By Miss Fia Batua RND, CSN

Registered Nutritionist Dietitian – Sports Nutritionist

 

Sharing you how I do it! 

Meal planning is one of my favorite in my to-do list .

(I do it every Fridays, or over the weekend)

 

So what is it all about?

 

A MEAL PLAN decreases the chances of a person eating unhealthy food items, just because it’s more convenient. It saves money, minimizes food waste, works on your creativity, and ensures you that you meet your nutritional needs.

It can be done for a week, or a month.

Before starting a menu plan, work on this 5 basic steps:

 

• Shop at your own pantry

How about using that Chicken leftovers from last night and 2-3pcs tomatoes? It can be a start of healthy week ahead and more!

 

 

• Clean your fridge

To avoid unhealthy meals and snacking at home, start cleaning your fridge. Replace fatty-sugary food item with high fiber rich ones (leaving you much fuller, adding less calorie) like green salads, protein bar, muesli cereal, oats, fruits, wholegrain bread, and nuts. This also goes to lean cut meats – avoid those processed meat!

 

• Read Nutrition LABEL

When starting a Menu plan, you also need to work on your grocery list. Shop only needed items. Read Nutrition and Food labels.

The less ingredients, the better!

 

NOTE: Watch out for the added sugar, sodium, cholesterol, trans-fat and saturated fat – We don’t need too much of these item in our diet, that’s why we need to track them down.

 

• Start limiting the amount of High fat food (The Bad kind of FAT)

Such us fried foods, hotdogs, chips, and pastries. These high-fat foods may cause you to gain fat weight.

Cooking with fat adds flavor, so I recommend use Canola Oil for cooking. In minimal amount. (1 serving is 1tsp =45kcalories)

Substitute them with good sources of fat: olives, nuts, and avocado -in moderation.

 

• Be careful on the SUGAR, and everything nice.

Limit sugars and sweets such as candies, cakes, and sugary drinks (soda and artificial ice-tea/juice).

The more sugar you eat, the higher your blood glucose will be.

Use Coco sugar/ Stevia as sweetener.