Episode 20: Meal Planning & Prepping Tips

Meal planning and prepping can be key to keeping symptoms down. This can also help you stay on track with consistent meals and optimal nutrition, which are both important for digestive health.

This episode goes through the process I use and teach for planning and prepping, to help you save time and energy.

You can check out the podcast on iTunes here, Spotify here, and on YouTube here! Below is a full transcript of the episode if you prefer to read through it or want notes.

Don’t forget to connect to others in The GUT Community, a Facebook group for those with IBS and digestive disorders to support one another and dive deeper into each episode together.

Welcome back to the show! For today's episode, make it a little bit casual and talk about meal prepping and planning. A lot of times what I get asked whenever we're looking at diet changes, and even lifestyle changes, is the lack of success with the changes that people want to make usually comes down to prepping and planning. And while this might feel a bit overwhelming to you know, plan out your meals and prep your meals at the start of the week, there's actually a process that you can use to make it easier for you to save time, as well as stay on track with what you are looking towards.

Now, I want to get the thought of meal planning and prepping having to look one way like you know, the little boxes with the chicken and the broccoli. And you know, this weird diet culture mentality around meal planning and prepping like, let's let that go. And instead, we want to think about this as simply preparing for the week in a way that makes your life much easier around foods specifically here. But some of these strategies can also work for other parts of your life and other things that you're wanting to do.

So when we're looking at meal planning and prepping, the success comes with the planning almost more than it does with the prepping a big piece I see people missing is that they try to do all of their planning and prepping on the exact same day. So they put all of that work into one day, which can feel a bit daunting the day of but it can also lead to missing a step because you don't have enough time. So if we're waiting until Sunday to do all of this, you might not get there, which can make you feel a little frustrated. And also kind of lead to that feeling of you know, I can't do this or this is just not for me, right. And then we give up and said we want to actually plan by and then prep on different days to break up some of the work and allow you to do it with more success and have those little wins so that you can build your confidence and continuing to do it long term.

So with meal planning, the goal is to sit down and think about your entire week that's coming up, I like to do this on Fridays at the end of a workday, it's a great time to do it before you're checking out. Because this is really going to take the most thought this is where you're actually picking out. Okay, what do I need to get like, what am I actually going to make? And what's the plan for it. All right. So this takes a little bit more mental thought, but it doesn't really take you leaving your house. So it's really nice to do at the end of a work day, on a Friday evening, as soon as you get home, maybe early on a Friday morning or early Saturday morning, if that works best for you. But what you want to do is you want to sit down, look at your calendar for the next week. And think about the meals that you actually will need as well as any other considerations that need to be made. So if you're looking at the week ahead, instead of just automatically planning five lunches, five dinners, and you know, five breakfasts for your weekdays, actually see what you have going on, you may have plans in the evening work might be providing a lunch, you know, there might be some other pieces to your schedule that's going on that you may or may not need a meal for. Once you've determined how many meals you do need, then you're going to think about okay, what considerations, do I need to make for the week ahead of me. So let's say you are having a really active week where you're increasing your exercise intensity, then you may want to consider that you may want a little extra nutrition on those days, you might realize that, Okay, I'm going to be out, you know, for lunch with my work. And so it's a meal out, typically that might contribute to more symptoms. So you may choose a meal that has less foods that you know, trigger your symptoms for breakfast and for dinner, you may be starting a protocol like a low fodmap diet. And so you want to include that in there, you may have a goal of increasing your fiber.

So just think about what are my considerations like what am I actually thinking about what's a goal that I have for this week that I want to work towards. So look at schedule, think about your considerations, what needs to happen this week. And then next, you want to think about Okay, what meals I'm actually going to make. My recommendation here is to try a new recipe or two. But don't try all new recipes for every single meal. That's gonna put a lot of work on your plate. And unless you have the time, and you really have that desire to make something new for every single meal, then don't do it. Instead, maybe choose something new, bring it into the rotation, and then pair that with some meals that are really easy for you to put together based on your schedule and based on your preferences and your family's preferences. So let's say for breakfast, if you always have oatmeal, maybe this week you switch it up in one day. You have Like a chia seed pudding or a smoothie or something new, but you're not going to change every single day and completely twist yourself around, where it's going to take you a lot longer to get ready, right? for lunches, it's always a great idea to maybe choose like one or two options that you can plan out and go ahead and prep. So that you only have to cook like once and be able to feed yourself all week. And then for dinners thinking about things that you can maybe assemble ahead of time you can throw into a crock pot before you leave for work, and really quick meals on those nights that you work a little bit later. really thinking through how much time do I have each evening? What can I do in advance, or what can I make, you know, that cooks while I'm working so that I don't have as much work to do whenever I get home. So you're planning out the different types of meals that you want to have. After you plan Okay, here are the things that think I want to pull in for this week, kind of put them on a day, you have the freedom and the ability to change the plan. But planning it out will allow you to visualize where things fit and also help you when you're thinking about the prepping process. So go ahead and assign them to different days with if you are prepping the meals in advance. So if you are going to prep all of your lunches, you're going to prep you know some of your dinners.

One thing to consider is food safety. So we don't want to take things like our meats for too long, like we don't want to wait too long to eat them once we cooked them. And so you may plan those meals towards the start of the week and maybe throw in some plant based options towards the end of the week, you may also decide that you prep partial, like do a partial prep on Sunday, and then maybe the rest of the prep on a Wednesday. So kind of think about that as well. Because that's going to be a big factor of where the meals fit in. You also want to think about in the evenings, you know, plan the meals that are easy to throw together, or the ones that are being done either in advance like you prepped it, or you at least put it together to where you just throw it in the oven, you put it in a crock pot, put those on the days where you have the heaviest amount of things going on. And then the days where maybe you don't have as much going on in the evening, then you might be able to try that new recipe that you're wanting to try that you cook fresh. So really think through where they fit. Does this make sense? Can you see this being executed easily. And then if that is the case, you want to start mapping out what ingredients you need, and which of those dishes or recipes, you are going to prep in advance.

So you've planned out, you've looked at your calendar, you've thought about your considerations, you've picked your meals and assign them. And now you're making your ingredients list. You're also making your kind of planning checklist or your prepping checklist of the things you're going to prep in advance. It is so helpful to do this because you can take this list, put it on your calendar on Sunday, or whatever day you're planning to prep and just execute it. You don't have to think about what comes next. What else do I need? Oh, yeah, what did I buy, you don't have to think about those things. Because you already created a nice easy list, it could be a sticky note can be a note on your phone can be a big whiteboard, whatever you want to use. So you plan your ingredients list. And then you take your you make your prepping list. So what that could look like is portioning out the ingredients for the crock pot, putting together this casserole or the enchiladas that you're going to throw in the oven for dinner one night, and cooking lunches, you know prepping lunches, dying the fish to then make on Monday, whatever it might be, kind of think through what steps need to be taken. Once you have your ingredients list, then you want to decide, okay, When am I going to get these ingredients. If you do it on Friday, at the end of the work day, it might work for you to stop by the store on the way home and you can go ahead and buy all the ingredients that you need. You may decide that you do it on a Saturday, you may go ahead and like open up your grocery delivery platform that you use in order then it's what I do. And you've already maybe you say okay, Sunday, I'm going to go ahead and do this. But you already have your list.

So whenever you decide that you're going to go to the store, you are ready to go. If you're trying to get into the routine of planning and prepping, and you find that that's a barrier where you kind of lose time, then it may help at first to put that shopping trip in your calendar. If you don't have the time or it's just not as accessible to get there. grocery delivery might be a good option to consider to save you time as well as help you kind of reach that goal of planning and prepping those meals without that barrier in the way. I had a client once tell me that she felt selfish whenever she thought about ordering groceries because it was this idea of you know, of course she could go like she can go get her own groceries. Why would she order I challenged her to do it anyways because the barrier was getting to the store and feeling like she was sacrificing that time that she would get to spend with her friends and the people that she you know cares about her significant other instead of being at the grocery So she started scheduling and getting her groceries delivered. And it changed the game for her, she was able to actually start planning out her meals more easily, she was able to start prepping meal. So she didn't feel like she was scrambling on Monday, she was jumping back into her week, and it took this huge load off her shoulders. So that's what that can do for you. And if you're in that seat, and you think I think this is salvage, like, of course, I just go get my own groceries, think about the time that you're trading, and that might be an option, it may not be an option for you. And that's okay to think about ease. Do I stop by on my way home from work to save time, while I'm already driving? Can I just do this early Saturday morning, before I jump into, you know, my plans with my friends, think about where you can fit it into where it can happen effortlessly and not take away from your weekend or your day. And then the next step. So we have went ahead and we've planned, we've shot we've gotten the shopping done, now it is time to execute the prep. So you've already made your list of the things that you're planning to prep. Now what you want to do when you're prepping is set aside enough time, I really recommend putting this on your calendar or maybe finding a time that can be consistent week by week. So is it Sunday at noon before you eat lunch? Is it early Sunday morning? Is it the end of the day, like as you're cooking dinner Sunday night like think about is it Monday night, you know, where does it fit.

Once you have that time, you want to start it by finding your list and laying out your ingredients. And actually helps you as you get into the groove, just go ahead and get all the ingredients out. And you can even separate them by the different dishes that you are going to be preparing. What's really nice about doing this is that you can also visualize what parts of the kitchen that you need to use for the different meals you're making. And you may map that out. What will save you the most time is doing it all together. So kind of going from thing to thing. And having you know the stove going the oven going all the different appliances happening, different cutting boards going on, and try to prep them all kind of at the same time. Instead of focusing on just one recipe after another, going from one to the next and just waiting for one to be finished before you go to another, it's going to take you a whole lot more time. If you're brand new to cooking and doing multitasking with your ingredients in your recipes feels a little overwhelming, then do it one recipe at a time. That's okay, that's a great place to start. If you aren't that if you feel like you're pretty comfortable in the kitchen, if you know how if you feel like you're comfortable multitasking. And you also kind of know some of the recipes you're making already. Try to do it at once it's going to give you more like bang for your buck in terms of the time that you are spending. So map it out, get all your ingredients ready and start with the thing that's going to take the longest. So if you're gonna be baking something, or something's gonna take a long time, like on the stove, make sure you start there so that you can kind of wrap all the recipes up at around the same time too.

So you can clean and move on. So I like to do this every single week. Usually, I think about what things Am I cooking versus Am I just assembling. So I'll think about cooking first, and then I assemble other things while the cooking is happening. And then a really big thing that will help save you time as well as energy is cleaning as you go. So clean as well as package as you go. One thing that can be really nice is having good containers that you can package things in. So like lunch containers that are a good size that you always use, maybe a casserole dish with a cover on it, if you're making things like that big like bags, whether they're, you know, Ziploc bags, or the plastic free options, like a silicone bag that you can use for your crock pot dishes, she's gonna think about that too. Because the having those resources in place will allow you to save time as well as execute effortlessly. And then the last thing is to just take note of what went well, and what could be better. So you may realize that, okay, this week, it took me a long time to plan out my meals. So maybe you come up with you know, a recipe box of things that you like that are maybe it's not using recipes, and you just keep it simple for a while as you're getting into the groove and finding things that you enjoy. You may find that you felt very overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once in your kitchen on a Sunday. And then you may break it up between a Sunday and a Wednesday. Or maybe you do focus on one thing at a time when you're cooking to be a little bit more relaxing for you versus feeling like you're rushing from one thing to the next. You may find that ordering groceries doesn't work and you'd rather go to the grocery store because you like that connection with what you're getting. Whatever you find as a takeaway, like write it down, and then you can come back to that On the next Friday, or whenever it is that you're planning again, and make that adjustment so that you can have that success moving forward.

So while this is my meal planning and prepping technique, this is a process I use, this is the process I teach. It's not the best process out there, and it may not be the exact one for you. And so really think about how can I modify this? How can I shift this? How can I find my groove? And what will work for me, because that is what's going to keep you sustainable over time. So I hope this was helpful conversation around meal planning and prepping, I get this question a lot. So I wanted to just outline it for you. If you're interested in seeing me execute this process and even talk about this in some ways. Follow me on Instagram at Aaron judge.rd. I show my process quite often. And I talk about different recipes and things that I'm putting together if you need a little bit of inspiration. In the meantime, if you have any recipes or tips you want to share, join us over on the get community on Facebook, let us know even if you're listening to this way later from when it was published. It never hurts to get new ideas and shake things up a little bit with different perspective. So please come share if you have something to share. Or come ask a question if there's something that you're struggling with in your planning and prepping process. Enjoy and I will see you on the next episode.