The concept of a meal plan is one that plenty of people have heard of before. Whether you’re recollecting your days in the dining hall at college or you’ve tried out some subscription boxes, you have some sort of meal planning ideas in your head. However, what you may not recognize is the importance of personalization. Crafting personalized meal plans allow you to have both comfort and variety in your diet.
8 meal planning ideas:
Allergies and Dietary Restrictions
Signing up for a meal plan with little knowledge of what it contains simply does not work for many people.
With the advances of scientific tools, allergies and restrictions are more easily discovered. In other words, a decent chance exists that you have some sort of dietary restriction, irritation or allergy that you need to watch out for.
With a customized meal plan, you can ensure that these issues are accounted for and that you do not get items that could hurt you.
Religious Rules and Personal Preferences
Even when certain food substances do not bother your body, you may not need them for other reasons. For example, some religions have dietary restrictions for its members, and customized meal plans allow you to follow the mandates of your faith.
You may also have personal preferences that go beyond simply liking or disliking specific products. Many individuals opt to eat vegetarian or vegan meals only, and you can select meal plans that line up with these habits. Vegan’s closely follow a plant, nut, and legume rich raw food diet.
Dietary Goals
Another benefit of a customized meal plan is that you line the products up with your dietary goals. Some of your goals might be:
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- lose weight
- natural or organic foods
- detox toxins out of your body (try this tea cleanse)
- reduce inflammation and balance PH of your body (the alkaline diet is my preferred for this because it’s sole focus is eating foods based on PH)
Regardless of what your goal is, you can personalize a meal plan that works with your goals instead of against them.
How much are you Eating?
Putting together a meal plan based on your personal preferences also allows you to really examine the foods that you are eating. When you aren’t looking at your food in this manner, you may not realize that you are consuming an excessive amount of one product or that you really aren’t getting enough of a certain vitamin. By having all of your food on one plan, you can assess and evaluate what areas of food intake you would like to do better in.
You might not also realize that you are consuming too much. Food portions play an important role in maintaining a healthy weight.
Considering Variety
An assessment of your meal plan may also reveal to you that you do not really explore new foods. Plenty of people fall into patters and comfort zones when it comes to their eating habits. Fortunately, by taking the time to explore meal plan ideas, you can work to add in new foods and substitutes for the items that you seem to be eating all of the time.
Exploring Options
Creating a meal plan online is also a good idea because you can immediately explore options. Instead of having to wait to go to the nearest grocery store, you can check out what the options are for substituting ingredients or adding in new products to your diet. In other words, you get to browse right away while the ideas are still fresh in your head. Some of my favorite meal planning apps even include shopping lists so you only buy what you need.
Starting the week
If you’ve ever woken up on a Monday morning and realized that you would have to quickly down the same cruddy breakfast every day that week, you are not alone. Many individuals end up just grabbing a quick and unhealthy meal item when they are racing off to work. The same can occur during the work day when you are busy.
However, by putting in the time to create meal plans, you can find healthy recipes and ideas that can sustain you and your family throughout the week. For example, you might discover a breakfast recipe that is easy to make a batch of. You can grab the item in the morning and eat it when you get to your desk.
I love to start my day off with one of these 4 healthy smoothies.
Better relationship with Food
Many people do not have healthy relationships with food. They forget that food is there to fuel their bodies and end up eating something only when they feel their stomachs seriously growing. Instead of continuing these unhealthy relationships with food, you can put more time and effort into your cuisine by personalizing a meal plan.
Putting together a meal plan might seem like work at first, but the process is actually quite exciting. You can get to better know what you are eating and how those foods are affecting you.
It’s said that it’s easy to lose weight, but the hardest part is keeping it off. Going back to your old ways on the first day off your meal plan is a sure way to fail. Here’s 7 ways to keep weight off for good.
Related: 7 Bizarre Ways to Lose Weight that Totally Work
