Meal Planning can be a great way to organise and track your eating especially if you are looking to lead a healthier lifestyle and incorporate the right foods for better Gut Health. Meal planning is asking the what’s for dinner question once for the whole week, instead of every night and then ensuring you plan out your shopping and prep for the week without any last minute dashing to the local shops.
6 KEY BENEFITS OF MEAL PLANNING
- Better Choices: Because you are more considerate about what you’re going to eat your less likely to eat last minute, impulsive, unhealthy meals.
- Saves time: Whilst at first it might feel more time-consuming, once you get into the groove it’ll be quick and easy. You save time every day as you know what you’re eating, and you save time shopping as you’re only going to purchase what you need.
- Saves money: Not only do you save time when grocery shopping, you’ll save money as you will be buying what you will definitely use. You’re also less likely to spend on impromptu treats and takeaways.
- More variety: Planning gives you the opportunity to look at new recipes, different ingredients, international cuisines that you might not consider when buying the same things off the shelf each week.
- Reduces stress: A little planning at the start of the week takes out the stress and panic prep later when frankly you’re busy enough doing other stuff to think about what’s next on the menu.
- Prevents food waste: This is a huge benefit – because you buy what you need you shouldn’t have stuff going off in the fridge and you’ll be more conscious of shelf life and sell by dates.
STEPS TO SUCCESS WITH MEAL PLANNING
Use our handy meal planner below to get started on your meal planning journey! It is all about trial and error and figuring out what works best for you and your routine/lifestyle so take the first week to figure out what does and doesn’t work for you and then tailor your plan the following week. Also, don’t forget to add in any diary events you have each week as your routine may vary week on week so slight tweaks might need to be made.
