My boss loves to say “Plan your work and work your plan.” I was thinking the other day how true that is, not only for work, but for diet as well.

For a diet to be successful, it really takes advanced planning. We fall into traps of bad eating in those moments of poor planning – working late and grabbing fast-food for dinner, succumbing to the vending machine when out all day or ordering pizza when staring at an empty refrigerator.

 I usually plan all of my meals for the week on Sunday, along with my weekly grocery shopping list. Planning my meals helps me take the guesswork out of “what to eat” and saves me time, money and energy throughout the week. My plan ensures that I only buy what I need (no rotting veggies in the crisper drawer) and allows me to maximize my ingredients to make my meals. For example, I like to brown my ground turkey for the week on Sunday and use it in my breakfast and dinner for a couple of nights. I also buy a pack of red, green and yellow peppers and cut some of them into strips for salads and omelets, while I leave others whole to use in my stuffed pepper recipe.

Here is a snapshot of my list this week:

Grocery List:

• Eggs
• 99% Fat-Free Ground Turkey
• Red, Yellow and Green Peppers
• Quinoa
• Banana
• Greek Yogurt
• Hummus
• Carrots
• Raspberries
• Frozen broccoli
• Whole Wheat Pita
• Tuna
• Baby spinach

Breakfast:

4 egg whites cooked with pepper strips and ground turkey

Pre-Workout:

Banana

Lunch:

Baby spinach topped with pepper strips, carrots and light raspberry vinaigrette

Carrots with hummus

Tuna mixed with Greek yogurt and stuffed in a whole wheat pita with a schemer of hummus

Afternoon Snack:

Greek Yogurt

Raspberries

Dinner:

Green pepper stuffed with ground turkey cooked with salsa & Greek yogurt

Broccoli

Do you plan your meals in advance? How do you manage your grocery shopping and meals throughout the week? I’d love to hear from you!