Meal planning may seem monotonous (because it is), but the pay off is worth it. Think about what happens when you do not have anything planned a meal, time gets short, and you are hungry?
Fast food, pizza deliveries, microwave salt licks. (No Lean Cuisines are not good for you).
What if instead of spending 8 minutes a week looking into a fridge hoping healthy food would magically appear, you spent that time productively? Take some advice from dietitian Keri Glassman's article "Change Your Life in 8 Minutes".
Here is what she suggests doing with your 8 minutes:
-Write out your challenges for the week (birthday celebration, busy kid's schedule, girls' night out, etc.) and then write down a plan to overcome the challenges.
-Plan your dinners at home around your schedule for the week and then create a grocery list to go with them.
-Write a list for work snacks, and add them to your grocery list.
-Schedule exactly when you are going to go to the grocery store and then follow through.
I would add, you could spend your time ordering groceries on-line.
If you notice, not one of those is the actual food prep or cooking we all dread so much. This is formulating a food game plan for the week. It will save you time, money, and calories just by having some kind of plan.
If you do have time left in your 8 minutes, Glassman suggests you could:
Make a pitcher of iced lemon water to store in the fridge.
Chop the veggies you have around.
Mix a healthy salad dressing to keep in your fridge.
Portion out healthy snacks, like nuts, into little bags.
Nutrition is just like working out. When you have a game plan of what you are going to do, you get much quicker results without wasting your time. Make that plan today!
