How to Meal Plan and Reach Your Goals
Meal planning is a great way to eat healthy and reach your fitness and nutrition goals. By selecting the right recipes, shopping for nutritional ingredients, and preparing meals ahead of time, you will be able to save money as well as attain your fitness goals. Let’s take a more in-depth look into how it works.
What is Meal Planning?
Meal planning is the practice of selecting and preparing your meals ahead of time. Meal planning enables you to think about what you would like to eat and what kinds of foods will best nourish your body. It gives you structure in your daily life, which can allow you to maximize nutrition levels and stick to fitness goals.
How Do You Meal Plan?
Select the Right Recipes
While there are many recipes available online, it can be difficult to find the ones that are right for you. You should take some time and read a variety of recipes before deciding on ones that sound appetizing and healthy. Since this can be time consuming, it is optimal to begin looking for recipes about three days before you plan on preparing your meals. Here are some more tips on choosing the right recipes:
- Find meals that provide leftovers
- Use recipes that you are familiar and comfortable with, paired with a new one to try each week
- Pick recipes that have common ingredients to avoid wasting food
- Select recipes you will actually be excited to eat
Shop for Nutritional Ingredients
Before you head to the grocery store, make sure that you are aware of what is already in your kitchen so that no food goes to waste. You should also prepare a grocery list of what you need from the store, so that you do not forget anything. When making this grocery list, it is ideal to group food items by their department so that you can shop efficiently. While shopping for ingredients, you should aim to buy mostly natural, unprocessed foods, like fruits, nuts and vegetables.
Prep your Meals
Once you have selected your recipes and bought the correct ingredients, it is time to prepare your meals. Many people choose to cook their meals on Saturday or Sunday so that you have an entire morning or afternoon to prepare everything. Prepping your meals will allow you to have tasty and healthy food available to you at all times throughout the week.
Why is Meal Planning Important?
Meal planning is a highly beneficial routine to follow, as it allows you to eat healthy. Eating unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods provides our bodies with a myriad of benefits, such as:
- Improves our mood
- Enhances mental focus and productivity
- Lowers blood sugar
- Increases satisfaction so that you stay full longer and eat less
- Promotes weight loss
- Improves our quality of sleep
- Provides energy for physical activity
- Boosts immune system
- Strengthens bones
- Helps cardiovascular health
Along with boosting your fitness levels and overall health, meal planning helps you to save money by eliminating the need to eat out. Clearly, meal planning enables you to faster reach your fitness, nutrition and even financial goals.
Contact ReEnvision MD
ReEnvision MD’s goals are to maximize your overall health through exercise and nutrition, two vital components to staying healthy. By planning out and cooking your meals ahead of time, not only will your eating habits improve, but nutritious meals will significantly bolster the benefits from your physical activities. Contact ReEnvision MD today to learn more about how eating right and maintaining an active lifestyle can redefine you and your health for the better.