Planning Meals
You eat in a variety of places - your home, work, restaurants, maybe even your car. For some of these places, you have more control over what choices are available than others. Since high-calorie foods are everywhere, it’s important to take the time to plan ahead to make sure you have healthy options available.
Meals at Home
Whether you are cooking for just yourself, one to two people, or a larger
group, planning meals is a good place to start improving your food choices.
Taking the time to plan a healthy evening meal can help you avoid a less
healthful "drive-through" dinner.
To start, grab a pencil and paper and list your favorite meals. It may help
to talk to your family or thumb through a favorite cook book. Some of the
meals will be healthier than others, but for now, just write them all down.
This
paper menu planner
(PDF-68k) is one way to sketch out your meals. You
might want to try
MyPryamid's interactive
meal planner
which gives you the approximate calories in
your meals and shows whether your meals are balanced for the day. It can
help you plan your upcoming meals to meet your weight goals and suggest ways
to improve choices.
Once you’ve planned your meals, make a grocery list. Take some time on your visit to the grocery store to choose lower-calorie ingredients. Here are some ideas that may help:
- Many casseroles and meat sauces use cream soups as a base. Use a low-fat cream soup.
- Substitute a low-fat cheese in casseroles and vegetable sauces. When using sharply flavored cheese, such as cheddar and parmesan, you can usually reduce the amount in a recipe to save calories without sacrificing flavor.
- Try a non-stick cooking spray or a small amount of cooking oil for sautéing instead of frying with solid fat.
- If you're using ground beef for tacos or meat sauce for spaghetti, look for a lower-fat variety such as ground round or ground sirloin or try using skinless ground turkey breast. Once you've browned the meat, drain to remove excess fat.
- Instead of full-fat versions of mayonnaises, butter, and salad dressings, try those that are lower in calories, total fat, saturated fat, and trans fat.
- Check out the frozen food aisles for quick, low-calorie vegetable side dishes. You can find cut green beans, sliced carrots, and other chopped vegetables in the frozen food section. Avoid the ones with added cream, butter, or cheese sauces as these ingredients can add calories. You can steam these vegetables quickly in the microwave.
- In some soups and entrees, you may also be able to add dry beans to extend the recipe and improve the nutritional value. This is easy to do in vegetable-based soups and chili. You can just add a cup of canned white beans, kidney beans, or pinto beans to the recipe. As another example, if you are making enchiladas, rinse a can of black beans and add these to the ground meat.
Research shows that people get full by the amount of food they eat, not the number of calories they take in. You can cut calories in your favorite foods by lowering the amount of fat and or increasing the amount of fiber-rich ingredients, such as vegetables or fruit. Eating fewer calories doesn't necessarily mean eating less food. To learn more, visit Eat More, Weigh Less? And see How to Use Fruits and Vegetables to Manage Your Weight for more information.
At first, you may find you only get a lower calorie meal planned for one or two nights a week. Don't criticize yourself; you're making steps in the right direction. Over time, you'll figure out meal-preparation short-cuts and it will become easier to make healthy family meals a regular occurrence.
Meals on the Go
For the places where you might grab a snack or have a meal on the go (such as the car or at your desk), make sure you have nutritious snacks available or at home that you can take with you. For example:
- "Grab-and-go" fruits: apples, oranges, bananas, canned fruit without added sugars, and raisins
- Washed and chopped fresh vegetables: celery, carrots, and cucumbers
- Low-fat and fat-free milk products: yogurt without added sugars, milk, and low-fat cheeses
- Whole-grain crackers and breads
- Protein choices such as low-fat deli turkey slices or almonds and other nuts and seeds
Take the time to make a shopping list and re-stock your cabinets and fridge with healthy options. It’s also a good idea to think about stocking your office cabinet or car glove box with healthy shelf-stable treats if these are places where you snack. You'll find it's easier to make better choices when you have a good variety of nutritious foods available in the places where you eat.
Want to learn more?
Healthy Eating for a Healthy Weight
Tips on how to eat healthfully and enjoy it.
Cutting Calories
Ways to cut calories for your meals, snacks, and even beverages.
Healthy Recipes
Links to healthy recipes with calorie counts and nutritional
information.
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Page last updated: June 20, 2008
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion