Why is meal planning important?

This is my first post this year.

This is coming a bit late because of some technical issues (and I really appreciate your patience with me!!) but I'm back and now, permit me to say WELCOME TO 2021!

That aside, now to the matter at hand.

*Meal planning*

I suppose everyone is back from holidays and have resumed work and school as well.

That means that you are all going to be "too busy to pay attention to planning your meals"

As complicated a term as it may seem to be, meal planning is really just the simple act of taking out time to organise our meals for a specific time (let's say a week). It includes planning snacks, breakfast, lunch as well as dinner.

It's quite the effective way to implement healthy meals into your dieting by efficiently utilizing food ingredients, saving money which might be spent on restaurants (you'll definitely be working with a budget as well as available time) and being creative by trying out different food combinations.

As simple as it may seem, I can't help but spell out how important meal planning is because, unfortunately, it is only noticeably practiced by the few enlightened ones.

Here are some very good reasons why you should start planning your meals!

• Helps you keep genuine food goals -

Planning is very important especially when it is associated with food. It helps you easily keep realistic food goals and also achieve them. You definitely have a higher chance succeeding in your diet (be it paleo, vegan, low carbs, Dylan e.t.c) if you have it all planned out.

• Helps you save money - 

Meal planning is one of the best ways to organise your grocery expenses, allowing you to spend money only on ingredients needed. Writing budgets for the week and allocating funds needed solely for the purpose of getting what's needed would go a long way to helping you achieve your budget goals.

• Helps reduce food wasting - 

Food wasting has a huge impact on the environment. When food is disposed it rots and produce a notable amount of methane, contributing significantly to the depletion of the ozone layer. Now, I understand that y'all wouldn't want to make earth less conducive than it already is, so please do well to reduce food wastage.

• Improves cooking skills - 

Just like every other skills, you definitely improve your cooking skills by practicing. Adopting a creative meal plan might even be your ticket to discovering the ultimate recipe for your favourite dish!

• Helps reduce stress - 

Imagine having an eventful day at work, you're famished, hungry and confused. The last thing you want to do is go back to the market simply because there is no ingredient for the easiest meal you could prepare. "Stressful" right? I thought as much. Regardless of the fact that you might be cooking for yourself or family, getting rid of that stress is very important. The wasted time could be invested in something more productive and fun like making brownies!

You might think that meal planning doesn't allow you to be flexible but the funny thing is -it does! It allows you work with your budget, time and schedule. It is just a simple way to organise meals, recipes, ingredients and your grocery lists.

Fun facts:

🧀 The Most Stolen Food In The World Is Cheese!

🍄You Can't Overcook Mushrooms! There's a special polymer in the cell walls of mushrooms that ensure a tender taste. If you manage to overcook mushrooms, you're just an exceptionally bad cook.