#2013alive: Plan Ahead - Eat Well by Practising Meal Planning

It’s week 5—already!—of our 12 Months of Wellness. We’ve looked at lots of ideas for putting healthy food on our plates … and how to get a little help from supplements. This week it’s all about planning ahead so we can make healthy decisions every day.

Why plan ahead?

We’re all busy these days. And unless you have your own personal chef who lives in your house and who’s only task is to make wonderful, healthy meals for you every day, eating consistently well can be a real challenge. But it can be done—with a little planning.

Oh wait, I do have my own personal chef (PC)—my husband, lucky me! Sadly, though, my PC has another job that keeps him away from home during the day. But he’s become very good at planning ahead.

How to plan ahead

• My PC loves to flip through the pages of alive or click through the recipes on alive.com to discover something new to try each week. That usually forms the basis of at least one meal he plans for the coming week.
• From there, he jots down ideas for accompaniments, variations, and ways to turn leftovers into new meals. For example, a new recipe last week turned out a large batch of a delicious sweet potato veggie dip; what wasn’t used is being turned into a yummy soup tonight.
• A quick pantry and fridge inventory check comes next, and anything missing for the planned meals goes onto his shopping list.

Another confession: Even when he plans a business trip away, my PC—before he leaves—makes big batches of good food for me to eat while he’s gone.

A plan-ahead lunch menu

If you find packing lunches a real chore, and you find yourself regretting your lack of planning and originality when lunchtime approaches, you might want to try Amy’s delicious lunch recipes. These plan-ahead recipes will fill your week with scrumptious lunches you'll really look forward to.

In case you’ve missed what we’ve been up to on this, the first of 12 Months of Wellness, it’s never too late to catch up. Check out (week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4 and download our January goal planner to keep yourself motivated and accountable.

Check in on Wednesday to see how the alive staff is doing with their meal planning and let us know how you’re doing!