Why Meal Planning Is Hard and How to Make It Easier
Shouldn't Food Be Simple?
You eat every day, but somehow this process has become quite complicated. When should you eat? What should you eat? How do you have time to shop, prep, and cook?
Social media has filled our minds with so much conflicting information about food that we become paralyzed. Meals are no longer simple or easy.
10 Benefits of Cooking
Despite the complexity, there are undoubtedly benefits to cooking our own food at home. Here are the top 10:
Fewer calories per meal
Smaller portions
Higher nutritional value
Costs less money
Improves familial relationships
Connects you with your food
Improves diet quality
Allows control over your ingredients
Sets a healthy example for the rest of your family
Can You Relate to These Obstacles?
Everyone has their own reasons for not cooking at home. For me, it boils down to overthinking and overscheduling.
I get trapped in a cycle of expecting all of my meals to be perfectly planned, prepped, and cooked like I see on social media. Food should be color coded and lined up in perfectly symmetrical trays. If not, then I'm obviously doing it all wrong!
This social media-based perfectionism is setting me up for failure.
On top of that, time is a commodity I don't have much of. Like most Americans, I'm overscheduled with work, chauffeuring my kids around, and taking care of the house. Cooking seems like brain surgery when I'm tired and the family is already starving.
One Small Step
Instead of asking myself to plan and cook all seven dinners for the week, I started with asking myself for two.
Two days a week I would cook dinner. To make that happen, one day each week I would plan those two meals and shop for the ingredients. I've learned that having to shop and cook on the same day just doesn't work for me.
Taking these steps significantly reduced the pressure I was putting on myself. These were now achievable goals.
Easy Does It
Anyone can make pasta---just boil water. Add some veggies and your favorite sauce and you have dinner.
Tips For Success
I stuck with my system of committing to cooking two meals per week for a couple of months, and then I was able to increase my routine to cooking three meals per week. Here are some of things I learned along the way that helped me succeed.
Name the Meals
By giving a meal a title or name, you have a quick way of referencing it. This can be handy when writing reminders to yourself, either on a shopping list or on your to-do list.
Add the Meals to Your Calendar
If you want to commit to cooking these meals, you should add them to your calendar. This helps you mentally plan your day and not get blindsided. Choose days that are less complicated towards the end of the day.
Schedule Your Shopping Day
Pick a day of the week to go grocery shopping for all of the ingredients you will need to make your meals. Aim to avoid shopping and cooking on the same day.
Simple Meals to Start
If you don't know much about cooking or you are low on time, pick the simplest meals you can. If there are more than 8 ingredients, it's probably too complicated for now.
What to Eat
If you are still struggling with what to cook, lean on some basics.
Beans and rice make a complete protein.
Grilled cheese and a side of veggies counts as a meal.
Breakfast for dinner (enough said).
Meat, veggies, and potatoes can be thrown on a pan in the oven.
Cooking doesn't have to be an art, nor does it have to be a gourmet meal. Start simple and build on your successes.
Consider picking two easy meals and repeat cooking those same meals every week until you've mastered them. You don't have to have an expansive repertoire.
Balancing Your Dinners
If you are ready to try cooking more nights than not, try following a simple planning strategy that helps balance your diet. For example, of the seven dinners in a week, have two nights centered around chicken, one night starring red meat, two nights starring fish, one pasta night, one vegetarian dinner, and one starring eggs.
By focusing on a key ingredient, it will take some of the overwhelm out of planning and thinking of ideas. You will have an easy search term to look for recipes.
Add a vegetable or two and a grain. That's all there is to it.
The Ways of Eggs
Eggs can be cooked so many different ways: scrambled, fried, hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, in an omelet, in a quiche.
Respect Your Limits
Depending on the season of your life, you might not be able to cook seven nights a week.
Personally, with four kids and a full-time job, I can usually only cook four solid dinners each week. That's my limit, and I try to respect that.
The meals I cook have been well practiced, so the shopping list simply says the name of the meal and I understand automatically what ingredients I need to purchase. I don't refer to recipes anymore, which is a time saver.
Give yourself appreciation and recognition for any amount of cooking you do. It might not be seven days a week or social media-worthy, but it's beneficial. Recognize the success.
Conclusion
Cooking doesn't have to be all or nothing. Any small improvement is a win for your health, your wallet, and your quality of life.
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