How to Plan Healthy Meals for the Week

Are you in charge of planning meals for the week? Need meal prep ideas so that dinner time is less hectic? Or do you need breakfast tips and ideas to make your mornings less stressful? Meal planning helps you save time, money, and maybe even calories.

3-Step Meal Prep System

This three-step process means investing time up front. But you gain it back as the week goes on and meals are already good to go. When you plan, pre-cook, and freeze meals for the week, they are ready to eat when you're hungry.

Use this step-by-step guide to gather the ingredients, cook each food, assemble meal packages, store the containers and reheat your dinner.

Plan Meals

Set aside at least a half-day when you can plan what you want to eat for the week. Having a weekly meal plan is essential for nutritious eating. This planning stage gets much easier once you get the hang of it, but schedule a half-day in the beginning.

If you aren't sure what meals to plan, sample weekly menus can help. Advance planning means you're not making food choices when you're starving and too tired to cook. If you are looking to cut calories, you can find a meal plan that fits your calorie goal.

You can also use tech tools to plan meals. Do you own a Fitbit or another brand of fitness tracker? Perhaps you use MyFitnessPal, LoseIt, or another food tracking system to log your meals after they eat. But you can also use these tools in advance to plan nutritious meals and get recipe ideas.

Go Shopping

Try to grocery shop when you're not too busy so that you can take the time to read nutrition labels. Always prepare a shopping list before you go and buy only the items on the list. Not only will you eat healthier by following your plan, but you'll save money, too. Shopping online, for delivery or curbside pick-up, is also an efficient way to accomplish this task and avoid impulse buys.

Prep Meals

By preparing ingredients for meals or full meals in advance, you decrease stress and hassle during the week. Use the meal prep ideas listed below. Or take the weekly meal plan and chop, measure, pre-cook, and package as many ingredients as possible so that nutritious meals are the easiest choice when you're hungry and short on time.

Once you get the hang of this system, the whole program gets easier. Use these weekly meal plans and other tips to guide your process. Decide if you would like to plan and package your breakfast meals, your lunches, your dinners, your snacks, or all of them.