My (Short) Guide To Easy Meal Planning

Meal planning is super overwhelming if you’re starting from scratch.

How much do you eat at each meal (without starving)?
What do you eat?
When do you eat it?

To name just a few headaches.

And, for me, I hate few things more than following a rigid meal plan or heating up 3-day-old chicken in Tupperware.

Not only do I give up on the meal plan within a few days, I rarely have any “back up” plan. Which means Chick-Fil-A or Dominoes is getting a “favorited” mobile order ASAP.

Well, after tons of feedback from my 1:1 coaching clients I realized I wasn’t alone.

As a result, I’m putting together a free course for them and wanted to share a sneak peek at one of the modules on meal planning (sorry, this won’t be available to the public).

Keep Breakfast & Lunch Constant (Mon-Fri)

I can’t recommend enough keeping your first meal or two the exact same each day, for at least M-F when your routine is more consistent. This just takes out the guesswork and decision making each day. Plus, you can enjoy more variety at dinner with less stress.

If you have 2000 cals to hit in a day, and you know breakfast and lunch are the same each day and equal to ~1200 cals, you only have 800 cals remaining for dinner to figure out. This way you don’t even have to consistently track the first two meals every day, you just have to figure out a dinner that is around 800 cals.

To figure out your calorie goals, read this.

Create A Dinner Menu For Home and Away

Since you know you want to add in more variety at dinner, let’s plan ahead and create a few potential options for both eating out and home-cooked meals.

How many times will you eat out this week? When and where? Fill in below. (Pick your usual choices.)

I normally eat out (#) ___ times per week on (day(s) of week) _____ at (name of restaurant(s)) _____.

If you eat out at those places, have 1-2 meals in mind that are “good enough” to keep you on track with your goals. Promise yourself to commit to those meals only.

Restaurant 1: [NAME]
- Good enough meal option 1:
- Good enough meal option 2:

Restaurant 2: [NAME]
- Good enough meal option 1:
- Good enough meal option 2:

THREE possible healthy dinners that you can cook at home are:

Pre-Meal Checklist

You don’t have to do this, but these are some of the thoughts and questions I run through when I’m trying to figure out what to eat.

TIME: What does my schedule look like today? What times do I normally get hungry? What access to food will I have during those times? Can I buy something or should I bring something with me? If there’s some unpredictability, I will bring a snack just in case to hold me over until I can make/buy a meal.

TASTE: What am I craving/feel like eating right now? Can I fit in that craving to my macronutrient/micronutrient goals for the day? Do I have that food available? If no, should I go get the food to prepare it for tomorrow instead? Is online ordering available?

FUNCTION: What is my protein source for this meal? What is my fiber source? After knowing those, how can I create the rest of the meal to work with those options?

FEEL: How is this meal going to make me feel after I eat it? Energetic and satisfied because I stayed on track or sluggish and guilty because I overate?

BALANCE: From a weekly standpoint, how on track have I been? If I’ve been on track for more than 80% of the time, I’m fine with eating a “less nutritious, but highly enjoyable” meal out.

Foods should not be labeled as “healthy” or “unhealthy” because all foods are okay in moderation. If you eat an apple with chocolate, is it still healthy? Unhealthy? Well it depends on what you’ve already eaten that day. If you’ve had fast food and eaten high-calorie foods all day, it might not be a good choice to eat that chocolate with the apple. But if you’ve barely eaten anything all day, that apple and (some) chocolate could be okay, but there are probably better options to think about for the rest of the day. Use this checklist to guide you.

When Things Don’t Go According To Plan

What usually goes wrong, and how can you plan ahead for it?

Examples: Nighttime overeating? Grazing all day instead of larger meals? Lunch at work? Friday night dinner? Going to bed too late? Not enough protein or fiber at the end of the day? Peer pressure? “Nightcap” cocktails?

Obstacle: If [BLANK] happens…

Solution: I will…

Obstacle:

Solution:

Obstacle:

Solution:

Ok, that’s enough of the sneak peek. There will be much more to add, but I wanted provide you guys with a bit of help around this overwhelming topic.

If you have any questions about your specific situation, shoot me a DM on Instagram or email me matt@mattmcleod.org.

Just promise me to stop eating 3-day-old Tupperware chicken.

Until next time.

Chat soon,

Matt

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