The Effortless Meal Planning Guide To Reclaim Your Cooking Hours

I have never studied nutrition or physical and mental health. But I’ve tried many things. And when I wrote the 6-months challenge, I committed to it myself. So, I want to try new eating habits to see what sticks to me.

Eating healthier has been one of the hardest things I ever committed to. And I’m not even sure I will succeed at it without a nutritionist. But I will give it a try.

I love to eat. And I often use it as a means to build and keep relationships. But that caused me to eat unhealthy meals often and spend a fortune in restaurants. And I don’t want to waste my money anymore.

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I don’t want to renounce all those good meals with friends and family. But I need to become more careful in my everyday life to live those moments carefree.

But how do I plan to do all of that?

Here are five steps I will use to plan my meals, eat healthier, lose weight, and save some money.

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I always wanted to plan my meals.

I don’t know about you, but I hate to shop for food . I’d rather order something somebody else can cook for me. But I noticed shopping without a list can force you to do it many times a week because you always forget things you need. And I don’t want to waste my time like that.

Also, since my girlfriend came to live with me, I can’t eat whatever I find in the fridge anymore. We have to plan our meals better. So, we are trying to build a weekly meal plan every weekend.

• Write a list and update it with rare ingredients like oil, salt, etc, as soon as they finish. I use my Alexa shopping list because I can add things hands-free, even if I’m busy cooking.
• Use a weekly planner to schedule your meals. A plan helps you save money because you buy the right amount of food, and it reduces waste. Also, it removes the indecisiveness you have to fight every time you must cook. For this, I use a magnetic planner on the fridge, which works perfectly.
• Plan your meals away from home in advance.

Since I started to work, I always had lunch tickets from my company. And working with young people who don’t have experience cooking, I’ve been eating out for lunch during weekdays.

But my tickets don’t always cover the cost of a meal. They rarely do. And most of the places where we eat are fast food. I gained 5-6 kg in the last year if not more. But, starting this year, I committed to bringing food from home more often.

I feared I had to eat alone in the office in the beginning. But I found a few colleagues that to do it with me. So, I am even more committed because I don’t have to eat alone.

• I was often scared of cooking because of the fear of missing out. But luckily, I found two ways to trick the FOMO. First, I would cook more and eat the same food even two days in a row. And second, I would watch something while cooking.
• Find simple meals you can cook in less than half an hour. If cooking is not one of your passions, don’t force yourself to do it for too long.
• Don’t cook fast food. Healthy is still the name of the game. So, if you plan to make a sandwich, think twice. Also, even if you eat away from home, don’t renounce variety and try to eat vegetables too.

Rather than a suggestion for you, this is a way of convincing myself to eat more vegetables. And I can’t assure you that I will be successful.

I am sorry, ok? But I never loved vegetables, and my mother never forced me to eat them when I was little. So, I got used to everything else but green food.

But now that I live with my girlfriend, I commit to tasting every healthy food she wants to cook for us. So, one step at a time, I am improving.

Since then, I already got into more vegetables and plan to eat more.

• If you don’t like vegetables, introduce them gradually into your diet. Don’t rush it. I started with those that inspired me the most, mixing them with ingredients I loved. And I appreciated them more and more. So, be patient and start slow.
• The goal is to eat healthier, so use fresh vegetables because they taste better.
• Vegetables waste fast. And since I don’t want to shop for fresh food daily, I usually eat those that waste faster first. For example, I eat salads on the first days of the week. And I leave more resistant vegetables like broccoli for later.

I have always found fasting fascinating. I have been fasting intermittently since a few years ago to lose some kilograms. But, as I reached the result, I never kept the habit.

I practiced intermittent fasting with an 8/16 formula (eat for 8 hours, fast for 16). And I don’t know if doing it for long periods brings any benefits or causes problems. But I’ve heard many scientists (like Huberman , for example) suggesting fasting at least for short periods. So, I would like to try again.

• If you don’t like vegetables, introduce them gradually into your diet. Don’t rush it. I started with those that inspired me the most, mixing them with ingredients I loved . And I appreciated them more and more. So, be patient and start slow.
• The goal is to eat healthier, so use fresh vegetables because they taste better.
• Vegetables waste fast. And since I don’t want to shop for fresh food daily, I usually eat those that waste faster first. For example, I eat salads on the first days of the week. And I leave more resistant vegetables like broccoli for later.

I don’t like to cook that much. You may have understood it by now.

I love to surprise people and cook fancy dishes for them sometimes. But not every day! I don’t want to waste my time. Therefore, I will try a new paradigm:

• cook more food
• cook fewer times
• and freeze part of what I cooked.

This way, I should solve the waste of time feeling, and I can do things I find more useful.

List the dishes you can cook in vast quantities and freeze them. For example, I didn’t know you can freeze soups. But I am doing it now, and it saved me many hours. Usually, soups take a lot of time to cook, but they are healthy. So, if I want to eat healthier, I should consume more of them. And that’s one way I can do it.

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