{"id":206,"date":"2016-12-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/50.116.64.48\/~kierste9\/2016\/12\/09\/20161209why-meal-planning-sets-you-up-for-success\/"},"modified":"2017-08-18T18:59:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T23:59:23","slug":"why-meal-planning-sets-you-up-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/why-meal-planning-sets-you-up-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Meal Planning Sets You Up For Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey fam! So first, a bit of news. If you haven\u2019t already noticed on some of my social accounts, I have a big announcement. I have officially been offered a writing job with Bustle<\/a>! Every week I get to write awesome lifestyle content for the site. I seriously just write all day. It\u2019s a dream come true.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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However, my lunch breaks are short which means that I can\u2019t mess around any more. Or quite frankly, snack all day, which was the rabbit hole I was going down during my unemployment. Now with a job, and a short lunch break, it\u2019s time to be way more intentional about planning my lunches and dinners. Breakfast is usually small \u2013 a few slices of toast, or cereal, a fried egg, or a smoothie usually does the trick. So instead I concentrate my meal planning energy on the other two meals.<\/p>\n

Now I am a full fledge believer that meal planning really does set you up for success. Why? Because it does for me. Here’s why:<\/p>\n

No need worrying about what to eat every day.<\/h3>\n

How many times have you aimlessly wandered in the kitchen during dinner time, then end up making a box of mac & cheese? Or how about when you\u2019re on your lunch break wanting every intention of buying something healthy, but land on a burrito yet again? You stress on what to eat when the time comes, then end up making unhealthy decision. Or at least I know I do.<\/p>\n

However, if your meals are already planned and even prepped, there\u2019s seriously nothing to worry about! All you have to do is pop in the microwave. You can enjoy your food and take that extra time you would have spent worrying (or even prepping) to do something productive \u2013 like read that long feature article, make a to-do list for your afternoon, or call a friend.<\/p>\n

It forces you to eat healthier<\/h3>\n

Not only are you worrying less, but when you take time to plan and cook healthy meals beforehand, then you\u2019re intentionally eating healthy without even realizing it during your week. What better way to set yourself up for success then putting together healthy meals (one\u2019s that you\u2019ll actually like) that will require zero effort during your week?<\/p>\n

You\u2019re spending less money.<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t even want to bother counting how much you spent on burrito bowls this week, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s way too much. However, if you make those burrito bowls yourself (like the ones I made pictured on top), then you are spending less money overall.<\/p>\n

Grocery runs will be way more productive.<\/h3>\n

When you take time to plan your meals in advanced while making a grocery list based on your meals, then your grocery runs will be super productive. It\u2019s the unproductive trips that get you in trouble \u2013 when you walk into the store without a plan and end up walking out with more junk food then you can probably actually afford.<\/p>\n

You have meals to look forward to.<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re cooking for yourself, then your meals are already a step way healthier than eating out all the time. So make things you\u2019ll enjoy! I love following the meal plan videos Tasty makes \u2013 like their version of Burrito Bowl<\/a>s or these Chicken Salad Pockets<\/a>. Also, you can try some of the meals on my 10-for-10<\/a>. New one coming out soon!<\/p>\n

Overall, your body will love it.<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re filling it with good, home-cooked food on a regular basis I know for certain it will experience a huge sigh of relief. Not only because you\u2019re feeding it well, but because you\u2019re stressing less about your food, spending less money on food, and taking that time to do the things you many not have time or energy for. It\u2019s a success for sure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo Credit:<\/strong><\/em> Monstruo Estudio \/\/ Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey fam! So first, a bit of news. If you haven\u2019t already noticed on some of my social accounts, I have a big announcement. I have officially been offered a writing job with Bustle<\/a>! Every week I get to write awesome lifestyle content for the site. I seriously just write all day. It\u2019s a dream come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":[],"wprm-recipe-roundup-description":[],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[221,71,191,195,196,197,222],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/monstruo-estudio-573-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/monstruo-estudio-573-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kiersten","author_link":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/author\/hickman-kierstengmail-com\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kierstenhickman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}