5 Mistakes of Meal Planning

Hate meal planning because you can never seem to stick to one?

The good news: it’s not your fault!

It’s your system, which is completely changeable.

In this article we’re going to go through the 5 most common mistakes people make when meal planning and how to avoid them.

1. Trying to eat heathier/change diet

Jumping into a meal plan because you want to eat healthier or try a new diet. The recipe for disaster!

Many people start a meal plan to change something. Whether that’s eating healthier, saving money, or following a specific diet.

While having a meal plan is certainly great for keeping you consistent, what ends up happening is too big of a change for our brains to deal with.

We are programmed to take the path of least resistance, so if you change too much at once, you’ll fall back into old habits as soon as an obstacle is set in your path (ie. Bad day, tired, cranky kids, etc.).

Avoid the Mistake

Go slow.

Start out by planning what you regularly eat. Swap out one meal or one component of a meal for something along your goals.

This makes it easier to form the habit of thinking about and preparing for your meals ahead of time.

It may take a couple of weeks to a few months to complete the shift but slow and steady will get you further along than a mad rush and overwhelm.

2. Choosing What You Don’t Actually Eat

This follows along the same idea. More often when we start a meal plan, we want to try new dishes and the majority of the meals are not something we’re familiar with.

This leads to more time to prepare it, more ingredients you may need to buy, and the family not liking it.

When hungry bellies need to be fed, the last thing you want to have happen is slaving for hours over a meal half the table turns their nose up at.

We’re all guilty of it! I’ve had my share of new recipe mishaps. Heck, I found a new bread recipe to make for dinner yesterday and realized only after I’d mixed the ingredients it called for a 12 hour rise.

Avoid the Mistake

Start out planning what you already eat.

By sticking with what you know and everyone likes (or majority at least!), you’re able to ease into the habit of using a meal plan every night.

Then you can build onto changing small things about what you’re eating, like increasing the veggies in each meal.

3. Not accounting for timing

It takes too long to make. Those hungry bellies again.

Hangry kids mixed with a hangry mom. Oh hell no!

How many times have you done to make a meal and you realize chopping all of the ingredients is taking forever, especially with all of the interruptions?

Or the dang recipe instructions say cook time 30 minutes but that doesn’t include pressurizing the instant pot and natural release. Not on my watch! #petpeeve

Avoid the Mistake

A good mix of quick recipes with more labor intensive ones is the place to start with your meal plan.

Again, make it easy to stick to. If you have a labor intensive recipe (and I’m even talking just chopping up a few things), then note that and set aside a day to pre-chop what you need for the week.

This makes dinner time that much faster!

And try to start with meals that have less components. Like a space with a marinade and a side that takes 2 hours, etc.

Keep the meals simple or spread the prep work out over another day.

4. Cheap, staple items

Our eyes are fancier than our stomachs.

You get the asparagus, the fancy meats and cheeses. You need this ingredient and that, and so on and so forth for all of the different recipes you have planned!

Whew.

You’re going to the grocery store multiple times a week (it should be once, at most!).

It’s costing you a fortune and those ingredients aren’t touched beyond that meal.

Avoid the Mistake

Focus on simple items. You want to eat real food and stay on budget without having to think about it?

Go for your root vegetables. Add in the flavour with your garlic and onion and herbs and spices.

Work on making your own broths to deepen the flavours.

Keep. It. Simple.

Repeat what you eat!

After all, when you look at how you eat right now, you probably eat the same meals or the same ingredients multiple times a week.

Replicate that in your meal plan.

5. Not Building Life Into the Plan

Ahhhhhh! The ever-hated “plans changed” of every cook everywhere.

If there’s one thing that sends you chucking your meal plan in the garbage its probably a change in plans so your left scrambling to figure out a new meal.

And isn’t that chaotic feeling exactly what you thought a meal plan was supposed to help with anyways??

Here’s the thing. Life happens.

Yes, damned if we do, damned if we don’t.

Avoid the Mistake

So here’s the fix: build predictable chaos into your meal plan.

For the tools you need to set up the meal plan you’ll never again walk away from, get it here. And its FREE!

Have quick meals in your meal plan so you can swap days, if needed. And a fail-safe go-to list of things like sandwiches, quesadillas, picnic lunch supper, etc.

Meal times can be annoying and frustrating, even with a meal plan. (Yes, I won’t pretend a meal plan is going to fix everything!) BUT it’s a hell of a lot easier with one.

Having a meal plan you can actually stick to saves you time, focuses your budget, and shows you just what you need to grow to feed your family for a year.

All while eating real food.