Staying on track with your diet plan is one of the great challenges in meeting health goals. Imagine waking up late on a work day. You’re rushing to get ready and realize that you do not have time to sit down and eat breakfast. You are halfway to work when you realize that you have forgotten your healthy packed lunch in the refrigerator. You decide to go out and buy a healthy lunch at noon, but two hours into your day, you’re surrounded by coworkers, egging you on to have a piece of Ed in Accounting’s birthday cake. If you had time for breakfast, it would be a lot easier to say no.

What kind of planning can you do to help achieve your goals?

1. Dedicate some time for meal planning and prepping. Many meal-planners like to spend Sundays preparing for the work week. If you work odd hours or have another day of the week that will be more convenient, do what works for you. Honor your commitment to yourself to take the time to do this. It will be worth it.

2. Create your meal plan for the week. Write each day of the week down and consider what you have going on. If there is a day of the week that you know you will be too busy to prepare a labor-intensive dinner, plan to have leftovers or something that you can easily put together. If you know that you are going out with friends on Saturday night, compensate for the extra calories you are likely to consume by planning cleaner meals throughout the week. When you look at the big picture of your week, you can be prepared with a balanced meal plan.

3. Use your meal plan to create a grocery list. Before I started making meal plans, I would often end up with a lot of random produce and ingredients. Meal planning saves money because you will only be buying the things you need. Creating a list will help you stay on track in the grocery store where thousands of carefully crafted labels are calling out to you.

4. Once you’re home from the grocery store, do a little prep. Wash and cut veggies so they are ready to be tossed into the pan for your week’s dinners. Portion fruit and other snacks so you have individual serving sizes ready to go. Grabbing a baggie of popcorn that is already portioned will prevent you from snacking straight from the big bag.

5. Pack your lunches. It will become second nature to grab that lunch before walking out the door. If possible, prepare breakfast ahead of time as well. Spend part of your meal planning day making egg muffins or overnight oats that are effortless to prepare on busy mornings.

6. Finally, after dinner each night, portion leftovers into individual sized containers and freeze. You will have fast, healthy options to turn to on days when the best laid plans fall apart.

Planning ahead every week will eventually turn into a habit. You will be less likely to forget your packed meals. You will have healthy choices ready to prepare each night so you don’t find yourself putting less healthy meals together for dinner after hectic workdays.

As mentioned in a previous post, Louben Repke recommends My Fitness Pal to help clients stay on track. Having your nutrition stats in the palm of your hand will allow you to make the best food shopping choices for you to stay on track. In addition to seeing your nutritional data, My Fitness Pal allows you to upload your own recipes and scan bar-codes on food items, making food logging easier as you go.

Louben Repke is committed to helping his clients succeed. Did you know, in addition to providing personal training with an exceptional background of physical therapy and nursing, Louben will guide you towards making dietary changes that will help you reach your goals? If you are seeking a personal trainer in Severna Park or personal training Millersville, Maryland area, call Repke Fitness today.

Below are some useful links which may help you in planning your meals for the week.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthy-eating/meal-plans

http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2016/01/my-weekly-meal-prep-routine.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/