An effective meal plan can help you meet your fitness goals while saving time, money, and reducing food waste.
Keep a stash of healthy snacks handy to combat fast food snack cravings, such as unbuttered popcorn, fruits or rice cakes.
Plan Ahead
Planning out your meals for the week ahead can help minimize trips to the grocery store where unhealthy snacks may tempt you, while saving time by prepping vegetables and cooking meals on weekends so meals will be ready when hunger strikes during the week.
This plan’s meals are intended for one person, although many recipes can easily be scaled up for larger families. Drinking plenty of water and limiting sugary beverages will help ensure you meet all the recommended fat, protein, salt, and caloric intake amounts.
Eat More Vegetables
No matter your experience level with vegetables, eating more of them can greatly benefit both newcomers and longtime enthusiasts. Not only are vegetables packed with essential nutrients and antioxidants; they’re also an easy way to cut calories!
As part of your diet, veggies should become the stars, not side dishes. There are various ways you can do this such as adding them to soups and using them as the basis of sauces – even simply cutting up some vegetables and baking them as snacks will increase vegetable consumption!
Eat Lean Meats
Planning meals ahead can reduce stress from hunger between meetings or when raiding the vending machine at work, and help ensure you choose more nutrient-rich options than sugary snacks or fast food options.
Choose protein sources like seafood, lean meats and skinless poultry as your protein sources, while beans, nuts, soy products and low-fat dairy are also great ways to add some extra nutrition.
Avoid overeating fat, particularly saturated and trans fats. Aim for healthier sources like avocados, olive oil and nuts when choosing fat sources.
Eat More Fruits
Nutrition experts often urge us to consume more fruits and vegetables; however, doing so may prove more challenging than expected. Incorporating five servings a day may seem ambitious at best!
Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins and nutrients that can help prevent heart disease, cancer and other illnesses. For optimal results, choose fruits and vegetables of various colors and textures.
Include fresh, frozen and canned fruits in your meal plan to get maximum nutrition from fruits. When selecting whole or chopped fruit over juice that contains more sugar. Keep a bowl of ready-to-eat washed fruit handy on your counter or refrigerator as an easy snack option.
Eat More Whole Grains
Implementing more whole grains into our diets has been shown to significantly lower cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin levels. Start by swapping out white bread for whole wheat bread; gradually replace processed foods made from refined or refined/enriched flour with those featuring whole grain flour as the first ingredient on food labels.
Grain products provide essential fiber, vitamins and minerals. When selecting grain foods such as white rice, pasta and breakfast cereal, opt for whole grain options over refined ones such as refined varieties. Make brown rice on Sunday afternoon to use throughout the week in stir-fries, vegetable soups or chilis or to pair with grilled fish dishes. When shopping breads made from whole grain flour and breakfast cereals fortified with folic acid.
Eat More Healthy Fats
Plan ahead, and you will reduce your hunger during the week and prevent yourself from calling for takeout or raiding vending machines.
This meal plan features a balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats to promote satiety and hunger control while adhering to recommended guidelines for saturated fats, sodium and sugar intake.
Choose full-fat alternatives when purchasing dairy, yogurt, mayonnaise and butter products; and avoid products labeled light, low-fat or fat-free to increase the percentage of calories you get from healthy fat sources to 20-35% per day.
Eat More Fiber
Diets lacking sufficient fiber can increase constipation, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and certain cancers. Eating enough fiber will make you feel full and may reduce the risk of digestive conditions like diverticulitis and hemorrhoids.
Focus on getting 25 grams of dietary fiber daily through whole plant foods. Eat more fruits and vegetables (including their peels), berries, beans, whole grains, nuts seeds and legumes to achieve this goal.
Breakfast should consist of a bran cereal with 5 or more grams of fiber and less than 10 grams of sugar; lunch can include pairing a veggie-packed salad with bean dip or creating a sandwich on whole wheat bread; dinner options could include casseroles and stews featuring beans and veggies.
