Meal planning to stay on track

This is the last week of the Summer Body Challenge and if you’ve been following along with the meal plans and workouts, then you’ll be experiencing some great changes to your body.

You should feel less bloated and more energetic. You’ll definitely notice a change in your shape too.

Maybeyou’veevendropped a clothes size or two!

You’ve only got one week left with my meal plans, so I wanted to show you how you can design your own plans once the challenge is finished so you can continue with the health eating.

The last thing you want is for all of your unhealthy habits to creep back in.

The key to healthy eating is PREPARATION.

And it starts with meal planning.

It doesn’t take long to plan out your week, and it will keep you on track. This is how I do it:

Every weekend I spend ten minutes flicking through cook books on my book shelf, and picking out some meals that I fancy for the following week.

Pinterest is another good source for healthy meal ideas.

I write them down on a meal planner blackboard in my kitchen (along with the cook book name and page number – to save time when it comes to finding the recipe again). For example: Monday – Goats Cheese Frittata (Hemsley Hemsley pg32);

Tuesday – Chicken with Thai Broccoli Rice (Body Coach pg45);

Wednesday – Chicken & Avocado Wrap (Pinterest);

Thursday – Tuna with Green Beans (Bear Grylls pg112);

Friday – Tortilla Pizzas (Pinterest);

Saturday – Spicy Beef StirFry (Summer Body Challenge);

Sunday – Chicken roast (Sainsbury’s mag pg72).

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’m a bit pushed for time so I make sure the meals for those days are quick and easy to make.

On a Friday, I like to have a treat, so I’ll schedule that on the planner too.

Having a structured meal plan like this makes it quicker and easier when it comes to making your meals.

If you don’t have a plan, you’ll waste a lot of time staring into the fridge wondering what you can knock up.

Then you’ll probably give up and reach for convenience foods, because conjuring up a meal in your head is very difficult.

Once I’ve put the meals onto the planner, I go back through the recipes and write down all of the ingredients to create my shopping list.

Then I’ll go get the shopping in for the week ahead.

Going into a supermarket with a structured plan and a shopping list saves you from throwing away foods, and saves you money too!

Without a shopping list, you’ll walk up every single aisle of the supermarket, throwing anything in your trolley that takes your fancy. I can guarantee you’ll not eat half of those impulse buys and they will end up in the bin.

You should also find that you spend less time in the supermarket because you can whizz around for the items on your list, without having to march up and down every aisle.

Head home to fill up the cupboard/fridge with the healthy ingredients I’ve just bought, and that’s me set for the week ahead.

It’s a simple as that. I can do the whole thing in less than an hour. I may have to make another quick trip to the supermarket to pick up more fruit if I run out, but that’s it.

It may take you a little longer to begin with, but as the weeks go by you’ll get quicker and quicker.

Download meal plan six at www.eastcoast-fitness.com/ summerbodychallenge

Go get your shopping in and stock your cupboards/ fridge with the healthy foods.

Get rid of any processed, sugary foods that may have found their way into your cupboards over the last week to remove any temptations.

Make sure you drink at least 2 litres of water every day.

Complete this week’s workout at least three times before next Wednesday.

Make sure you get between 7-9 hours sleep every night.

Follow my advice and design your own meal plan for next week!