Learn to plan, prep and protect your nutrition like a total mom boss Part 1: Meal Planning
Moms are total bosses, I think we all can all agree on that. As mothers, we are event planners, personal chefs, chauffeurs, entertainers, educators basically, all the things. On top of all of that, we also need to show up for ourselves and take care of our own needs. In order to “do it all,” we need all the life hacks we can get!
In this three-part series, I want to give you all of the meal planning, prepping and protecting hacks I’ve developed over the last five years. These tips have helped me create a weekly meal plan that fits my nutritional needs and is kid-friendly. Because this mama is not making multiple dinners each day!
I’ve saved countless hours by planning and prepping ahead of time. I’ve also cut out the stress that used to come with meal planning and prepping by creating a system that works for me and my family.
Today, we’ll start with my meal planning process. I hope that this process helps take some of the pressure off of you and makes planning healthy, family-friendly meals quick and easy!
Set aside time to meal & prep in your week
If you want to get into the meal planning, prepping and protecting habit, then you have to plan, to plan! This simply means you need to decide when you’re going to make time to do three things every week.
Create your meal plan
Shop for food
Prep your food
These three actions are going to make this process work beautifully. Each step builds on the one before it. How many times have you gone to prepare a healthy meal for your family only to realize you don’t have the ingredients you need to make it? If you’re anything like me, then this has happened a million times!
When you have a plan and a process you’ll be able to flawlessly prepare healthy meals that you feel good about feeding to your family.
Include your family in the planning process
One of the biggest mistakes I see moms make when they’re transitioning to living a healthier life is that they go at it alone. When we try to change our diet without getting our families onboard it decreases our chance to succeed.
The first step is to sit down with your partner and get him or her on board. Explain why you want this for yourself and your family and ask for their support. Once you have their support, bring your kids into the process.
Talk to your kids about why you’re changing up their food. Why it’s good for them and for you. Ask them to support you and ask them to commit to this for themselves as well. No one likes to be told what to do and forcing this on your kids will create resistance that doesn’t need to be there!
Once you have the whole family onboard, you need to keep them invested! Every week, my family sits down and helps plan our meals for the week. This is a key part of how I create healthy meals that my kids eat!
I ask my kids what they want for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and we add them to the meal plan. We go through Pinterest, cookbooks and our previous meal plans to get ideas.
Once we have the menu ready, I post it in our kitchen so that everyone can see what the plan is for the week. Posting the menu for them to see saves me from the dreaded “what’s for dinner” question too!
I covered meal planning with kids in my June KmoreRedefined masterclass. If you want access to that class, you can join the KmoreRedefined Monthly Membership! We talked more in-depth about how to help your kids make healthy decisions and get them to eat a wider variety of foods! If you struggle with picky eaters, I would highly recommend it!
Backward meal planning technique
Finally, the piece de resistance, my backward meal planning technique. This is how I make sure I hit my daily nutrition goals. If you’re a macro tracker, then I suggest using this method to make sure you’re hitting your macros every day. If you’re not a macro tracker, this is still a great method to use to eat better and meal plan quickly!
I like to start my daily meal plans with my biggest meal, for me, that’s usually dinner. I want to allot the most macros to this meal, so I enter it into my meal tracking app first. Then I can work backward from there.
Next, I plan my second biggest meal, and finally, my smallest meal. I also like to plan all of my snacks ahead of time. This way I don’t have to stress about what I’m going to eat at any point in the day. I know if I get hungry at 2 p.m. exactly what I am going to eat. I don't waste half an hour staring into my fridge, only to grab a handful of cookies from the cabinet because I can’t think of anything else.
If you want to start working on your nutrition, then I suggest doing the same thing. Make your meal plan and only eat the foods on your meal plan. It can be very surprising to realize all the small things we eat in a day.
You may realize that you’re only eating your kids’ leftovers instead of real meals. Or maybe you’re eating really well at mealtimes, but you’re sneaking in a cookie there and a bite of ice cream there. A food log and meal plan will help you stay accountable for the food you’re actually eating!
If you need more help with meal planning you can check out my free mini-course on meal planning and prepping.
When you’re ready to take your nutrition up a level and want to learn more about my Macros Made Easy Program, schedule a free discovery call with me and we can chat! I will help you learn the skills that will lead you towards a healthy life.
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