If you have a personal chef, you can stop reading now. 

Since most of us don't, let's talk. 

There is one thing that people successful with their nutrition do faithfully. 

What do you think it is? 

You got it, plan!

Do any of these situations sound familiar to you?

1.  You spend most of your day busy and stressed and you do your best to stick to eating healthy, portion-controlled meals. Then, when you get home, you are hungry. I mean REALLY hungry.  That is when things go downhill. Quickly.  

2.  You are too tired to think about dinner, so you just reach for the easiest, fastest, most convenient food you can find.  Your willpower is shot, so your nutrition plan takes a backseat, undermining all the good choices you made earlier in the day.  

3.  Maybe you are a get-up and go type of person with no time for breakfast.  You are so hungry by lunch you are eating anything and everything in sight. 

4.  Maybe you go out every day for lunch because you don't pack food to bring with you and struggle to find healthy foods on restaurant menus.

The overarching reason for the struggle in each of these scenarios is a lack of planning and preparation.  All three scenarios have the individual flying by the seat of their pants and trying to figure things out on the fly.  This is not a recipe for success, especially if you are trying to change your lifestyle.

It is time to make your nutrition plan really, really simple so it serves you. Literally!

Solution: Plan and Prepare

The easiest way to do this is to meal prep.

• Make a list of the recipes you want to make for that week. Write down all the food you will need (saving this to your phone is perfectly fine, no need to get fancy).
• Check your house for the ingredients on this list and mark them off appropriately.
• Go grocery shopping once and stock up on everything you will need for these recipes.
• You may plan to cook 1-2 times per week and make components for lots of meals at once.
• Use leftovers to create new, or repeated, meals for the rest of the week.

Here are a couple examples to warm-up that huge computer between your ears.  

Cook 1x Per Week 

On Sunday afternoon (or whatever day you have 2-3 hours) put in an epic cooking session.  Bulk cook everything you will need for assembling meals throughout the week.  Fire up the oven, get all your pans out, plug in the rice cooker, and start filling up crockpots.  This strategy works well for 1-2 person households or VERY busy households that don't have much time in the evening. 

Cook 2x Per Week

This is probably the most common strategy.

On Sunday afternoon and Wednesday evening cook up what you need for the next 3 days.  Make a 3 day meal plan and get to it.  This is a great strategy to save yourself a ton of time in the kitchen.  Spend 1-2 hours prepping, cooking, and cleaning and then don't cook for 3 days. This strategy works well for a larger family that has evening obligations most days of the week. 

Each meal prep day will probably take you about 2 hours of cooking (4 hours per week), but then you are off the hook for days, which ultimately saves you lots of time and hassle.  Put in the work on the front end and save time on the back end.  

The "Dinner is Lunch" Strategy

Some people like to cook and enjoy cooking most days of the week.  For this type of person, try the double portion dinner strategy. 

Each time you make your evening meal, you will make a double portion and save the second portion for lunch the next day.  You get two birds with one stone.  

4 Reasons Why Meal Prepping Works:

• It takes the excuse out of eating well.
  • Say goodbye to “I have no time to cook today,” and “There was nothing healthy at home for me to eat.”
• It gives you more control over what you eat.  
  • More homemade meals means less takeout and fewer meals at restaurants, which also means more green stuff in your pockets.  
• It gets you in the habit of eating portioned meals.
  • For storage, you will pre-portion out your carbs, proteins, and fats for each day.
• It frees up more time in your schedule
  • What will you do with your extra time??

Yes, this all will take a little on the front end, but it will free up loads of time on the backend.  

If planning all your meals for the week freaks you out, start with dinners for the week.  Then simply make double portions so you can take them to lunch with you the next day.  You just conquered two meals only thinking about one.  :)

Save your plans and repeat them week after week if you want.