One of the things that I have learned this past 7 months is if you don’t plan you don’t succeed!  When I try to wing it I often times just don’t hit my goals.  In my humble opinion this is very true of your meal plan.  You have to have a plan!  For me that means sitting down on Sunday and planning for my week.  This can look different for everyone but these are the basic steps that I take:

1. Create a menu for the week.  Minimally plan your dinners, but for best results plan the entire weeks meal- even snacks.
2. Now that you have a plan- look in your freezer, fridge, and pantry to see what you have on hand to make you planned meals
3. Make a list of what you need to make the meals and go shopping.  Shop only for what you need to create your meals!
4. Prep as much as you can.  For me that means I clean and dice, chop etc all my fruits and veggies.  I also will make up a pot of steel cut oats to have for breakfast for most of the week.  I will make a pot of brown rice or quinoa to use for lunches and sides with dinner.  I will boil eggs for snacks or lunches (depending on what  I have planned for the week).  I will make up ahead salads in a jar and yogurt parfaits for the kids.  This takes time, but the pay off is that we have things ready to grab and go all week long.

Here is my menu plan for this week.  Jaunuary Weekly Schedule-week 2

I am actually following my 5 Day Clean Eating menu with a group of new Challengers this week.  If you would like more information on this and to get a copy of this meal plan go to http://eepurl.com/bbbfbD