If you go into the week without a plan, without an idea of what you are going to eat, then you will be more tempted to give up and get off track. I don’t want that to happen to you!

If you want to succeed at making this healthy lifestyle stick around, you need to start taking it more seriously. You all know that I DO NOT believe in dieting. I think diets suck. I don’t believe that diets work (in the long run). The only time the word “diet” should be used is when referring to the lifestyle food choices that someone makes. For example: Ashley follows a vegetarian diet. Ashley follows a clean eating diet 80-90% of the time.

I recommend you start practicing meal prep and meal planning on the weekends, or one day during the week when you have extra time. A lot of women use the weekends because they have the extra time then. If you have time on Tuesday evening, then do it then! I don’t care when you do it, as long as you have a plan. This DOES take extra time in the beginning, but in the long run over the week you are saving yourself time, money, calories and sanity!

23 Meal Planning & Prep Tips

1. Look at your family schedule. What events do you have this week that you need to plan around.
2. Plan your meals for the following week. Make a grocery list that mirrors your meals.
3. Plan what snacks you and your family will have.
4. Check what is on sale at the store you will be shopping at. Plan for using those foods in your meal plan.
5. Do your grocery shopping to match this.
6. Don’t be a short order cook. Let your family know that you will not be doing separate meals for everyone. This is more difficult if your children are older and are used to you making something separate for them. With younger children let them know that if they do not eat what is given at dinner time, that there is not going to be a meal later on. Children will learn to try new foods and will gain a taste for those foods. You have to be strong with this, don’t let them have snacks or treats in the evening if you said at dinner time they wouldn’t be allowed to. It can take children 9+ times of trying something before they develop a taste for it.
7. Parents should decide WHAT is being served and WHEN. Children can decide HOW MUCH they want to eat. Try not to enforce the “clean your plate” rule. If they are not hungry at dinner time, look at what they are having throughout the day. Are they having a lot of juice or soda? Chips? Cookies? Kids have very small bellies and can fill up fast, so limit treats and calorie filled beverages between meals.
8. Cut/chop what you can in advance. Chopping all the veggies at once is easier than doing it every day. Do not wash berries or tomatoes until you are ready to eat them.
9. Prepare grains and beans (it is cheaper to buy dried beans and whole unprocessed grains than it is prepared/canned ones), and then portion into 1 or 2 cup serving sizes in zip lock bags, then freeze.
10. Think of what meals you can prep and freeze to have on hand- pasta sauces, taco meats, casseroles, lasagna, etc.
11. Put chopped veggies at eye level in the fridge so you see them often and are reminded to eat them.
12. Make salads in individual air-tight containers so you can take them to go to work or have one ready to eat for dinner. Mason jars work perfectly for this!
13. Make some healthy snacks ready for the week- healthy muffins, hard boiled eggs, portioned out almonds, etc.
14. Portion out healthy snacks.
15. Get a cute insulated lunch bag to take with you to work, while doing errands, etc.
16. Make clean up easy by lining dishes with tin foil.
17. Make more than you need and freeze the extras for dinner next week or later in the week.
18. Plan on using leftovers for lunches.
19. Most leftovers can last for about 5 days if refrigerated.
20. Have extra fresh herbs? Freeze them in an ice tray with olive oil and then transfer to zip lock bag. Pull out one “cube” at a time to use when cooking.
21. Save all the recipes you want to cook in a convenient storage place. Of course pinterest is perfect for this, but so is Evernote, which is what I use.
22. While making dinner in the evening, prep lunch for tomorrow at the same time.
23. Clean as you go.

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Have a successful week!