A Weekly Meal Plan for Diet and Weight Loss Success

There was a time in our lives when we always had a weekly meal plan posted on the door to the refrigerator.

In part this was a strategy for dealing with the busy lives of two working parents with two children in school and also involved in a daily extra curricular activities. Having a meal plan left us a bit less frazzled, like knowing “At least we know we’re going to eat!”

However, with the kids away (college or on their own) it’s as if eating has taken on less significance at a time when, for many reaons, we should/could be far more deliberate as – at least in theory/thought, if not reality – we have more time to be deliberate about planning, shopping for and preparing meals.

It’s not that, without meal planning, we are “bad eaters”. My wife, bless her, is very conscious about always having vegetables with meals, limiting red meat, adding fish, having “meatless meals”, etc.

Still, our diet and meals have been very ad hoc lately. Also, to a degree, this “practice” has made eating appear less important when, in fact, as we age  – eating and meal planning – is likely more important, more a matter we should focus on. (Okay, paying attention to what we eat is a matter deserving of attention at all stages of life.)

So, as part of our effort to get back into shape I’m taking the lead in doing what we used to do: Actually thinking about the week ahead in terms of what we will eat.

It was never anything too fancy, our weekly meal plan. It was usually something written on a sheet of the kid’s notebook paper. BUT, it was the thought that went into it that made the weekly meal plan something of value. We actually sat down together each week, inventoried what we had in the closets, refrig and freezer and gave thought to “planning for a variety of meals” – planning with balance in mind. Planning that could avoid repetition and food boredom over a long period of time.

And, in a pinch, we could always resort to a “do over” by digging out a past weekly meal plan and shopping and planning accordingly.

IF what we eat is so important – and it is – then why we aren’t more conscious  and deliberate about the design and choices we make escapes me. Once again the “too busy” logic could raise its ugly head but, really, being too busy to address a real priority suggests that something needs to give.

So, I hereby declare that a weekly meal plan is important and it’s importance exceeds that of . . . .

Argh, choices.