I love food.

Like, I love it with a passion.

But I can be so lazy. Lazy to the point where I’d rather starve than get up, get ingredients together, and cook them to have a meal. Thanks to my mom, it’s become a very rare occasion now that I go through such trauma.

Because meal planning.

For me, to meal plan is to cook all your meals at the beginning of the week. I will say there are different types of meal prep depending on the person, schedules, cooking ability, etc. Whether you pre-pack meals into containers to grab-and-go, make your selection by the day, simply schedule when you’ll cook, or whatever else, meal planning makes eating whenever you want so much easier.

If this isn’t enough to convince you, I’ve put together some more reasons why you should switch from cooking by the day to cooking by the week.

Save Money

Nowadays people seem to eat fast food so much, and all that money spent on going out adds up over time. The biggest appeal of fast food is that it’s hot-and-ready within five minutes, so the best way to prevent that craving is to have ready-to-go meals already in the fridge. In fact, something interesting to try when meal planning would be to put the money you’d normally spend on fast food into a jar and stay inside. See how after just a short amount of time you have enough money to take yourself out to a restaurant!

Save Time

Giving up one day in exchange for having a week’s worth of food is worth it, I promise. Especially for bigger families, which I know can be a challenge, spend Sunday afternoon to the evening just cooking. Play some music, get everyone together to cook, and make a whole bonding time out of it. Then, during the week it won’t be as much of a struggle to be making meals every day, and everyone can just eat when they want to.

Weight Control

Meal planning is completely controlled by you, so you can control the number of calories, carbs, fats, and whatever else you consume per meal. You also have full control over the portions of meats, fish, vegetables, or whatever you get in each meal. Meal planning paired with a Keto lifestyle or a Paleo lifestyle is absolutely unbeatable.

Nutritionally Balanced Diet

This is just a quick one, because it’s pretty much the same explanation as weight control. You are in control of what you want to eat, so if you’re trying to be nutrient-conscious, then by all means reflect that in your cooking. It makes staying on track so much easier.

Lastly, it Reduces Stress

It doesn’t take a long explanation. No more stressing over last minute decisions on what to cook or rushed preparation! Already having all the food ready in the fridge for the week will take that weight off your shoulders.

I honestly could give you other reasons, but we’ll just stick with these since they’re pretty much the biggest ones. You really should consider meal planning! It can be a difficult adjustment at first, but it gets easier after the first few weeks. It’ll make your life so much easier, I promise. I’ll even make it easier and start typing up another article immediately with some inspiration for meals.

Love,

Zenobia