How Do You Make a Meal Plan?

Look, I've been helping people with meal planning for years, and the biggest mistake I see? Trying to plan 21 completely different meals each week. That's exhausting.

Your 6-Step Meal Planning Process

First, audit your current eating patterns. What meals do you actually enjoy? What times do you typically eat? This isn't about perfection—it's about building on what already works.

Second, choose your anchor meals. Pick 3-4 reliable breakfast options (like overnight oats or egg muffins), 4-5 lunch ideas, and 5-6 dinner recipes you can rotate. Mediterranean diet meal plans work great here because they're flexible and use similar ingredients.

Third, batch your planning by ingredient families. If you're buying chicken breast, plan 2-3 different chicken dishes that week. Same with seasonal vegetables.

• Sunday: Grocery shopping and basic meal prep
• Monday-Wednesday: Fresh meals and leftovers
• Thursday-Saturday: Freezer meals and quick healthy meal prep ideas

Fourth, map your meals to your actual schedule. Tuesday night soccer practice? That's a slow cooker day. Busy Thursday morning? Prep that breakfast Sunday.

Fifth, write everything down—seriously. I use a simple weekly grid, but even your phone's notes app works.

Finally, prep what you can in advance. This doesn't mean full meal prep services level planning. Even washing lettuce and chopping onions saves time later.