Sticking to a healthy diet without driving yourself crazy can be tough. I love to cook, but I still get frustrated with having to worry about buying groceries, planning out meals for the week, cooking, and portioning, let alone storing all of this in a NYC apartment kitchen. When I’m coming home from a late evening at the gym around 9PM, I’m looking to for whatever I can get into my system as quickly and easily as possible, without having to worry about cleanup. This is where proper planning really comes into its own.

Cheat Sheet

Before we get going, we want to share this awesome cheat sheet from Precision Nutrition. Not sure what to make? Unclear on portion sizes? Need some inspiration? Print this out and put it in your kitchen, it’s so handy!

Meal Kits

There are a few routes you can take here that make things a little easier when it comes to meal planning. I’ll start with the ones that take the least amount of effort: meal kits. There’s a meal kit for everyone; Whole30 approved, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, paleo, keto; whatever you want, you’ll find it. Meal kits tend to be broken down into the kits you have to cook yourself, (think Blue Apron, Purple Carrot) vs the kits that just need to be heated up (Trifecta, Factor).

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you’re someone who is just not interested in cooking, is unwilling to learn, and is either going to get delivery or eat garbage, just go for one of these. I’m a huge advocate for cooking food for yourself, but I know there are a lot of factors that get in the way. I get it, you don’t have the time, you don’t have the knowledge, you hate it, whatever. I live with one of you. I know for a fact that she would subsist off of cheese, toast, ice cream, cereal and take out sushi if it was up to her. If this is you, try a pre-made meal kit. If you do your research, it won’t cost an arm and a leg and will be a helluva lot healthier than whatever it is you’d be eating otherwise. The best part about meal kits, in my opinion, is you don’t have to think. You just pick what you want and give them your credit card. The food comes to you. Boom. Easy. Getting home at 9:30PM after a long day? You have something reasonably healthy you can throw in the microwave.

Planning and Prepping

With that out of the way, Let’s talk about the DIY approach.

If you want to eat healthy food, that you control, that is exactly the way you want it, tailored to your budget, your tastes, and your dietary needs, you’re going to need to plan and cook. Yes, it takes more time. Yes you have to actually think about it, and yeah, not gonna lie, it’s going to suck sometimes. You’re going to have to do dishes. You’re going to have to get groceries. Here’s the thing though; if you like food and like to control what you’re eating, planning, prepping, and cooking can be very satisfying. Over time you learn what meals are the most cost effective, least time consuming, and most delicious, while still remaining healthy. Personally, I find cooking to be a meditative practice. I’m sure many of you will disagree, but if done right, I promise, it can be a true joy. 

I’ll start on the planning side. The first thing I’d suggest is making a spreadsheet. like this:

I like to have a column for each day of the week, with a row covering my meals, snacks, and what I’m going to cook on a given day. If you want to get really anal, you can make a tab for each specific dish with the ingredients and recipe. Also, save these weekly meal plans so you can keep track of what you’ve had, what you like, what you don’t, and any notes you may have. This is key. There’s going to be something you make that you don’t like, or that took way too long and wasn’t worth it. Gather intel and adapt. Keeping notes, writing down what works and doesn’t, tracking your meals and recipes, even tracking what you’re paying for groceries all helps. The more intel you gather, the more informed your choices will be. 

The way I like to fill out the plan is twofold: First, I will consider what I’m interested in eating this week. You’re going to be eating a few of these meals several times, so don’t make stuff you don’t like because you will end up ditching the plan for garbage. My plan last week was really chicken heavy, as you can see. I’ll be cutting back on the chicken for this week, for example, replacing that protein with grass fed steak and ground turkey. 

The second thing I’ll do when I have a baseline idea of what I’d like to eat is to check my local store’s specials to see what’s on sale, what’s new, and what’s good. I do a lot of shopping with FreshDirect, and supplement with my neighborhood health-food store, butcher, and farmer’s market. Maybe you have a Trader Joe’s or a Costco convenient to you, all good! Just make sure you’re buying their organic options and as local as possible. Check out the flyers, check any offers the stores email you, and browse the farmer’s as often as possible to get a sense of what’s available. If you have a baseline recipe, for example, you’d like frittata muffins, and you know you’re going to make them for breakfast for the week, you can mix up the ingredients depending on what’s fresh and local. If asparagus is just beginning to come in season, I’ll probably lean into that and make a frittata with asparagus and spring greens. Does FreshDirect have a special on whole chickens? I may go buy a few whole chickens that I can either roast or break down for parts. This past week I roasted two chickens, for example, because they were on sale. For two people we easily got 5 meals out of them. I then freeze the bones and carcasses to use in stock.

Finally, it really helps to have some meals that are just routine. For me, breakfast is not something I can think about. Either I have something made ahead of time or I don’t eat. To deal with that, I’ll cycle between frittata muffins and overnight oats. If you can deal with that kind of routine that’s going to make your life easier.

Next week I’m going to send out some foundational recipes that I like to use as my go-to’s when it comes to meal prep. Think roast chicken that can be turned into multiple dishes, a vegetarian mushroom ragout you’d swear had meat in it, steak, soup, veggies, and delicious grains. 

Stay Tuned!