What is Meal Planning
Meal planning may be foreign to you but it is a great way to help your child’s fitness, reduce stress, save money and save time. Meal planning is the act of taking time out to think about what you will be serving at meals over a period of time and putting together a grocery list to purchase the needed ingredients. When putting together a meal plan most people are looking at each day to determine how much time they will have to fix each meal and also trying to make a grocery list so they can get all their ingredients for the week. By doing this they save time and stress. Then if you stick to your list when you are at the store you can also save money.
Helping Fitness
So how does meal planning help Childhood Fitness? First think about what often happens when you do not have a plan for meals. Without a plan you are forced to use what you have on hand which often are convenience foods. Convenience foods are often precooked foods that we warm up in the microwave or oven. Frequently these foods are less nutritious and calorie dense. Convenience foods also don’t have a variety of ingredients therefore providing less vitamins and minerals. At other times when we don’t have anything planned for meals we turn to eating at restaurants and fast foods. When we do this we are usually getting higher calorie foods that are more expensive and we spend time driving to and from the restaurant.
When we meal plan we can think ahead and have the ingredients at home to make foods that are higher quality. Home made foods tend to be less calorie dense and have more of a variety of ingredients. When we have foods that are less processed and less calorie dense we are helping our kids body composition. Foods prepared fresh will contain more vitamins and minerals when we use a variety of ingredients. Having more vitamins and minerals can enhance athletic function.
Where to start
So how do you meal plan? Books have been written on this subject and you can find tons of detailed advice online. I will give you my main bullet points and let you decide what works best for your family and schedule.
- Sit down with the entire family each week
- Take each kids taste into consideration
- Have a time or two each week where you will have something different
- Make sure the week contains a variety of fruits, vegetable, grains, and proteins
- Be open minded
- Have a treat night
If you are having trouble coming up with a variety of different foods to try you can go to myplate from the U. S. Department of Agriculture for advice.
Try to make meal planning easier by having items that will help you plan and be organized. Start with a meal board. This is a board that will list each meal during the week and it can be displayed in the kitchen. A meal board can stand alone or adhere to the cabinet or refrigerator. Next, have something to write your grocery list on. Some people will just use their phone but there are preprinted forms that are easier to use and the whole family can be more involved when using them. Both the meal boards and grocery lists can easily be found online and often can be free if printed at home. This site offers free and customizable templates.
Now that you have the gist, meal plan for a few weeks and get into the habit. I think you will find it can help with your family’s nutrition, save stress, save money and save time. If done correctly it can even be enjoyable. To take your family’s health to the next level throw in grocery shopping together and meal preparation together. Those are topics for other blogs.
