HOW DO I STAY ON A MEAL PLAN?

1 – REMIND YOURSELF WHY YOU’RE MEAL PLANNING TO BEGIN WITH.

Are you meal planning to save money? To help keep you organized? To avoid food waste? To have better control over your eating habits for losing weight, or eating real healthy foods?

When you feel yourself straying from the plan you’ve created, remind yourself why you have a plan in the first place. What was the “goal” you had in mind when you started?

It takes time for creating a meal plan for health benefits, and hard work to keep it within your budget. Straying from your meal plan too much will cause you to un-do all the time you put into it in the first place.

2 – PREPARE FOR DEVIATION.

“Bean and cheese burritos with Spanish rice and salad” sounds like a delicious recipe that you could easily have one night a week (Hint: Use our favorite beans and rice recipe and make Spanish rice in the Instant Pot). But at the end of week 3, or even at the end of a hard day during week 1, this meal may seem more like a punishment than dinner.

Have a back-up meal ready in the pantry so that when you need to deviate, it’s not the end of the world. We like any one of these. You can always make burritos another night.

3 – BE FLEXIBLE WITH YOUR PLANS.

Your meal plan doesn’t have to be set in stone every single day of the week. If you want the fajitas you have planned in week 3 for dinner tomorrow, make a switcheroo!

If you think rice will go better with your dish instead of pasta, go ahead! In fact, some people plan seven meals for the week, and then each night chooses from that list of meals.

4 – MIX UP YOUR MEALS.

Eating the same meals over and over can be mundane, so if you find yourself not wanting to cook what you planned, cook it for tonight and don’t plan that meal again for a few months.

5 – COOK LESS.

This sounds opposite to what a “meal plan” requires, but give yourself a break! If you cook every single night of the week for months on end, you’ll get burned out.

Plan a night of the week where everyone feeds themselves. Also, soups are great for making a double batch and freezing so that you don’t have to cook it again later. Cook less at least once a week to motivate yourself to stick with the plan.

6 – MAKE IT HARDER TO STRAY AND EASIER TO FOLLOW YOUR MEAL PREP PLAN.

Shopping once off of a monthly shopping list has the largest impact on whether or not we stay true to the menus I’ve planned. If I’ve already shopped for the month, it’s much harder to stop at the store for additional food… especially since I KNOW I have food in the house for what I’ve planned for dinner.

Another option is to reward yourself at the end of the week if you’ve followed the plan. Plan a super delicious dessert or an inexpensive dinner out as a reward for staying in all week!

 

Original article can be found here: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/stick-to-a-meal-plan/