Why You Need Flexibility with Meal Planning
How many times have you stood in front of the fridge at 5pm with the dreaded thought of…
What are we going to have for dinner?
You throw something together in a rush from what you can immediately see and avert the crisis… until the same thing happens tomorrow night, and the night after.
What is the solution to this frantic on-the-spot dinner prep?
Meal Planning
If you’ve been on my recent free challenge, you would have discovered how essential this is, and how it’s made your life so much easier!
Though it’s been around as a concept forever, meal planning has really taken off over the last few years. To capitalise on the popularity, many companies have popped up to stop you having to stress about what you will cook for dinner. In fact, done-for-you food bags and meal plans are a dime a dozen. Their aim is to give busy people a helping hand to get their lives organised.
There is no denying those services are helpful. After all, they deliver everything you need to make nutritious meals, right to your door.
But what if you don’t feel like chicken curry tonight? Or you forgot to defrost the chicken, or someone in the family doesn’t like the flavour of the curry paste? Or you start to tire of the meals.
If any of those things happen, you are a little stuck.
While these services are helpful, they are not a great fit for everyone. Meals are meticulously planned out, they often take a long time to prepare and cook, and there is not much wiggle room to allow you to adapt the plans to your ever-changing lifestyle.
A more flexible option allows you all the benefits provided by meal planning, but lets you mold it to your (and your family’s) tastes and needs.
Read on to learn why meal planning in itself is important, and why a flexible method may suit you.
Why Is Meal Planning Beneficial?
Remove daily stress: no more mental energy wasted wondering what to cook for dinner tonight. With your meal options planned and shopping done, the daily struggle vanishes.
Cut costs: if you know what you are going to make and have the ingredients, there is less chance of wandering around the supermarket grabbing random things – or resorting to expensive takeaways!
Make healthier food choices: without a plan, it is easy to procrastinate until you are so hungry you make unwise food choices. A meal plan ensures you have plenty of options available so you can reach for well-balanced snacks and create healthy meals.
Save time: while the initial planning may take an hour or two, you will save time in the long run. You should only need one grocery shops a week, and won’t waste time trying to decide what to make every day.
Why A Flexible Meal Plan?
It may sound great to have every snack and meal planned out down to each pinch of salt. But the vast majority of us are dynamic individuals whose tastes, moods, and schedules change by the day – or sometimes, by the minute!
Rather than a food bag delivery service that feels restrictive, we prefer a more flexible planning method. That means you can choose from a selection of recipes according to your weekly needs.
Even with the best intentions to stick to a plan, routines change. Kids get sick, social events come up, or you really get a craving for a particular type of food.
By choosing a master meal plan for the month or week and doing the shopping to cover the bulk of it, you then have the freedom to prepare these meals on any day or time that you choose.
When life throws you one of those crazy busy days, you can go for a quick and straightforward favourite recipe. Or, if you head to a friend’s for an impromptu dinner, the ingredients you had set to go can be used tomorrow instead.
Making A Plan
Setting aside some time weekly or monthly to create your flexible meal plan sets you up for success and takes away the nagging stress in the back of your mind. You will still get all the benefits of saving money, making healthier food choices, and being organised, but you will be able to do it in a way that fits in with your hectic life.
But how can you come up with inspiration for yummy, nutritious meals without cooking the same things time and time again?
We have just the inspiration you need for your flexible meal plan in the Wicked Healthy Tribe. Membership to the tribe gives you access to more than 180 recipes divided into 13 different sections. That means you can fast track your healthy eating with ease! Plus, you get to do it within a supportive community of people doing the same thing!
Leave A Comment