How to Eat Healthy All Week Long

Jen’s tips, tricks, and recipes to help you eat healthy all week long

It’s rare that a week goes by without someone I work with commenting on my healthy eating habits. I eat breakfast everyday, bring my lunch to work, and rarely eat out. I’m not a stickler about what I eat when it comes to the weekends but M-F I do what I can to keep my diet reeled in. Might sound a bit boring to some but for me this plan works. I figure if I can make the right decisions 80% of the time, there’s no reason to feel guilty about the 20% I’d rather feast on chocolate, cheese, and wine.

Aside from the general commentary, I often get asked how I manage to do it. I wish I could tell you there is some secret formula or magic trick to it all. In reality, however, the trick is quite simple. Sticking to your healthy habits all comes down to being prepared.

> Your Plan of Attack

1. Pick Your Meals

The plain and simple trick to eating healthy is to plan ahead. It can be a pain in the butt to put in the up front work but the extra effort pays off in the long run. When you plan out what you’re going to eat for the week ahead, you guard yourself against unnecessary diet cheats.

My approach starts with Sunday morning meal planning. I hop on Pinterest or scout out some of my favorite foods blogs for recipes that catch my interest. I look for those that can be made in big batches and easily portioned out.Each week I narrow down to one recipe for each meal and save the others for weeks ahead. For breakfast my recipe of choice is often a take on an egg frittata, lunch tends to be soup or salad, and dinner is frequently a meat and veggie combo.

2. Get to the Grocery

The grocery store can be your best or your worst friend depending on how you approach it. Show up unprepared and it’s bound to lure you into making spontaneous and unhealthy choices. Those Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Joe-Joes are hard to resist when you’re not exactly sure what you’re shopping for.

Instead of showing up empty-handed, commit to yourself that you will always show up to the grocery store with a list in hand. As soon as I’ve selected my recipes for the week I transfer the ingredients over to a list. I add in any additional staples like coffee and bottled water as well as one or two snacks that I’ll want to munch on between meals. When I get to the grocery I stick to buying only what’s on my list.

3. Make Time for Meal Prep

It’s hard to predict exactly what is going to interrupt your schedule each day. Impromptu early morning meetings can eek out your plans to make a healthy breakfast. An unexpected after-work event might diminish your motivation to cook dinner when you get home. Since you can’t count on these things not happening, the best approach is to expect that they will happen and plan for them.

For me, this means that I like to do all of my meal prep before the week gets started. I set aside Sunday mornings to prep as many meals for the week as I can. If it’s a recipe that can be fully made ahead like my breakfast frittata then I go for it. If it’s something that needs to be assembled right before eating, I make sure all the pieces are ready to go. With a meal like a salad for example, I chop up all of my lettuces, mix-ins, and meats, and put each into its own container. When I’m ready to throw it all together the hard work has already been done.

4. Stock up on Tupperware

The last trick to a successful meal prep is to make sure you have plenty of containers to store your prepared meals. Load your kitchen with necessary supplies like Tupperware, Zip-lock baggies, foil, and cling wrap. A good, insulated lunch bag is another item that can come in handy for toting your meals from home to work.