Ever had to skip a meal or just go to a restaurant to buy your meals because of the lack of time for cooking? Perhaps you would like to lead a healthier diet and want to pursue home cooking more at home. If you want to maximize your time and ensure that you get the best meal at home, work, or for school, planning your meals and when to cook is the place to start a new lifestyle. Lucky for you, we have a bunch of editable Food Planner Templates available for you! They are printable on US letter sizes and available in file formats of MS Word (.docx) and Apple Pages (.pages) for your convenience. So subscribe now and discover a new you through better meals for you and/or your family today!
How to Make a Food Planner
If you find yourself regularly relying on fast food restaurants for quick meals at least once or a few times in a week, don’t feel bad. According to the Statista Research Department, only about 30% of respondents from the US say that they consume fast food meals less than once a week. This means most of the respondents get a meal or two in a week from the fast-food industry. And while not all meals in these establishments are deemed unhealthy, eating too much of most fast food meals can eventually lead to health issues such as high blood pressure, unwanted weight gain, and cardiovascular disease because of the high sodium, trans fat, and bad cholesterol most meals have in these types of restaurants.
If you want to start a better diet for you and your family, planning your meal consumption can be of great help. According to an article published by Harvard University, some of the benefits one can get from meal prepping includes saving time and money, stress reduction, and an overall balanced and healthy diet. So if you want to start a food planner, read on for some tips and tricks you can use to help you out.
Understand Your Lifestyle Goals
Figure out why you want to plan your meals better. Are you planning to pursue meal prepping? Do you want to lose weight or want to change your diet? Whatever your reasons for planning for your meals better, understanding the importance and why you want to better plan your meals first. This will serve as your intrinsic motivation to begin your journey in meal planning.
Jot Down Your Meals in a Calendar
You have the choice of plotting down the meals of your choice in a weekly or monthly calendar. This helps you see an overall view of the food you are going to eat throughout the timeframe. The reason why this is important is so that you can create a list of ingredients you need to shop for. Speaking of grocery shopping…
Have a Grocery and Inventory List for Your Pantry
Without your basic grocery supply, having a balanced meal can be a challenge. Create a list of items that you need to stock up on before buying groceries so that you don't waste any time at the store. We suggest that you shop at the grocery store at least once a week. There are food items that easily spoil and those that can last long in the fridge or pantry. Take note of essentials that have to be purchased every week and consider buying non-perishable food in bulk so that you don’t have to have heavy grocery bags every week.
Keep Track of You and/or Your Family’s Favorite Meals
While it is good to experiment with different meals, having go-to or favorite meals can make breakfast, lunch, or dinner at home a lot better. You could even make a recipe card for each meal that you like so that whenever you have to cook it again, you have a guide with you at hand, ready for the next time you wish to cook it again.
