Green plan, Blue plan, Purple plan) using the WW Recipe Builder.
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!
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Barb B
Loved this blog!!! Kristen's story completely resonates with me. When I came back to WW September of last year I knew I had to "find" variety or would fail!! When I'd done it the year before my 35 lb loss consisted of the same 4-5 frozen meals for lunch & dinner almost every day - not a lifestyle I could maintain!
A friend at work that started back with me talked about menu planning so I decided to give it a try. It was hard at first, it took a few hours starting from scratch, but now it's a ROUTINE, and takes maybe 20 minutes which includes making my grocery shopping list.
Thank you Martha, Kristen, for all you do to support us trying to live a healthier life!!
Sally
Hi, I haven't done meal plans before, but know that it would make it easy to stay on a diet.
Karen
Meal-planning has been lifechanging for me! I am always looking for good meal ideas and I LOVE when they have WW points already there for me!
barbara n
My husband and I currently planned our weekly meals based on grocery ads and our schedule. It really has taken away a lot of the frustration and has added much more variety to our meals!
Kathleen
Well, I am flying by the seat of my pants lately --when it comes to meal planning. Sort of the luck of the draw for my family and meal time preparations. We do love to eat good, tasty food, and we like to eat out when we are short on time because the food is more likely to please each of the somewhat picky eaters. A couple of us need to lose about 40 pounds each, and the others enjoy a schedule full of physical activity and a desire to eat well-balanced nutritious meals.
So we would LOVE a chance to take part in a well-balanced, nutritious meal-planning system!
Count us in! The sooner the better!!!
Alison
I am trying to get into meal planning as I know it would help me with my food choices and budget.
Sherrie
Ha - I was trying to meal plan yesterday, but didn't get very far before feeling overwhelmed! I have bought many diet books for the sole purpose of having a "menu" to follow, but give up because they aren't meals that my family will eat - help!
Amy Mac
I try to, but I get in ruts.
Dena
I "sort of" plan our meals. I've been on WW for a few years (93 pounds lost). I'm finding I'm now in a rut and need to focus my meal planning before I just throw in the towel!
Kim
i have tried meal planning on my own, but can't seem to stick with it. I have thought about pre made meals plans but haven't done it. I am currently on ww and struggle finding meals that work for ww that my family will like. Especially in the fall and winter! 🙂
Courtnee Hardie
I do my best to plan for the week and grocery shop accordingly. However, with 4 picky little boys and hubby, sticking to said menu is quite tough.
Donna Leicht
Easier now that we're empty nesters to plan when I plan my day, but I know that it's a time waster to go to the store so many times a week. Thank you for the inspiration!
heather
I keep meaning to plan weekly but the nest I have done is plan one big crock pot meal a week.
heather
I have tried to plan for the week but it has not happened yet.
Carly
I try to meal plan every week, although I often don't follow through with it!
Jennifer Godfrey
I'm doing weight watchers now and this would be such a help!
linda meyer
I love the idea of planning , because once I get hungry, there is not enough time, or even the proper ingredients to fix my well intended WW meals.
Lisa
Wish I did a better job of meal planning, but now that we are empty nesters I tend to make too many trips to the grocery store coming up with ideas at the last minute. I do love crock pot cooking though and prepare about two dinners a week using that method.
Mary Green
I do meal planning; been doing it for years. But I only plan the entre; the rest of our meals just fall into place according to fresh produce and what's on hand. It's been just the two of us for the past 20 years and this just makes life so much easier.
Should I get selected, pick again - let someone else learn from your experience and hard work. I just wanted to tell others that IT WORKS!
God bless...
Alissa Wong
we currently plan our dinners each week but i'm really always looking for interesting, healthy, quick meals and especially struggle with lunch. with a toddler and a newborn its really hard to find the time to cook and stay on track!