How to Meal Plan
- Know Your Goals
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- We will discuss your nutrition goals and strategies. Keep these in mind when planning your meals.
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- Choose a Place to Plan
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- Buy a traditional calendar or use a free printable calendar like the Meal Prep Schedule.
- Try a meal planning app such as My Fitness Pal, Lose It, or Carb Manager.
- Choose Your Meals
- Fill in your meal plan at least one week at a time. Pick one option for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each day, plus a snack if needed.
- Check out the Meals List and Example Meal Prep for meal ideas.
- Create a shopping list based on your plan.
- Fill in your meal plan at least one week at a time. Pick one option for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each day, plus a snack if needed.
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- Prep Your Meals
- Buy all your ingredients before the week starts.
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- You can either make all of your meals and store them in the refrigerator or freezer, or you can make them the night before or the day you are eating them– whatever works best for you.
- I suggest storing prepared serving sizes of each meal in a container and then labeling it with the number of calories or net carbohydrates.
- Log Your Meals
- Use your app to track your calories, net carbs, or other nutritional goals.
Calorie-Cutting Tips
- Cut out all simple processed carbohydrates.
- Cut out saturated fats; instead, focus on healthy fats.
- Eat natural: whole grains, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables.
- Try to avoid canned foods like sauces or dressings as they contain lots of added sugars.
- Avoid calorie-dense snacks such as peanut butter, nuts, cheeses, and fatty meats like salami.
- Substitute with low-calorie (usually low-fat) cheeses or lean meats like a rotisserie chicken
Recommended Resources
- Mealime App – This is great to get recipes and have the ingredients automatically loaded to your Walmart or Publix account.
- Healthy Cookbooks
- The Defined Dish Cookbook
- Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow Cookbook
- Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: 550 Quick, Easy and Healthy Mediterranean Diet Recipes for Everyday Cooking
Low Carbohydrate Specific Recipes
- Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Cookbook
- Diet Doctor
- Reddit.com/r/ketorecipes