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Do you meal plan? Have you you considered the pros and cons to meal planning? Do you think that meal planning is beneficial to you and/or your family? All of these are essential things to consider when deciding whether you want to make a habit of planning your meals for the week ahead of time.

Let’s look at the cons first to determine why someone might not choose to adapt the concept of meal planning.

Cons:

• You might not actually cook all the food you bought at the grocery store
• You might not want to cook dinner after work ( you might be too tired)
• The recipes you thought would be great might not taste as good as you imagined
• It takes a quite a bit of time and discipline and thoughtfulness to plan meals and you might not have the desired dedication.
• It requires setting a schedule and a plan and the determination to stick to it as close as possible.

Now to examine the benefits of meal planning and to figure out if it is beneficial for you or not.

Pros (Benefits):

• You are more likely to stick with your weight loss goals.
• All the grocery shopping is done in one day, therefore you are prepped for the whole week.
• You don’t have to scratch your brain for dinner ideas (or breakfast & lunch).
• You will always know “What’s for dinner”, so you won’t have to worry about what you’ll be cooking.
• You can save money (and time) since you won’t need to go to the grocery store on a daily basis.
• Meal planning can save you time. Time spent driving to the store and shopping takes away from other more important things you could be doing ( like Spotify with your kids, having a relaxing bath, reading a book).

What are some other things to consider regarding meal planning?

• Take note you can plan anything. If desired, you can plan a day where you do not cook. Did I just say that? Yes, I did. Maybe you your schedule would make it difficult for you to have time to cook or maybe you would like a day where you do not have to and just know that that’s okay.
• It is wise to make your meal plan flexible. It’s alright to decide you want to fix Thursday’s meal on Tuesday. Meal plans are meant to be helpful guidelines and not a strict set in stone set of rules that could cause you to have anxiety.
• If you don’t like eating the exact same thing every day, then meal planning is even more important for you in order for you to save time, money, and enable you to make healthy choices. If you desire, you could cook your meats ahead to be used in various meals throughout the week.
• The perfect meal plan for you is in your head. You only need the resources to achieve it. The main point is to not need to start from scratch ( from zero) every night.

Now you may wonder if I plan my meals in advance. I try to plan my meals two weeks in advance. In found so I can more effectively make out a grocery list of what items I would need to buy for those meals which would prevent over spending and prevent waste. My meal plans are not rigid that that can’t be flexible when the need arises. I plan what the meals will be but it is not strictly for particular nights. I might plan tacos for one night and the family might desire to have spaghetti. You know what, that’s alright. The days meals are planned for can be traded around and no need to be stressed out over it.

Think on these things and decide for yourself whether you want to choose to out the time and effort into meal planning. You have to decide if it is right for you and no one else can decide that for you.

Have a blessed evening. Thank you for listening. I appreciate y’all.