A Beginner’s Guide to Meal Planning

Why is Meal Planning So Important?

You might be wondering why meal planning is so important. Can’t you just throw together a quick grocery list? Nope, that is not technically meal planning.

It is a huge task. This is why people avoid it, and just eat whatever. But that only leads to falling down the same unhealthy path. That leads to a lot of wasted money from thrown away food.

The key to eating healthy is meal planning. Yes, it’s a big task, but the payoff is so worth it!

Podcast/Audio version:

How To Start Planning Your Meals

So what’s the first thing you have to do? The answer is not to buy a planner (that’s the second thing!).

The first thing you have to do is be sure that you have the motivation to really do this. Yes, planning can be fun (especially if you’re a planner addict like me!), but this takes time and mental effort. You have to decide if you are truly ready to commit to this.

meal planning printable — This is a page from my Ultimate Meal Planner Bundle, available on Etsy (link below)

After all, what’s the point of buying a planner if you are just “giving it a try”, or “seeing how it goes”? What’s the point of buying a planner if you’re only going to use it for one week and then revert back to old habits? Like with any good lifestyle change, it requires an intention from you and a commitment that you are going to stick with this.

After deciding that you will, indeed, commit to meal planning, then you buy a planner. There are many options, most of them falling under the categories of a spiral bound book, printable pages, or digital.

digital meal planner — This is an image from my Digital Meal Planner, available on Etsy (link below)

These meal planners vary but you want to find something that has monthly, weekly, and daily sections at the very least. This is a bare-bones version of a meal planner, and you can certainly go that route if you are looking for simple, fast, easy, and cheap. Even more simplistic would be just a basic weekly meal planner, if you only want to take one week at a time. Even more useful is a weekly meal planner with a grocery list.

Then there are more in-depth meal planners that are almost like a journal. The ones I make include sections to write down which foods you want to add, which foods you want to take out, which recipes you want to try, recipe experiment results, and more goodies.

What Are the Benefits?

The first benefit you might notice is that meal planning is fun! Especially if you already love planners and organization. To me, it’s just as fun to plan my meals and go grocery shopping as it is to actually cook and eat the food.

Another benefit of meal planning is that you save money. One of the biggest wastes is expired or rotten food, and it really adds up. When you just buy whatever and eat whatever, whenever, that will lead to food that gets forgotten in the back of the fridge, cupboard, or pantry closet, as well as an unhealthy diet.

Another benefit is that you will stay on track with your healthy eating goals. If you are trying to lose weight or eat healthier, meal planning is your friend. Think of it as a personal coach, keeping you organized and on track.

It’s hard to mess up your diet when you didn’t buy any unhealthy food in the first place. It’s also hard to mess up when a month’s worth of meals are planned out down to the last ingredient, because each day you already know what you have to do.

Yet another reason meal planning is awesome is because it helps you implement new foods into your diet and makes sure you actually eat them.

Everyone has been there; you buy a new vegetable you’ve always wanted to try, you put it in the fridge, it gets pushed further back behind some leftovers, the next day you eat the leftovers, can’t see the vegetable back there, make whatever is quick and sounds good, the next day you eat those leftovers, and before you know it your new vegetable is now too old to eat. In the garbage it goes, wasting money and keeping you stuck in your old eating habits.

Stop the insanity! Meal planning is worth it, and I can help you get started within minutes!

In the video below, I do a walk-through of my meal planners. I have a digital meal planner, a meal planner printable, and a third one which is the printable version of my digital one. I may make more in the future, but at least there are a few options.

To buy one of my planners, click on the images below to be taken to the listings on Etsy.