When you run your own business, it can be really hard to shut it all down and take care of those everyday personal tasks–like, say, feeding yourself! (And no, Fruit Loops for dinner doesn’t count.) Healthy meal planning for entrepreneurs may just feel like a lost cause from the start.
Especially if you work from home, which in theory sounds like you should be able to weave more personal chores in because you’re right there. But guess what else is always right there? Your work.
On the other hand, if you’re also working a day job during the early years of your business and squeezing in your business during those precious nights and weekends–you can just kiss the concept of a healthy home-cooked meal goodbye, right?
Not necessarily. Over the years of building a business while working full-time, I’ve fine-tuned my meal-planning process to create healthy, energizing meals to help fuel my husband’s and my steep ambitions.
Think about it. What we put into our bodies is more than just a necessary inconvenience or temporary distraction. The World Health Organization estimates that proper nutrition accounts for up to 20% of our ability to be productive. And while you don’t have to cook at home to get the nutrients you need, studies show that people who eat at home automatically eat healthier–whether they intend to or not! And certainly, the more you have pre-prepped, nourishing meals at the ready, the more likely you are to avoid calling Domino’s!
But like anything worth having in life, it takes a bit of strategy and up-front work. Here’s what I’ve learned about simplifying the healthy meal planning process as an entrepreneur with an unpredictable schedule.
#1. NEVER go to the grocery without a plan.
The absolute worst way to ensure you have something healthy on the table every night is to wander the aisles of the grocery store aimlessly and just grab whatever you see. I guarantee you’ll not only spend more than you intended, but you’ll get home and have no idea of what to actually make with those darn ingredients! Queue up the trajectory of spending even MORE money on take-out or yet another trip to the grocery, while the healthy ingredients you originally bought die a slow death at the bottom of your crisper.
Going to the grocery without a list is the entrepreneur’s equivalent of managing all your different social media accounts with no content calendar. You know as well as I do that consistent content requires a plan–not just waking up and thinking, “Hmmm, what should I post today?” (And even if you do end up squeaking by with that process, you probably always experience a low-grade anxiety as a result.)
In the Meal Planning Mastery workshop I teach a few times a year, I show my students how to do a whole quarter’s worth of meal-planning in one weekend. At the very least, you should sit down once a week to plan your upcoming meals and shopping list.
#2. Apply the concept of batching to your food
After creating a good content calendar, batching content can be one of the most liberating and effective methods an entrepreneur can use to maintain consistency in their business–whether that’s blog posts, videos, social media posts, photo editing, physical product production, etc.
And that process you’ve become such a fan of in your business (or at least WISH you were doing regularly) can be applied in the exact same way to your meal prep!
Breakfast is one of the easiest meals to batch–especially since the thought of eating the same thing for breakfast every day for a week isn’t likely to tax your need for variety as much as, say, eating the same thing every night for dinner. (Psst…snag some of my favorite low-carb breakfast recipes that can be batched ahead of time HERE.)
Personally, I’m always running behind in the morning too, which is even more of a reason to ensure I at least have a healthy grab-and-go breakfast to get my day started right.
But you can also batch meals that you can freeze for later, or even PARTS of meals that can be frozen for a few months that will make your weekly meal prep that much easier. (Think making a big batch of rice and beans, or pureeing a bunch of steamed veggies to add into pasta dishes.)
#3. Buck the traditional wisdom of assigning certain meals with certain days of the week
I love me some structure these days, especially while balancing a business with a full-time job, home, dogs, and healthy lifestyle. But cute Pinterest chalkboards aside, I never assign meals to corresponding days of the week. Some meals take longer than others to make (although I’d really LOVE to see you limiting your recipes to quick basic ones–something I tend to go a little overboard with myself). And plus–some foods just sound better than others at different times.
Pick out how many meals you want to make at home that week, purchase all the ingredients for each of them, but then allow yourself that flexibility to decide which one to make based on how your day goes and what sounds good.
#4. Have different categories of fall-back options
Having a plan to begin with will drastically increase the likelihood of getting a nourishing meal in your belly. But let’s face it–life happens! As a busy entrepreneur, tasks constantly swell and take longer than you think. Websites crash. Interruptions happen.
Oh, and then there’s that little thing we call a personal life! Pets have accidents; kids get sick; that funny noise with the house ended up being a $300 plumbing project that diverted your whole afternoon waiting for a service repairman.
Give yourself permission to forego your best-laid plans as needed. But that doesn’t have to mean resuming your drive-through circuit. Here are 3 categories of “fall-back plans” I want you to get into the habit of always having at hand:
- A 10-minute Prep Meal–For us, that’s Trader Joe’s pre-made whole wheat root veggie ravioli with fresh basil, pre-chopped butternut squash that steams in the bag, olive oil, and shaved parmesan. Tastes fancy but takes 8 minutes to assemble. Maybe for you, this is a pre-bagged organic salad and rotisserie chicken.
- A Healthy Frozen Meal (In Case of Emergencies)–Now, the cool thing about this is that if you’ve been putting the rest of the steps into practice, you should have already batched a couple of freezer meals! But if not, I recommend Amy’s brand frozen meals as your best lunch pick from the frozen food aisle.
- A List of Healthy Take-Out Options–Repeat after me: “I am better than the drive-through.” This day and age, there is literally no reason for you to ever darken the doors of a fast-food joint. Spend 10 minutes now compiling a list somewhere in your task management system of 3 to 4 healthy to-go options within a few miles of your usual driving route. We’ll grab sofrita-and-veggie brown rice bowls from Chipotle or steamed protein and veggies from Pei Wei when we’re in a crunch or I’m just too tired to add one more chore to my already long day.
Just like you’ve learned in business, a little bit of organized work ahead of time is always better than flying by the seat of your pants. And that feeling you get when 5 o’clock rolls around, you start to wonder ‘What’s for dinner?’ and then you remember that you’ve got it all covered? Yeah, pretty great.
If you’re ready to get ahead of your healthy meal planning, I’ve got ya covered with the perfect place to start! Click HERE or click the button below to download my recipe guide: 4 Weeks of Energizing, Make-Ahead Breakfasts for Busy Entrepreneurs (in 10 Minutes or Less).
