How to Meal Plan from an Intuitive Lens

After years of dieting, many of my clients resist meal planning. And I totally get it. They’ve made the decision to stop dieting and learn to eat intuitively, and planning meals just reminds them of their dieting days. But is there a way to meal plan through an Intuitive Eating lens? Yes, there is.

First, let’s understand the benefits of meal planning. There are many.

Benefits of Meal Planning

1. It saves time and stress.

Let’s face it, when you come home at the end of a long day tired, hungry, and stressed, the last thing you want to think about is “what am I making for dinner?”

By knowing in advance what you are going to prepare, and having the ingredients on hand, you cut out the stress and the time trying to figure it out. Take it from me, a working mom who needs to feed her family, the only way to get a balanced meal on the table is to think ahead and plan.

2. It avoids unnecessary food waste.

When you plan meals ahead of time, this ensures that the ingredients you bought in the grocery store has a purpose – no need to worry about items in your fridge going to waste! This is great on your wallet and the environment

3. It helps maintain a balanced diet.

With meal planning, you can be sure that you are having a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats since you have thought about what you are making well in advance, as opposed to throwing together whatever you can and as fast as possible when you come home ravenous!

4. It saves money.

Having planned meals or snacks prevents you from spending money on buying take-out, running through the drive-through, or picking up last minute to-go meals at the convenience store. Many of my clients are amazed at how much money they save when they start planning meals in advance and stop buying out because “I don’t have any food at home.”

Meal planning also allows you to buy food and ingredients in bulk, which can be another great way to save money.

But the question remains, is meal planning  the same as dieting?

Meal Planning is NOT Dieting When…

• …There is flexibility.

If you’ve put together a menu for the day and for some reason, you aren’t able to prepare or eat what is on the menu (say for example the food spoiled), and you are cool about it and say to yourself “okay, what else do I have that I can eat”, that is meal planning through an intuitive lens. However, if you break out in hives and a sweat because you couldn’t follow the menu you planned for the day, this is dieting!

• …There are foods on your menus that you like and enjoy versus foods you “should be eating”.

Meal planning that is dieting forces you to think about eating and the foods you eat in a very “black and white” way. For example, these are the foods I can eat because they are healthy, and these are the foods I can’t eat because they are unhealthy”.

Meal planning from an intuitive lens allows you to eat foods you enjoy and that satisfies you versus restricting those foods or limiting them.

• …There are options.

Meal planning that is dieting is very rigid and structured with not a lot of opportunity to explore new dishes or experiment with foods because “they aren’t on your meal plan”.

Meal planning through an intuitive lens allows you have to options and variety in your meals because you’re listening to what your body wants versus only thinking about what your body “should” need or want.

In summary, there are many benefits to meal planning! If you find that planning meals is very rigid and isn’t giving you any room for options or alternatives, you are still dieting, and your diet mentality is running the show.

If, however, you are meal planning with the mindset of being prepared, this allows you to be flexible and adjust to whatever situation may come up (i.e., not enough ingredients, you forget an ingredient, food spoiled etc). This, my friend, is meal planning through an intuitive lens.

Let’s dive deeper and start the meal planning process. Come join me at 12:15 pm EST in my Facebook Group for a LIVE training on How to Meal Plan through an Intuitive Lens.