OK, sit down and grab a cup of tea, coffee or water. Let’s go over this Jump Start Meal Plan…
It’s January and we are all pretty serious about eating better, eating less, exercising more, drinking less, etc. I know I slacked off majorly during the holidays and, unfortunately, there is a price to pay for that.
For me, it’s about getting back to Basics and sticking with the Fundamentals. Menu Planning is a big part of the Basics. Since I get a lot of emails asking me about menu planning, meal planning and cooking in advance, I decided to share a sample of what my weekly menu is all about.
Before I share the actual menu with you, let me give you some guidelines that I use to hopefully help it all make sense.
- When it comes to beverages, I drink water mostly. Sometimes I’ll drink it with a squeeze of lemon or lime but mainly its plain water for me. Other than that, I drink tea – usually Yerba Mate (with a splash of unsweetened, plain almond milk or soymilk creamer) or some type of Green Tea or Chai. I will have the occasional cup of coffee, of course. I mean we live in Seattle, aka Coffee Mecca. Other than these, I will have an occasional cocktail and more often than not, a glass of wine with dinner. I usually use the Activity Points or Weekly Points Plus for those beverages and always make sure I have enough Points Plus for my meals before building the wine in. So, no soda, juice, energy drinks, anything like that for me.. If you drink that stuff, I suggest using your Activity or Weekly Points to account for it.
- I tend to cook “in advance” and so I make a bigger batch of a soup or chili or just plan something with more portions than we need for one meal so that we can use it for lunch the next day or better yet, be frozen for a future, quick meal.
- My rule of thumb when it comes to snacks is 2 Points Plus. I put some ideas /suggestions for this on Page 2 of the Spreadsheet. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have snacks that are more than 2 Points Plus sometimes, this is just a good goal to have to keep snacks in check as an actual snack and not constant mini-meals that will devour all of your Daily Points Plus.
- Same thing for breakfast but I usually keep that to 4 or 5 Points Plus max. Now, with that being said, I am just much more into Lunch and Dinner foods and breakfast is not that important to me.
- I always try to “Think Vegetables First”, which means thinking about what vegetables are on your plate or in your meal. How can you add more? Is there enough? This is a great way to (obviously) eat more vegetables but also to add more volume for less Points Plus to your meals.
Alrighty, now that we have covered that, let’s talk about Menu Planning. While I know there are a lot of great menu planning services out there, I use Plan to Eat and have been since I started Weight Watchers.
It’s reasonably priced, a breeze to navigate, you can easily save recipes from anywhere on the web and (really important to me!) the shopping list is easy to customize for multiple stores and keep in sync with your pantry.
- So, yes I plan our meals. Usually for a week at a time. I build in one to two “free” nights that don’t involve cooking. On those nights, we usually have leftovers, something from the freezer, take-out or maybe go out to dinner.Â
- Also, I like to be flexible as life is ever-changing so sometimes I’ll plan a dish for Tuesday and something comes up that makes it nearly impossible (or too stressful!) so I will move that to the next night. The point is that I will cook all the planned for meals in that week, even if it means swapping Tuesdays plan to Friday and Fridays plan to Wednesday.
- It takes a couple of weeks to get in the grove, but if you stick with menu planning, you will food shop less, save more money at the store, be able to manage your weight easier and alleviate potential stress around family meals or the “What should we eat?” conversation. You know, the conversation that always seems to take place when everyone is hungry. That is never fun.
Since I plan my menus in Plan to Eat, if you are already a member, friend me (EverydayMaven) and I can share menus with you.
If you are not a member and want to join, they offer a Free 30-Day Trial.
Now, obviously you are not all going to join Plan to Eat, and I promised a Free Jump Start Meal Plan, so here is a Google Spreadsheet I’m sharing with you.
The weekly meal plan is on the first tab and some Breakfast, Snack and Salad Suggestions are on the second tab.
Click here to view the spreadsheet.
You should be able to download it to your own computer so you can make changes, move things around, etc.
OK, I know this is a lot of information and I really hope you find it useful. Feel free to email me with any feedback or ideas :).
Thanks!
Alyssa
P.S. I paid for my annual membership and have every year since I joined Plan to Eat but the link I used above is an affiliate link so if you join, I will get a small referral fee. Also, I was using Plan to Eat under my personal email address and just recently switched to my Everyday Maven email so if you friend me there, my account may look a bit empty. I am in the process of moving over all of the recipes so bear with me!  Â
Betty Poehling says
II would like to subscribe to every daY points of 26 for a daily menu thankyou
gloria says
Hi i am trying to help a friend come up with a 57 point w.w menu per day do you have any suggestions, I can’t find one not sure where to look next
EverydayMaven says
Hi Gloria,
I have never seen a 57 point menu anywhere. I suggest she ask her Weight Watcher leader for guidance. Good luck!
Gale says
I am doing the Curves Complete, a new program. Pretty easy except I don’t like measuring and weighing and a lot of dairy which is something I have tried to stay a way from. I am interested in this meal plan and love the exercise at Curves. Signed up for 3 months so want to try and keep up with the commitment. I am curious on the food or meal plan here. Point system is interesting. Thanks.
Melinda says
Thanks for your post. I am currently doing the 30-day Plan to Eat Trial (via your link), and I was looking through some of your wonderful recipes. I’m curious where I find the Weight Watchers PP+ values on your recipes, though. Your spreadsheet is wonderful–I’ve tried to manually meal plan using a spreadsheet, but planning for my own WW-friendly meals, as well as my picky 4 year old and 20 month old, made the spreadsheet overwhelming–and, no auto grocery list. I like Plan to Eat’s format, but having the WW PP+ values will seal the deal for me.
EverydayMaven says
Hi Melinda,
Sure! The WW PP are on every recipe, right under the recipe title. It usually says “2 Points Plus Per Serving — Serves 4” or “4 Points Plus Per Serving — Individual Serving Size is 1 1/2 Cups — Serves 4” that kind of thing. Let me know if you run into a problem viewing them and good luck 🙂
Zoie Perkins says
Do you have any low sugar recipes for desserts . I am a diabetic who can have sweets just not alot of sugar. thanks
EverydayMaven says
I have many low sugar dessert recipes in this section – http://www.everydaymaven.com/category/everyday-maven-recipes/dessert-recipes/ I mostly use unrefined sugars (maple syrup, honey, coconut palm sugar, dates) but you can substitute with Swerve if you use that!
Patti says
I am new to this site and don’t know what to
do yet. I want to do the paleo diet along with
ww. Not sure what to do.
I love this web site and what you do
EverydayMaven says
Truthfully, it’s very difficult to do “both”. WW is very much a diet and Paleo is very much a lifestyle. By it’s nature, WW penalizes you for eating certain Paleo foods (good fats, certain cuts of meat, etc.) so it’s hard to reconcile those two things. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!
MalaLala says
Seriously, thank you for developing this site and sharing everything you know because it is hard to find good WW recipes and so far the ones I have tired are freaking BOMB!! Thank you
EverydayMaven says
You’re so welcome! That really means a lot to me – thank you for reading 🙂
Cathy says
Hey Alyssa,
Just wanted to post a thanks to you for this site. After getting out of the hospital and physical rehabilitation, I found myself thirty pounds lighter.
It’s difficult to maintain. Your site offers healthy meal plans that fit into my new lifestyle.
Really healthful, helpful information.
Cathy B.
EverydayMaven says
Hi Cathy!
Thank you so much for taking the time to come here and give me your feedback – it means a lot to me. Good luck with your rehab food planning – so glad I could help!
Cindy says
I have the 30 day trial for plan to eat . How do I download your recipes to the site?!
EverydayMaven says
All of my recipes are already uploaded into Plan to Eat Cindy. My username over there is EverydayMaven – just send me a friend request and you can see them 🙂
Cindy says
So glad I came upon this site. Eating healthy and meal planning is so challenging for me
EverydayMaven says
Hi Cindy and Welcome!