Meal planning tips: Preparing a nutritious, glucose-friendly diet

Meal planning involves working out what meals you’ll be eating in advance. Some people like to plan a day ahead of time while others like to plan out entire weeks. 

One potential aspect of meal planning is meal prepping. Here, you prepare certain ingredients for meals in advance to save time when it’s time to cook. This could involve chopping up one particular vegetable or it could mean getting every component of a dish portioned out and ready to go. 

Effective meal planning takes some work up front, but once you get into a groove with it, it can be a game-changer. It takes out some of the decision-making, so it requires less effort to eat healthy meals all week long. 

And by prepping meals in advance when you aren’t hungry (or tired, busy, or stressed), it’ll be easier for you to choose nutritious, balanced meals to eat throughout the week. 

What is meal planning? 

Meal planning is when you map out the foods you’ll be eating in the future. It can involve preparing components of the meals in advance, which is also known as meal prepping. Some people like dedicating a few hours to cleaning, prepping, chopping, and batch cooking ingredients to save time further down the line. 

The level of meal planning you do is up to you and should make it simpler for you to eat healthy foods throughout the week. 

For some, it could involve writing down what you’re planning to eat for dinner a few days a week and shopping for those ingredients. Others will want to plan out most meals, and shop, prep, cook, and portion out the foods for each meal. 

How to meal plan for a nutritious, glucose-friendly diet 

 Here are some meal planning tips that can help with glucose management, reducing your risk of glucose spikes and making it easier to eat in a healthy way at every meal. 

Map out a menu 

Take stock of what you have in the cupboards and what’s on sale at the supermarket. Mapping out your menu usually involves planning out meals for the week and identifying opportunities to eat at home, when you’ll need a meal on the go, as well as eating occasions in the middle of busy periods.   

You could check out meal planning apps, write the weekly menu and schedule on a whiteboard in the kitchen, or use good old-fashioned pen and paper to etch out your meal routine. 

Plan your grocery runs 

Make a list ahead of time to ensure you’ll pick up all the ingredients you need to make the meals you've got lined up. Again, check what you already have at home so you don’t buy extras.  

Think about pantry staples that you can use in multiple meals, like spices, beans, broths, whole grain pasta, quinoa, farro, couscous, and brown rice. It can also be a good idea to keep frozen proteins and veg in the freezer if you have one for times when you want to throw together a quick meal. 

Keeping on top of your shopping can mean saving time (and potentially money) as you avoid last-minute supermarket runs. 

Carve out time to chop 

Make quick work of your weekday dinner prep by cleaning and chopping base vegetables like lettuces, onions, carrots, peppers, and celery ahead of time. You’ll save time throughout the week when these ingredients are ready to be added to your plate or recipe. 

You could also use meal prep time to cook some of these vegetables. It’s so much easier to add vegetables to meals and snacks when you see them ready to eat in the fridge. 

If you have a freezer, you can also store any prepped vegetables that you don’t end up using throughout the week for use at a later date. 

Pre-portion your snacks  

Rather than reaching for the entire bag of almonds when you’re hungry, portion out your snacks. This can help you stay on top of how much you’re eating and help you have some easy grab-and-go nosh to stash in your bag when you’re on the run. 

Wash and prep some fruit for early in the week. You might even want to buy single-serving snack packs, like 100-calorie packs, pre-portioned trail mix, or portable peanut butter. 

Store balanced meals in portioned containers 

Some meal planners like to keep all their chicken in one storage container, vegetables in another, and cooked starches in their own containers. That can be a good way to meal prep, but if you’re concerned with overeating, you might find it easier to practice food combining in separate containers. For example, you could measure out a serving of cooked quinoa, cooked chicken, and vegetables in a single container so you know what your macronutrients are for that meal. 

You’re already putting the food away after prepping it, so one option is to build and store whole meals you can just “heat and eat.” 

Cook proteins ahead of time

Why not spend an hour or two cooking some protein at once that you can eat all week long.  Here are some ways you could do it:  

• Throw some chicken breasts with a little broth in the slow cooker and shred to work them into meals throughout the week. 
• Boil eggs so you’ll have a prepared protein to add to a snack or pair with breakfast. 
• Grill pork loin and slice it up to serve in meals and lunches. 

Find ways to make healthy eating easier and tastier

New healthy eating trends are always coming along to freshen up so-called boring foods.  For instance, making a salad topper with a mix of nuts, seeds, and quinoa that you can toss on your greens all week long is a simple way to add fibre, protein, and flavour.  Videos on social media platforms like TikTok can be a great source of inspiration. You could also look for content around “cook once, eat all week” as well as “batch cooking” tips and tricks.

Create a list of “go-to” meals  

While we may have the best intentions to plan and prep our meals ahead of time, there will always be times that pop up where you need to grab something quick. “Go-to” meals are quick options that you can fall back on when you’re short on time and haven’t been able to plan or prep.

Go-to meals typically contain ingredients you always have on hand (think pantry and freezer ingredients) and can be thrown together in less than 15 minutes. You can also think through one or two healthy options you could grab from your favourite takeaway when you just don’t want to cook.

Some examples of go-to meals include: 

1. Frozen burger patty with microwave-steamed bed of green beans topped with butter and a side of ready-to-eat couscous  
2. Pasta with frozen veggies and low-sugar marinara sauce 
3. Chipotle salad with chicken, beans, and guacamole 

A final note from Lingo

Meal planning takes some work but so does preparing any meal. And in general, eating whole, healthy foods requires a little more time and effort to ensure you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs.

Experiment with meal planning and learn how to have fun with it. You can find lots of healthy meal plans online as well as videos and suggestions from people who meal plan regularly.  Meal prep time can also be an opportunity to listen to a favourite podcast, audiobook, talk on the phone, or even watch a show as you clean, chop, cook, and portion out foods.

Find aspects of meal planning and preparation that you feel most comfortable with and fit your skill level and time constraints. You might make a week’s worth of dinner meals, a few side dishes, or simply stick to portioning out snacks.

Whatever investment you make in meal planning will pay off with less hectic, more balanced meals in the days that follow. And the more balanced your meals, the less likely you’ll feel hungry later.

Finally, you can track the impact of the meals you plan on your glucose using a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) like Lingo. These devices provide glucose data that can help you learn which meals might work for you to keep your glucose steady.

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