The moment we wake up to the alarm in the morning, we start running like the hamster on the wheel of life. There is family to take care of, work to complete, and life to deal with. Amidst all of this, where is the time to think about what to eat every day?
This is the daily story for most of us. In the rut of life, the first thing we make compromises on are the meals that we eat; which is the most important aspect of our daily life.
Time is of the essence and food is the fuel that our body needs to get going and sustain itself throughout the day. But how does one balance their life in a way that provides it with healthy food? Meal planning and eating good, clean, healthy foods is the answer.
What is Meal Planning?
It is a method of planning what to eat throughout the day, much ahead of the time, and then ideally preparing the meal for the week.
Successful weight management requires both nutritious food and exercise, but which one of the two is more important? In an ideal world, you would be able to accomplish both throughout the week.
Healthy meals and exercising are interdependent. Exercise is the catalyst that enhances the desired output when combined with a healthy meal. An article in WebMD mentions that exercising alone is not as effective as if you are not pairing it with a healthy and nutritious diet. WebMD also suggests that dedicating a whopping 75% to a wholesome meal and the remaining to physical activity is a winning combination.
Meal Planning, A Planned Approach to Your Health Objectives
There are so many benefits of meal planning which is why it should be incorporated into your life.
- Healthier meals make achieving health goals easier.
Setting health goals, which can range from losing weight to maintaining weight is crucial. Meal planning is an organized way to attain them. You have a clear idea about the food that you will be consuming throughout the day. Because of this clarity, you don’t get sudden pangs of hunger or cravings, which makes us reach for the junk food, which is generally the quickest available option.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mentions that research shows that the stomach feels full because of the quantity of food consumed and not because of the calorie count. Thus, having more fiber-rich foods instead of fat-rich foods will make your tummy feel full without all the calories. So, you can plan your meals around weight goals and by being consistent, thus reaping benefits from it.
- Better diabetes management.
American Diabetes Association (ADA) says that nutrition is crucial in managing your diabetes. Good diabetic meal planning combined with mindful eating helps to manage one’s diabetes better. Mindful eating is just being mindful about eating nutritious food that is beneficial to your body.
- Makes grocery shopping easier.
With a meal plan, you know already what your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack for the week will be. You also know how many members of the family you have to cook for. So, what you have on your grocery list, is a clear direction. You walk up to that aisle, pick up your ingredients and walk to the checkout counter.
The chips and soda aisle will lure you. But your dedication and determination to reach your fitness objectives will help you to walk right past the snack food section and straight to the checkout lanes. The Mayoclinic mentions that the benefit of good meal planning helps to control impulse buys and this is also true. When you have planned out your meals, you are less inclined to grab that bag of cookies when you are in the grocery store as you have a list to adhere to while you are shopping and any additions to the cart can throw you off course and off budget.
- More insight on what you are eating.
A meal planning calendar is also a visual representation of what you are ingesting. That deep dive is very insightful to make sure that you are providing your body with all the nutrients it needs to be sound and function to its fullest.
- Better time management.
A busy schedule prevents us from preparing an elaborate meal or any meal for that matter. A lot goes behind the preparation of a meal, deciding the recipe, then the ingredients, and the preparation. A pre-decided meal plan saves time on ideation, and you jump right into the implementation of it which is one less thing to worry about.
The US National Library of Medicine has found that in developed countries, the time spent in the kitchen has reduced from 1:63 hours to 58 minutes from 1966 to 2007, and additionally there has been an increase in the consumption of restaurant food.
- Budget-friendly.
An article in the Farmers Bureau (FB) mentions that the USDA’s study on the US consumers indicate that in the year 2017 a massive amount of money, $1.62 trillion, to be exact, was spent on food and beverages. 53.8% of the total, which came to $869 billion, was spent on eating out and the rest at home. The same bureau also mentioned that in the year 2018 consumers spent $931 billion on eating out which was $150 more than what people spent on their home food. In 2019, USDA Economic Research Service found that approximately one-third of a dollar was spent on eating out in the United States. Not to mention the impact that eating out has on your waistline.
Meal planning is pocket-friendly. You have everything planned and chalked out for a healthy diet. Without a plan, you might end up spending more in the grocery not only on ingredients but also on frozen prepared food or just order takeout instead. With a meal already prepared at home, you are less likely to have food from outside.
- Cooking Skills.
Research conducted by the US National Library of Medicine shows that another primary reason that eating out is accepted is the lack of societal cooking skills. Hence, it is recommended to improve cooking skills to promote healthier eating. The more you cook at home the less you will order food from outside. Ultimately learning to cook will not only inculcate a healthy habit but also add a very important life skill.
- Stop stress or boredom snacking.
A very common tendency is to munch on sugary snacks or junk food when we are stressed or bored. Eating a bar of chocolate or munching on a crunchy bag of chips has a way of relieving stress and alleviating boredom. Following a diet plan ensures that we have a pre-planned snack already prepared which prevents us from stress or boredom eating. The other habit that is associated with stress-induced eating is harmful overeating.
- Reduction of food wastage.
It is very important to think about the environment that we live in. Institute for Public Health mentions that according to USDA, food wastage every year is approximately 90 billion pounds which costs $370 per person annually. When we throw away the last uneaten bit of a sandwich, we seldom think that our actions impact the environment and that we are wasting money and resources by throwing out food that is unnecessary to waste.
Meal planning sets not only the menu but also the portion sizes which reduces food wastage because you are preparing exactly the amount you need to consume.
Thus, we see that meal planning is a very essential tool for weight loss, diabetes management, and just for the overall betterment of your health and wellness.
A Meal Planning Friend
At DishQuo, we have taken a 360-degree approach to meal planning. We understand your time commitments, constraints that you may have. We are committed to providing tools that will make meal planning easy for you.
Our insulin science-based meal planning app is focused on making meal planning as easy as possible for you. Get your custom meal plans based on your personal selections and let our algorithms do the work of choosing unique, flavorful meals for you every week. The app has a growing library of simple and easy-to-make recipes, so wherever you may be with your culinary skills, you will easily be able to whip out a dish in no time.
After you have a meal plan especially designed for you, the app then accumulates all the ingredients into the digital pantry. Once the list of ingredients is accumulated, you can order them and get them delivered to your doorstep by using the grocery delivery feature of the app. Yes, you can do all this from the DishQuo meal planning app.
Transform the way you eat. Delicious & healthy with more than 1500 recipe options, automatic weekly meal plan generation, grocery list creation and food delivery service, DishQuo offers a convenient way to help you reduce stress and save time. Sign up today for your no commitment free 14 day trial!
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