Life can be a stressful and busy thing as you try to balance everything from your job to children’s routines, meeting with friends to getting your workouts in, all of which takes time as well as effort. However, what if there was a way to not only save time but also help you reduce stress and even help you improve your fitness regime! That’s exactly what meal planning can do! In this blog we’ll give a brief overview of what meal planning is, how to implement a meal plan and some key benefits that meal planning brings with it.
What is meal planning?
Meal planning is simply creating a structured meal routine in advance of a certain period of time, usually a week. Think of it this way, when you head to the gym or the pool for your workout you have a routine, you know what machines you want to hit or strokes you want to do ahead of time to focus on certain areas of your body. That allows you to stay consistent, ensure a full body workout, while boosting your fitness levels, all while saving the stress and time of coming up with a plan on the fly. Meal planning allows you to do this with your food as you think ahead for the week, pick a meal for each day, buy the ingredients, and then cook away.
3 Steps for Making Your Perfect Meal Plan
Think of Your Meals Before You Shop
Yes, meal planning can save you time and stress in the long run, but it is important to set aside a little time to create your own perfect plan. Most people plan for a week, so before your weekly shop set aside a little time to choose your meal for each day of the week, write them down in a notebook or use an app on your phone. Even if this changes throughout the week, you will at least have the means to make a meal for each night, so choose things that people in your house will eat, and don’t be afraid to try some new recipes every once in a while. For each meal, write down the ingredients you’ll need and then put together a shopping list of everything you need to cook up your delicious meals.
Hit the Shops
What’s great about meal planning is that you go to the shops with a more structured idea of what you want to get. A top tip is that if you know the layout of where you do your shopping then when you’re making your overall list of ingredients, put them in the order of each aisle you’re going down. For example, if the fruit and vegetables are in the first aisle then put them all together at the top of the list, then tick them off as you go. Having a plan in place is not only great for knowing exactly what you need but also means you’re less likely to spend money on ingredients you don’t need and also saves you the stress of aimless shopping, having to create meals in your head as you go.
Meal Prep
This one might not work for everyone or every meal, but it can be a fantastic element to add into your meal planning. If you have some time before your week starts it can be great to prepare elements of your meals in advance such as chopping or peeling vegetables, cooking sauces, etc. Another thing people like to do is cook a batch of food in advance so all that needs to be done on the night of a dinner for example is to heat it up. This saves you time each day when it comes to meal time and means you’re more likely to stick to your plan rather than make rash decisions after a long day of work.
Benefits of Meal Planning
So, now you know three easy steps on how to meal plan, you might be wondering what are the reasons you should implement this? Fear not, we’ve got a few huge benefits of meal planning below.
Saves Time
We’ve mentioned it a few times already, but meal planning is the ultimate time saver. By taking a little time to plan your daily meals before you shop you remove the aspect of wasting time in the shops looking for ingredients while coming up with meals on the fly. While each day you’ll save time by simply knowing what you have the ingredients for and having to think about the question of “what’s for dinner?” as you’ll already know. If you decide to meal prep too, you will shave time off your meal prep during the week which allows you more time to enjoy your meals and reduce stress.
Healthier Option
A massive bonus of meal planning is that you can choose the items you want to buy and know what you’re going to eat which allows you to choose healthier options. Without a plan in the shop most people just pick up what’s convenient or turn to the freezer aisle for what takes the least amount of time. However, when you have a plan in place you can decide to make meals from scratch, so instead of buying the premade chicken curry for example that you throw in the microwave you might decide to make your own, which allows you to build in the nutrients you need. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy your food, there’s always room for takeaway days, but having a plan means you’ll be less likely to turn to the worse options and more likely to stick to the healthier ones that you’ve put time into picking, which can boost your fitness too.
Saves Money
No matter who you are, when something comes around that can save you money, you’re likely to take note and meal planning is no different. As mentioned above by simply having a plan in place you’re less likely to buy unnecessary items in the shop or over buy on ingredients you already have at home, but there’s more. If you cook in bulk ahead of time you can often buy more of one ingredient which turns out to be cheaper than buying that ingredient bit by bit, while whether it’s cooking in batches or just by the fact you’re using fresh ingredients you can also freeze meals which means you’re not throwing money in the bin form waste. Another benefit is that you’ll know how much of certain ingredients you’ll need, so if you have two meals that involve the same ingredient, you can buy more and save it for the next meal after you’ve cooked the first one, while it also means you can cook meals with leftovers being able to be used again in the following meal, all of which saves on waste which saves money.
Reduces Stress
Stress is such a prevalent emotion in our busy lives due to a number of factors, but meal planning can help reduce that stress by quite a bit more than you’d imagine. The fact that you’re heading to the shops with a plan and not having to think on your feet reduces stress, let alone taking away the anxiety that having to think of a meal on the go every day. Having more time due to meal planning allows you to spend that time doing things you enjoy which will reduce stress, and planning your meals yourself means that you won’t have to worry about having meals with ingredients you don’t like or how many calories you’re putting into your body as you’re getting the ingredients yourself. Overall, you can rest assured that all the work you’re doing physically is rewarded with a healthy balanced diet that has the variants of nutritious goods you need, which again limits the stress on your body and mind.
Meal Planning Goes a Long Way
So, there you have it, a quick breakdown of what meal planning is, how to go about it and the some of the benefits it bring with it. It’s undeniable that meal planning has more advantages than you’d think with benefits ranging from saving time and money to reducing stress, leading a healthier lifestyle, plus much more. Meal planning might not be for everyone, but it is a sure way to complement your fitness routine with the nutrition you require. Whatever your fitness goal having the right nutritional balance is key and meal planning can be a huge help with that.
How Aura Leisure Can Help
While this blog has been about nutrition planning Aura Leisure can still help due to our personalised fitness programmes, Aura Fit for Life and Aura Lean3, as our expert fitness instructors will be able to provide top nutritional advice as well as what to fit into your fitness routine. Along with that our swimming pools and state-of-the-art gyms are the ideal place to get your physical fitness up to the ideal level to compliment your nutritional gains. While if you’re looking to save time and get your workout in we’ve got a range of fitness classes to choose from to ensure you reach your fitness goals. Even better still is that Aura Leisure members get access to all of these and more for fre