Meal Plan Motivation Monday

I wanted to give you some tips on how I meal plan for the day, especially for those hard mornings like Mondays. It's so tempting just to get up, roll out of bed and head out out to work/school/playdates, but planning out the meals for your day in the morning (or the night before) saves you time, money and keeps you eating healthy!

Here is what I brought for work today:

Everyday, I try to bring breakfast (almost always Shakeology), 2 snacks (1 morning, 1 afternoon) and lunch (I do occasionally buy lunch, but I try the best I can to bring something from home).

I also always carry my Camelbak with me and make sure that I drink at least 3-4 of them everyday to stay hydrated - it is amazing how hydration or dehydration affects your body and energy level. A few months ago, I never drank water during the day - I just didn't think about doing it. But now that I'm in the habit, I need it everyday!

On the menu today:

Breakfast: Vanilla Shakeology shaken with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and pumpkin spice coffee.

To make sure that I always have Shakeology on hand, I have home direct and it ships to me each month. Kris and I go through almost 3 cartons of almond milk each week - I always buy these on the weekend to make sure that we are stocked up. It's a staple of my grocery list. Trader Joe's is the best and has the cheapest! I just bought the pumpkin spice coffee this weekend and it's also from Trader Joe's. Delicious and really gets you into the fall mood!

Morning snack: Carrot sticks with hummus

A giant bag of carrots is super cheap and taste SO much better than baby carrots. They also last for at least 2 weeks so you don't have to buy them every week. Just peel them up quick, cut them up and store them in the fridge in individual ziploc bags to grab for the week! I buy the individual hummus containers in bulk from Costco. They are a great deal and you don't have to worry about a) having a container on hand and washing it each time you want to carry hummus with you and b) it going bad once you open the big container. Let's be honest, we all do it - I know I waste hummus all the time when I buy a big container of it.

Lunch: Beef and Sausage Hearty Chili with shredded sharp cheddar cheese

I made a big pot of chili on Sunday and now we have it to grab for the rest of the week for a quick, healthy meal....recipe to come at a later time. I also buy big blocks of cheese at a time and shred them myself. It's so much cheesier without all of the preservatives in those pre-shredded bags. 

I love these Oxo Tot containers because they are perfect for cheese, almond butter, hummus, avocado, etc. - we actually bought them for Emmy's baby food and we still send her to school with them for fruit, goldfish, etc.

Afternoon snack: Sliced apples with almond butter (unsweetened)

Apples also last for at least 2 weeks, so I stock up every other week and keep them in the fridge handy to slice in the morning. To make slicing easy, I have this handy Oxo slicer (can you tell that I'm obsessed with Oxo products?):

Dinner: Kris and I are a big fan of breakfast for dinner! We had eggs over easy with toasted whole wheat English muffins. I buy English muffins when they have the buy 2 get 1 free sales and then store them in the freezer. You can do so much with English muffins - it's not just a breakfast food - such as English muffin pizzas!

So, that's it for my first Meal Plan Motivation Monday.

What are some of your tips for meal planning?