"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

One of my busy mom survival strategies is to plan ahead as much as I can. 

Sundays are my meal planning and shopping day. I'm am not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of grocery shopper. I go armed with a list. As Andrew will tell you, the grocery store is my playground. If I don't go with a list (and even when I do), I'm likely to overspend in my excitement at all of the food options.

So how do I plan for the week?

I start with the same template each week - a Word document that I have saved on my computer - and plug in my workouts and meals each week. 

Breakfast: It's a no-brainer for us - Shakeology. It's a quick, easy to prepare, supercharged meal that's easy to throw in a cup and grab on my way out the door. I started drinking Shakeology about a year ago and love it. Before I started drinking it I was making myself and the kids protein shakes relatively often and was always on a quest to find new recipes. Shakeology functions a lot like a protein powder does with tons more nutritional benefits. One of the big sellers for me was that it has all the nutrition of several servings of salad all in 150 calorie glass. For someone who is still learning to love veggies, this is a big plus for me. There are so many different recipes with all the flavors that it’s easy for us to mix it up so we're not drinking the same thing every day. Andrew also drinks Shakeology every day for breakfast and lunch so we're a Shakeology family!

If you are interested check out this video (cheesy but also gives you a good idea of what’s in it):

Snacks: I'm a snacker, ask anyone who knows me. I'm pretty much always eating. This is in part because I love food but it's also because I subscribe to the 5-6 small meals a day approach to eating. It keeps your body fueled and prevents dips in my blood sugar which is key if you wake up early to workout! I love my snacks and try to mix it up as much as I can. Many people I know eat the same thing for lunches/dinners/snacks each day and that works well for them in their planning. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me - I get bored. I generally have a fruit/oatmeal-based snack in the AM and a meat/veggie snack in the afternoon. In general, you want to pair a protein (nuts, cheese, cottage cheese, avocado, lean meat) and a healthy complex carb (fruits and veggies.) This will help you keep your energy up and keep you feeling full much longer than a visit to the vending machine for M&Ms. If you're looking for snack ideas check out the link (it's also posted under recipes.)

Lunches: I'm a leftover kind of girl. The kids all eat at school and Andrew has a shake so I become the garbage disposal that takes care of leftovers. I plan to eat my leftovers for lunch the next day and I cook accordingly. 

Dinners: When planning dinners, I first look at what nights we need quick and easy dinners and which nights we're likely to feel more inspired and then plan accordingly.

Nights when Andrew is out late for work become our breakfast for dinner nights. The kids and I are always game for "brinner" as my friend Jane calls it. Pancakes or waffles are our go-to food and whenever possible (assuming we don't wind up feeding the neighborhood, as has been known to happen), I'll make a double batch and freeze the leftovers for mornings before school.

Just one of my crockpot-to-car dinners
at the soccer field!

During soccer and baseball season, planning is key to my staying on track with eating healthy and making sure we're all getting a good meal each night. If we don't plan, we wind up with a lot of take-out and thrown together meals which are not always healthy or satisfying. To avoid this reality, as much as I can, I plan crockpot dinners on nights where we're going to be at the field from 5-7 pm. That way dinner is ready to grab when we walk in the door from school. The kids can throw on their cleats/uniforms and eat in the car on the way to the field. I also often wind up eating in the car while they practice and whomever is home with the non-practicing kids has dinner at the ready. 

Prepping:
Sundays are also when I can prep as much as I can for the week. I chop veggies and marinate meat for Monday and Tuesday night's dinners and make some kind of baked good which will carry us through breakfasts or snacks for the week. I also try every other week to make a soup or tomato sauce, some of which we'll eat that week and the rest goes in the freezer for some night in the future when we need a quick and easy option. Sunday nights I also prepare my snacks for the first few days of the week in tuperwares so they're easy to grab for work. 

I'm an afternoon snacker and if I'm not careful about it, I'll eat everything in sight between 3-5pm. Because of this, I also will often make a crockpot meal which then becomes my afternoon snacks for the week. These mini-meals then go into tuperware for the week like so:

They always say: 

It's going to be a busy week in our house this week - everyone's back to school and soccer season starts up. Here's my plan for this week (recipes are posted under the recipes tab):

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