How many times have you rushed home from work or a day out, feeling tired and hungry, and found yourself totally stressed out about dinner?
I know I have, many times. The busier our lives are, the more it seems like it’s impossible to eat healthy or stay on track. Being in a tired and stressed state leads us to make choices that come from an overwhelmed and emotional (and totally irrational) state. This often means take out, prepackaged and fast food.
One of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is taking just a bit of time each week to plan your meals and do some quick prepping. Meal planning will not only save you time, effort and money but will also improve your eating habits dramatically.
Imagine coming home from a long exhausting day, knowing exactly what you’ll have for dinner, and being prepared. It might be worth checking out some different diet and recipe plans from somewhere like Source: Dietprobe. Having an action plan means your meals can be stress free and healthy, leaving you time to spend time with family, relax or try out that yoga class you’ve been wanting to join.
Meal planning and getting organized in the kitchen is a big part of my AOK Membership Program because it’s such a huge part of a healthy lifestyle. Having valuable tools like meal plans, recipes and shopping lists, it is possible for anyone to create healthy eating habits to last a lifetime.
Without a solid plan, you will end up with a ton of food waste, create more stress around healthy eating and stay trapped in a cycle of eating low energy foods, fatigue and weight gain.
3 Ways Meal Planning Can Help You Lose Weight and Gain Energy:
1. Less Stress
By knowing exactly what you will be eating, you take away the everyday stress of eating. Stress is one of the leading underlying causes of weight gain and many other chronic diseases. Stress affects our weight by altering blood sugar levels, causing mood swings, fatigue, and conditions like hyperglycemia. Excessive stress even effects where we tend to store fat and has been linked to increased levels of abdominal fat.
2. You Save Money and Time
Meal planning can tackle two big obstacles standing in the way of healthy eating; time and money. Unfortunately, it’s more expensive to eat healthy food, which is a big reason why many people are forced to eat a more processed nutrient void diet and end up gaining weight. According to a research group, the annual food waste in Canada reaches $27 Billion. When you plan your meals ahead and organize your fridge and pantry, you are less likely to waste food, making healthy eating more attainable and less costly.
3. Create New Healthy Habits
A journey to health is not an overnight trip. It takes time to cultivate healthy habits and make sustainable changes. By having a solid meal plan, shopping lists, and directions, you are able to gain access to new health habits and learn to enjoy food more. Just like any other skill, with practice you’ll become a meal planning pro and take the stress out of healthy eating, for good! By having a variety of new ingredient choices and recipes, you will find ease and joy in the kitchen and you’ll actually want to eat more healthy foods.
How many times have you looked in your fridge and were forced to make an unhealthy choice because you didn’t have anything prepared and you were just way too hungry to take the time and make a delicious salad? Here is my KICK BUTT recipe for a delicious all purpose metabolism boosting salad dressing!
This batch will take you through a many lunches and dinners and it’s packed with ingredients to kick start your metabolism and encourage your body to release excess weight. I’m all about making delicious food do the work for you:) You can use this dressing for marinating poultry, veggies, or tempeh as well. If you haven’t used a blender to make your dressings before, try it! It will change your life!! (or make you love your salad dressings anyway..)
Big Batch Metabolism Boosting Dressing with Lemon, Maple and Mustard
- 1 1/4 cup high quality olive oil (look for cold-pressed extra virgin)
- 1/4 cup Dijon or stone ground mustard (look for sugar free)
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 lemon
- 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup
- 2 garlic cloves
- Handful fresh dill (or 1/2 tsp dried dill)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
How to make:
Remove all seeds from lemon and cut into pieces. Roughly chop garlic and dill.
Combine all ingredients except olive oil into the blender and turn it on. While it’s buzzing away, pour in the olive oil. Drizzling it in will further emulsify the oil and create a smooth creamy texture.
Makes enough to last you for a week or two.. (the lemon acts as a natural preservative)
This dressing goes well with pretty much any salad!
To help you reach your weight loss and health goals, I have designed a totally simple, delicious and practical road map. Addressing the limiting factors and obstacles, like time and money, and a tangible plan that includes shopping lists, meal plans, motivational tools, and education will finally help you reach your health goals and make sustainable lifestyle changes.
Get the details about the AOK Meal Plan Membership here.
Need a little kick in the pants to get your healthy eating back on track?
Download your FREE meal plan, shopping list, and meal prep guide that will save your HOURS in the kitchen and kick start your healthy living.
