Although I run Designer Blogs and love what I do here, my true passion is nutrition. So it should not be surprising that I added a printable meal planner sheet to our ultimate Life Planner. I graduated from BYU in 2006 with a degree in dietetics and recently received my certification in whole food plant-based nutrition. As a result of my education, I believe very strongly in power nutrition has in creating, maintaining, and restoring health. Check how I use our meal planners and grocery lists below.
Update: Our 2021 Life Planner is now available! Click here for more.
Benefits of having a printable meal planning sheet
Food is amazing and has the ability to help our body perform and function at its optimal capacity. If we are nourishing it properly. I believe that a whole-food, plant-based diet is the prescription to optimal health & longevity. I wholeheartedly encourage anyone reading this to learn more about it.
In this post I’ll be featuring some of the pages I use most from our Printable Life Planner. Especially the menu & meal planners and the grocery list. I will also explain what benefits I see from having a printable meal planning sheet.
Print, Plan, Eat!
The printable food planning pages and grocery list from the My Life Planner have been lifesavers when it comes to planning healthy meals for myself and for my family. It can be hard to stick to a healthy diet without proper planning. These meal planning pages make it so easy to plan nutritious, well-balanced meals. Taking time to meal plan each week really is the key to eating healthy.
When you already have your meals planned out, you’ll be less likely to resort to grabbing fast food. Using the grocery list as you plan your meals will ensure you have all the ingredients on hand that you’ll need when it comes time to prep your meals.
Scheduling time after a shopping trip to get all of your veggies and fruits washed and chopped for the week can save you oodles of time when it comes to meal prepping. It also makes grabbing a healthy snack easier because everything healthy will already be chopped, washed, and ready to go.
Breakfast Menu
First, from meal planning printable sheets, I want to show you! I primarily use the breakfast menu for my own personal meal planning and tend to eat the same set of meals each week. Since my breakfast menu usually doesn’t change, I just make sure I restock any of the ingredients I need for those meals as I make my grocery list each week. Here’s a look at what my current breakfast menu looks like.
Lunch Menu
For lunch, I usually incorporate left-overs from the previous night’s dinner as not to waste any food. The other meals listed are my favorite go-to lunches. I keep these menus as a permanent fixture so I always have a healthy plan for meals each day. What’s great about these printable meal planning sheets is that it gives you a place to list the recipe location. There is also a place for fresh ingredients to remind you about using produce before it goes bad. You can also list the other key ingredients to be sure you have everything stocked in your pantry each week. Here’s a look at my current lunch menu.
Dinner Menu
My dinner menu contains meals I make for the entire family, so this menu changes weekly as I try new recipes. As I plan my dinner menu I also create my grocery list. It is based on what I’ll need to make the meals for the week.
Meal Planning and Grocery List
Some of the most important health decisions you make start right in the grocery store. With a pre-made list based off of the healthy meals you’ve planned for the week, it makes it easy to avoid putting unhealthy junk food in your basket. Stick to your list and you’ll be able to avoid temptations. If you don’t bring unhealthy food into your house, you’ll avoid having the temptation to eat it, so just leave it in the grocery store where it belongs.
Usually, my weekly shopping haul consists mostly of the fresh produce needed for the meals that week and a few other items that need to be restocked in my pantry and food storage. Because I buy so much produce and eat mostly whole, plant-based foods, I use the Vegan grocery list (even though I don’t consider myself “vegan” per se) because it has more space for produce.
Meal Planning Printable Sheet
The meal planner is handy because it shows you an entire weeks worth of meals and snacks all on one page. This can be coordinated perfectly with the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus that you’ve already planned from the other pages. Having everything laid out on a single page helps you see the big picture of your food intake and so you can make sure you are eating a well-balanced diet each day and week.
Hopefully this gives you a better idea of how using these pages can help you stick to a healthy diet. Yes, healthy eating takes time and careful planning, but isn’t your health worth it? I’d say it is.
All of the planner pages featured here can be found in our Printable 2021 Life Planner.
Thanks so much or this post, Erin. I’ve had your life planner for a while, but hadn’t really used this section effectively. As you say – it takes time to plan meals properly, and I hadn’t been putting aside that time! My family really needs me to do that. Thanks again for this and all your helpful articles.
Hi, I purchased your Ultimate Life Planner kit a few days ago and I’m very motivated to begin. But I want to thank you for posting this because you have explained very thoroughly how to use the forms. Thanks so much. I am now looking forward to properly planning.
We’re glad this was helpful. Stay tuned to the blog and our newsletter for additional tips in the upcoming weeks!