Meal Planning

Meal Planning

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.
~Ben Franklin

 

PLANNING…it’s unfortunate that our lives have become so busy that “having a schedule” has such a negative connotation to some. It’s a part of my personality and who I am, and I’m criticized by many people very close to me that it’s a fault. Hmmmm….then I’m at fault – but with a very healthy and productive life!   Maybe I don’t “play enough”, but I do love what I do so much I’m not complaining about my work like so many do. So I call it even. I’m a planner. Ed and I are planners. And yes, we use planning in our everyday life beyond our work and finances – we use it for our health – and in the kitchen!

Even as teenagers, we knew what our “schedules” were like: 

  • School was Monday through Friday from 8 am to 3 pm
  • Volleyball practice Monday through Friday from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
  • Then home for dinner
  • Then homework
  • Then bed – rinse and repeat. 
  • Weekends might have been a little looser but time with the grandparents, dates, friends, chores

…from the earliest of your memories you can remember “structure”.

Fast forward to today and if you’re not yet retired or choose to continue to work, you likely have a daily schedule of work, grandkids, volunteering, chores, and/or time with friends. Maybe you have A LOT of time on your hands because you’re retired…and if so, good for you, BUT…that fact will likely not play in your favor when I trounce you for having the time to meal plan and yet you don’t. Yikes!

The amount of money that Americans spent on food in the 1950s and 1960s was approximately 30-40% of their income, compared to 10% today. The amount of time they spent preparing that food was also insanely longer than how much time we spend today. We’re cutting costs and time on the one thing that should be the foundation of our health (and healthcare plan). My theory is that if we can get individuals and families to start cooking again (together) and eating more slowly (at a table, together), it’s a good start to reclaiming our health and maybe a more sane society!

What we’re about to work through may be challenging at first, but trust me, after several months, it’s “old hat” (it’s comfortable –  it just fits) and it won’t be so “uncomfortable” anymore. 

PLANNING YOUR WEEKS

If your diet needs an overhaul, then planning is a must. So, how do we do that?

 

Planning and prepping are necessary habits to get into if you’re just starting out.  THE NEW will  eventually become the habit, and this whole “challenge” will just become a way of life. Then, it’s no longer a challenge – and on to bigger and better and “more fun” things!

 

The keys are plan, then prep.  All of us should be doing this on Sunday, or another regularly scheduled day during the week, and if you have time, you can do it twice a week to keep more variety in your life. If you have A LOT of time on your hands, you can do it daily – that would just add to the kitchen time – but some people (and I’m one of them) love to be in the kitchen.

STEPS TO MEAL PLANNING

 STEP 1 – INVENTORY

Inventory your refrigerator and pantry and anywhere else you store food.  Write it down – you’d be surprised what’s in there.  Use the Kitchen and Pantry Inventory Form (also on the Resources page of RebelHealth.com).  Throw away anything that’s tempting or that you know to be not good. Read labels on some of the things you always buy…you might be surprised!  Alternatively, if you are one of two adults in the household and you’re cleaning up your diet by yourself…separate the refrigerator (and pantry) into “yours/mine”.  Time to take a tough approach if you want to see permanent change.  Or, put the bad (shelf-stable) stuff in a bag and donate it to the local food bank.

This is the form I have used for almost 15 years, having created it when I had way too much time on my hands!

KITCHEN & PANTRY INVENTORY (KPI)

You won’t have to do this forever, but what it WILL do for you is make you aware of what food you have on hand…and what you’ve had on hand for years that’s still sitting there…that can of cranberry sauce or that 5-year-old bag of flour you never use. Maybe it’s time to clean house or at least refresh the expiration dates!

In updating this post, I went downstairs with my “form” and filled it out. Here’s an actual KPI from our kitchen:

KPI ED SAM OCT 20 2024

You can see from the protein list – my freezer is stocked! How we bulk-prepped all that can be found in the BULK / BATCH COOKING post.

STEP 2 – PLAN

Technically, I could abstain from going to the grocery store this week and we could run one more week on what we have, but I will go on Thursday or Sunday for the following:

  • Salad ingredients: lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, carrots & celery
  • Berries: whatever is on sale
  • Bananas (at least 8 – Ed 5, Sam 3)

Then, using the meal plan form, you can lay out each day and each meal. If you know what you have ahead of you on your calendar, you can plan around things like dinners out with friends, business meals out, days that you’re running around and won’t be home to eat.

MEAL PLAN FORM

Also, know that there are hacks for days you’re running around and not home:

  • Cooler bags so you can keep good food cold and eat on the go
  • Pre-portioned nuts, dried fruit, and jerky like Chomps and Epic brands make it easy to snack on the go, even if it ends up being a meal replacement.

I’m updating this post right before the November 2024 Health Challenge at GrandMastersRx, so we have time to show exactly what we do as an example.

Below is the week of Oct 21st. Sure, things are going to come up and we’re going to slip up – especially with the new side-yard ditch-digging project that just “appeared”…but having this plan and knowing that, we just may have a super healthy food week in light of a busy work and home project schedule.

MEAL PLAN FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 21ST – ED & SAM

That is my plan. Now, I just have to make sure we have everything ready that I don’t have time (or don’t want to make the time) to cook on the spot – which for me is pretty much everything.

STEP 3 – PREP (COOK)

In order to accomplish the above, here was my  Sunday 10/20 meal prep. But before I lay out our time investment, I get it. Some of you would rather be sick and starve than “cook”. Some people’s aversion to cooking rivals others aversion to burpees – it can be ginormous! I get it. But there are still solutions. There are companies like Trifecta Nutrition where you can order your meats, your starches, and your veggies precooked.  There are some local meal prep companies that offer pre-cooked meals. We just warn you: ask a lot of questions about what oils they cook with, the quality of their ingredients, and where they assemble the meals – make sure it’s a legitimate organization with some standards. If you can’t control it, make sure your “cook” has some cleanliness and quality regulations stated. 

  1. Make enough oatmeal for both of us for 4 servings for each of us. Sometimes if there’s healthy oatmeal in the fridge I’ll opt for that pre or post-workout versus a banana (on the fly). The oats we buy are One Degree Sprouted Oats. We buy a giant bag at Costco because I love homemade granola (bullet below). For the One Degree Oats, ½ cup is one serving, so I use 4 cups of oats and 5 to 5 ½ cups of water, plus some vanilla extract, a handful of raisins, a sprinkle of chia seeds and flax (just because – totally not necessary), Goji Berries if I have them, some cut up dried mangoes, pumpkin seeds…whatever fun stuff I have in the pantry. After it cooks and cools, I add some walnuts or other nuts for fat because it’s a high-carb recipe.
  • I’ve modified this Navitas’ recipe to double the ingredients except for the maple syrup (kept that at 1/3 c) to reduce the overall sugar load on the recipe -and it’s way sweet enough. It’s amazing! It makes enough to have 1/3 of the total batch as an option for the week and freeze 2/3 of it. So I make it once every 3 weeks. And yes, I’m alluding to a snack, but it’s sometimes a meal replacement if we’re caught off schedule – we can grab a handful of the meat from the fridge – or a can of tuna or salmon, and this granola and it’s so nutritious!  I add extra things like slivered almonds, raisins, figs, cinnamon, nutmeg, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and flax…and boil the raisins and goji berries in the coconut oil (doubled) and the maple syrup…to help rehydrate them so I can add them during the bake – I love the chewiness that results from that approach. I nix the ginger because Ed’s not a fan. It’s amazing – and addictive. But is a great pre-workout snack for energy. But I digress…
  1. I make the egg and ground meat or sausage skillet recipe by the seat of my pants. For the two of us, for the week I use a dozen eggs and two cups of egg whites, a pound or 2 sometimes of the meat, salt, pepper, and about a ½ cup of some kind of cheese – feta, goat, even parmesan. I could add vegetables (and should) but Ed is more likely to eat it without them, so I bend that way. The meat is usually already cooked in my freezer, so I pull it out and thaw it from Friday to Sunday for meal prep day. It just all sits in the skillet and cooks on medium/low while I stir it – not a big fancy thing. Salt and pepper to taste. Added fennel is good for digestion and makes it taste like breakfast to me .
  2. While the egg thing is cooking, I dice up about 8 or 9 potatoes (sweet, white, whatever). Put them in a pan (lined with foil if I don’t feel like washing dishes after), and then drizzle avocado or coconut oil over them (or leftover bacon grease (the best!) or even tallow if I feel like melting it), plus some salt and other seasonings to your taste – we just like salt and pepper – bake on 400 for 20+ minutes (I start watching and tasting at 20 minutes until they’re brown and crispy!). Basically, the time it takes to bake the potatoes is the same time it takes to cook the egg thing – so when one is done so is the other – the eggs are usually done and cooling.
  3. Also while the egg and potato thing is going on in the oven and on the stovetop, I do buy pre-snipped (I am lazy that way) bags of green beans (they’re BOGO often at Publix) in the microwavable bags (again, lazy and probably irresponsible – I do have a microwave bowl I could use) – but I nuke those suckers for five and a half minutes and let them cool during that time.
  4. I would pull the pre-cooked buffalo chicken, the pork loins (It’ll take two of them for the week), and the AHI tuna steak (we’ll fight over it because it’s barely enough for both of us for two meals).
  5. Finally, Ed helps when we cut the salad because we LOAD it with veggies. It’s a “vegetable”, not a plate of lettuce! Our best salad would include 2 or 3 heads of romaine and a bag of another kind of green (on sale) like arugula, or mixed greens, maybe spinach. Then we start chopping veggies:
    • Onions, chopped or slivers of rings – I love the way that looks!
    • Cabbage, thinly chopped
    • Carrots (sliced, or shredded)
    • Celery, chopped
    • Broccoli – because cruciferous veggies are so good for us – but yes, we do raw. You could blanche it or cook it to crispy tender and cool and that works too. I should try that!
    • Sometimes Brussels Sprouts – thinly sliced
    • Cherry tomatoes (because they don’t make the salad slimy if it’s in there for 4 days!)
    • Sweet peppers, chopped or sliced
    • And whatever else floats our boat that week!

That’s really it! It’s about 2 hours if Ed helps. We either turn on the TV or some music to listen to, and talk around it. I remember doing this when Ed and I lived in our condo and Coach Nic stayed with us for a while – I LOVED meal prep days with her – GIRL TIME! Consider buddying up and meal prepping in each other’s kitchens – all you have to do is bring the containers to put it in once it’s cooled.

Once again, from the Kitchen and Pantry Inventory, you’ll create your Meal Plan for the week. As you create the meal plan, you may add things to the plan that you’ll need to shop for, think about overcooking – cooking more than you need, so that you can 1) freeze it for future grab-n-go meals, and 2) use leftovers for lunches and breakfasts during the week.  THAT’S PART OF THE PLAN….COOK ONCE, EAT THREE OR FOUR TIMES ON THAT ONE EFFORT!  Don’t be crazy and plan a gourmet week that you have to cook every single meal from scratch…unless you also have that much time on your hands.  As you’re creating your Meal Plan you’re also creating a shopping list for things you need to make the plan work. For example – when I have leftover chicken by the end of the week and I’m sick of “chicken”, our “20%” may include tortilla chips, black beans, corn, and jalapenos in a salad with some crazy unhealthy salad dressing as a TACO SALAD for the Friday or Saturday end of the week / “I’m running out of food” plan!.

 Additional tip: I have about 10 copies of the KPI and Meal Plan form sitting in a drawer in the kitchen so I can pull and go at the end of the week. I have a whiteboard – a small one – stuck to the inside of the pantry where both Ed and I can add things when we run out – like heavy cream, berries, seltzer water…if we’re the last one to grab and there is no more. It helps keep us organized and prevents us from running back and forth for things we forgot.

 

TIPS FROM PAST CHALLENGES AND CLIENTS

  1. Diet Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sprite, and Coke Zero are not foods, nor are they close to anything natural.  No, shouldn’t be in your 80% and frankly, you should eventually develop an aversion to them.  The ingredients aren’t anything you would want to consume if you were at all concerned about fueling your body and your health with natural foods that have been “grown or killed”.  Yes, the withdrawal is going to be horrific!  Get ready!
  2. We address stress eating throughout our Challenges, as well as have a topic dedicated to stress hormones (cortisol, specifically) and some herbal supplements that can help blunt the effects of high-stress life. But do recognize that stress hormones are chemical messengers and they can make you crave food. You can overcome that simply by using your mind and telling yourself you’re not going to succumb…but it takes work and time.
  3. High fat on an ancestral diet is not a bad thing. It’s actually normal.  High fat PLUS high carbohydrate and low protein is a modern-day recipe for high cholesterol, and diabetes…among other things.  
  4. Can’t remember to eat? There’s a thing on your phone…you all have cell phones because we text you on them….set an alarm or a calendar reminder!  Set a recurring alarm.  Set it!  Believe it or not, it’ll work!  Set it for 8 am, 12 noon, and 5 pm if you need to, but use it to help you set new habits. Excuse-buster at your service!
  5. Dessert…. we need to get away from the notion that every night we need something sweet after dinner….this is very neolithic!  Ed and I are a perfect example.  I grew up in a family that didn’t do desserts. It was just dinner. Ed grew up in a family that always had dessert. We’ve been married for over 20 years now and I now need “dessert” because we adopted his habits. It’s hard to break once you have that “urge” for something sweet after dinner. We’re not saying dessert is bad…but if you have health challenges related to blood sugar, pressure, or lipids…it might be worth curbing desserts. 
  6. Protein goals. Throughout a Challenge, you should have a better idea of what your normal is, but we do look for .7 to 1.0x ideal body weight in pounds (not kilograms). So per meal, for an average male/female (always listing male # first then female) we’d be looking for 50-60 grams / 40-50 grams per meal, or 6-8 oz / 5-6 oz of protein per meal. We’ll do a post on macros to help you understand this more.
  7. Wine and Beer.  Yeah, it’ll be missed, but for only a month or so. Trust me, I’ll miss it, too.  And probably only four times majorly – over the weekends, right?  Drink some sparkling water out of a nice big Cabernet glass…it won’t be the same but might “feel” like it! We’ve also found that a lime-flavored sparkling water with a Citrus LMNT packet in it – or a citrus LMNT over ice in a bad-ass glass works well too.

And that’s it for this post. Wish I could have done this in a video but the amount of time it’d take me to stop/start and stitch it together would be ridiculous. And, I believe in old-fashioned reading versus being stuck to a screen all the time! 

Happy Planning!

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