Cries of "Mommy, I'm hungry!" and "Honey, What's for dinner?" drive me to kitchen cabinets each and every day. If your family is as persistent as mine about eating, then you may be feeling the pressure of constantly planning a meal for your family. Do they really need to eat three times a day? That's a lot of pressure!
If that pressure wasn't enough, economic pressure has increased our search for cheap meal ideas, and our ever increasing knowledge of nutrition and the health risks involved in the typical American diet have pushed us toward making healthy food choices for our family. As women, we often put ourselves last, but we would be lying if we didn't admit that we want to look our best and maintain a healthy weight. Is it possible for a meal plan to meet our need for cheap, healthy, real meals and provide us with a ready answer to the "what do we have to eat" question? It has for me! Check out the many benefits to meal planning listed below.
Benefits of meal planning
- Save time in the kitchen. If you have a plan, you can cook from scratch and still save time because you can prep your meals in advance and have the items you need to make a quick meal ready to go.
- Save time at the store. You can shop once a week, using a list and have everything you need for fresh, homemade meals without last minute trips to the store.
- Save money and waste less. Buying what you need and using what you have is a sure formula for minimizing your grocery bill.
- Eat better quality food. When you minimize the processed food in your diet, you will be surprised at the money you save that can be put toward organic food or source verified meat and dairy products. You can save money and satisfy your conscious!
- Relieve the pressure! When you have a plan, you don't have to waste brain energy every day coming up with meal ideas. When you save money on groceries, you can rest assured that you are staying within your budget. This peace of mind is priceless!
- Track your calories, stick to your diet plan, reach your weight loss goals. Almost all diet plans encourage you to journal what you eat. A meal plan allows you to calculate and track what you eat in advance so you only have to journal the changes you make. This time saving measure increases your chance of weight loss success and allows you to analyze your food choices so you meet your daily nutritional goals.
- Spend more time with your family. Having a meal plan can help you make meal time a priority in your home. It increases the likelihood of sitting down to eat as a family and also makes it easier to delegate cooking and cleaning tasks so the whole family gets involved in meal preparation. What an awesome way to teach your family to have a good relationship with food and with each other!
There are a lot of meal planning systems that work, but the method that has worked for me and revolutionized meal time in our home is based on giving a label to each meal time during the course of a week (i.e. Soup-ee Saturday, Seafood Monday or Double-Duty Tuesday). Now, when I plan meals for the week, I have already narrowed my options to a type of meal and I can organize my recipes according to these types.
When sticking to a diet, the ability to routinize your eating is crucial. Too much variety is dangerous, but too little variety leads to cravings. Sticking to a "type" of meal allows for lots of variety in what you eat, while still providing a structure that becomes routine and easy to remember and follow.
At Kitchy Mama Meals, we believe in balance. I don't diet, but I do want to know what I am eating and stay within appropriate boundaries. I hate being hungry, so I choose foods that satiate so I feel fuller longer. I try to steer away from processed foods, but I don't get caught up in trying to totally eliminate them from my family's diet. I believe in splurging because without a little decadence in our food choices---life would be pretty boring.
I find a lot of joy in cooking, eating, and even learning about food and I won't let a battle with weight or even efforts to eat right steal that joy!
My menus reflect the following values:
- When a person's overall diet is healthy and based in sound nutrition, there is plenty of room for splurging on your favorite foods.
- Education is foundational to changing poor eating habits. We need to know what is in our food and what foods will nourish our body's needs.
- The amount counts. One of the biggest pitfalls to eating right is eating the wrong portion sizes. People need to be re-taught appropriate portion sizes.
I am still on the journey to healthy eating...my husband says there really is no such thing as balance, it is really about changing our priorities. Over the past 10 years, I have been slowly changing my eating priorities so that healthier choices made their way higher on the list. I am writing this blog to share with you some of the steps I have made to change what I eat and how I have learned to truly love these "better for you" foods.
If you are planning a meal and out of ideas, or if you are looking for a meal planner with healthy diet plans using real food, let me help you with meal ideas, recipes, and calorie tracking.
Kitchy Mama Meals provides free meal planning so families can:
- make meal times a priority
- achieve and maintain their optimal weight
- minimize processed foods in their diet
- become educated on healthy food choices and portion sizes
- enjoy their favorite foods as part of a healthy lifestyle
Unlike many meal planning services, my healthy meal plans provide more than dinner suggestions. I give you a plan for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner as well as suggestions for snacks and treats. I calculate the calories for you based on a suggested serving size and the recipes we provide. Each daily menu is based on a 1600 calorie diet, Why 1600 calories? My target audience is women who cook for their families and most women can maintain their optimal weight (without yo-yo dieting) by eating around 1600 calories per day. Of course, your family might eat more or less than 1600 calories if they want!
Posts
