Grab a cup of coffee and let’s talk menu planning. Menu planning is the key to the success I have had so far on the Trim Healthy Mama plan. Actually, menu planning is the key to feeding my family of ten at any time and I often need to remind myself of this. This year began like most others with me vowing that I would lose the baby weight and get in shape. It is a common theme at the start of a new year, particularly the year after I have had another baby. Sometimes it is simply a commitment to feed my family healthy meals.

By this time of the year, however, I have generally fallen off the weight loss and healthy eating bandwagon, and I end up doing the same thing I have always done. And surprise, surprise, nothing changes. We do eat mostly healthy meals, but I know that the sugar and white flour laden desserts do feature a little too regularly in my menu planning – as does a tad too much chocolate.  😉  Something had to change.

And it did after I bought the book Trim Healthy Mama. Serene and Pearl explained how I could eat foods that would help promote weight loss and health while still allowing me to indulge in yummy deserts. Desrts form a large part of how our family does hospitality so this is important. I was excited to start right away and as usual, jumped in with both feet. All I needed was to make minor adjustments to how I went about planning our family’s meals. I felt like I could do this year’s New Year Resolution (yes, I made it again this year) at last.

So here I am almost five months after first reading the book. All the baby weight is gone. I am no longer trying to hide that spare tyre that had grown around my middle. So how did I get to this place? Menu planning!

I have always loved menu planning and I knew I could make the changes if I adjusted what I was already doing. Years ago a dear friend bought me a pretty menu planner from kikki.K and it has been a great tool in organising my family’s meal times. So when friends asked for help with their meal plans for Trim Healthy Mama, I knew I had to come up with an easy way of creating these menu plans. I have imagined all sorts of ways to do this and in my searching, I came across ‘Plan to Eat’.

‘Plan to Eat’ is going to revolutionise the way you organise your meal times. You can build your own recipe book. You can access, print and share your recipes from any computer with internet access. Importing recipes from websites and blogs will be a breeze. You can filter the recipes by ingredients, tags or categories that you design – think ‘S’, ‘E’, ‘FP’, ‘Helper’ and ‘Crossovers’. Or S Breakfasts, E Breakfasts, you get my drift. ‘Plan to Eat’ is as easy as choosing your weekly recipes, printing out the weekly plan and shopping list and voila, you’re all set! Are you excited? I am.

I know that when I have a meal plan for the week, my family eats much healthier and I stick to the THM plan. Preparing a weekly meal plan will help you meet and stick to your weight loss goals and help you stay on plan. By using ‘Plan to Eat’, you can build your own menu plans using all the yummy recipes shared on this website or others. Why don’t you give it a go and let me know how you go?

Happy Menu Planning,

Donna.

P.S. By using the ‘Plan To Eat’ link you help to support the running of this website.