Menu Planning

Menu planning is one of the most important tools in eating healthy; the better the planning, the better chance that you will stick to eating healthy.
A good place to start is with breakfast. There's good research to support the claim that eating a healthy breakfast make for an easier time eating healthy and losing weight throughout the day. There's also good evidence that having a complex carb like a good quality whole grain cereal will carry you through the morning without the dreaded mid-morning hunger pangs.
It's a good idea to plan for your snacks. If you love sweet snacks, keep fruit or dried fruit on hand; for salty/savory cravings, nuts or 100-calorie packs of popcorn are great choices.
Many people complain that they don't have time for lunch. However, it takes only a minute to make a sandwich before leaving for work. Again, the key is planning and having the ingredients in-house to make something quick. Whole wheat bread, reduced fat mayo, sliced turkey or ham, reduced fat Swiss cheese, mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, peanut butter and jelly--choose what you like and make sure your pantry is stocked with the ingredients.
You will not only save calories by making your own lunch, you will also save big on lunch expenses. Making a sandwich at home will cost you about a dollar. Eating out will be about seven times that much, at an average of $7. That's $30 a week, or about $1,500 per year. That's enough for a fantastic vacation (or maybe two).
It's easy to save that much and more by planning your own dinners. The plan should include fish, ideally 3 days a week. The research says that eating fish 2 or more days a week dramatically reduces your risk of heart disease. Add to that a red meat dish 1 day a week and alternate between 2 or 3 poultry or vegetarian meals a week.
Your menu plan over 2 weeks (14 days) might look something like this: 2 red meat, 3 poultry, 3 vegetarian, 6 fish.
This doesn't mean that you have to create a complete meal from scratch every night. For your vegetarian nights, this can be as simple as a good whole wheat pasta with bottled spaghetti sauce and a bit of grated Parmesan cheese. Making your favorite chili with ground turkey on the weekend will serve 2 or 3 meals later in the week. Likewise, soups are a great choice to make life easy.