Article written by: Flora Cheung

As a working parent, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the rush of after-school activities and meal times. When my girls started in competitive sports and the number of training days increased, I found the after-school routine of finishing my job, picking up, preparing and eating dinner, and arriving on time for their activities to be very hectic.

I started meal planning two years ago as a way to avoid the dreaded 2pm question: “what are we going to eat tonight?” The simple act of figuring out what we were eating every day in advance has saved me a lot of time and also ensured that I had healthy food options for my active kids. This article was helpful on what growing gymnasts should eat.

Is there a trick to meal planning? I personally don’t think so. There are apps and tools out there, I’m sure. But my technique is fairly basic (and analog). I use a pen and paper. I make a grid of the days in the week, with a row for what’s for lunch and a row for what’s for dinner. That’s it.

Every Sunday, I write out what is being packed for lunch and what we are going to eat at dinner. I use the grid to write out what needs to be prepared the night before and I jot down my grocery list as I plan so I know exactly what I need to buy in order to make the week’s meals. I find this habit more efficient than running around the grocery store trying to figure out what we will eat and I end up throwing more away that spoils before we get a chance to eat it.

The girls are also involved with menu planning. It’s a great opportunity to ask them what they would like to eat for the week and get them to take an active interest in making their own nutritious food choices.

So what makes it on the menu? I try to plan well-balanced meals for my family. There are no specialty diets and I don’t make multiple meals to suit picky eaters. We all eat the same thing but we try to ensure that our meals are healthy. Having the girls involved in the menu planning also helps to ensure that everyone has a say and that favourite dishes end up on the table as well.

Our girls enjoy cheese and whole-grain crackers over sandwiches for their lunches, but I find it easy to provide a lunch box with portions of foods that I know they enjoy and are good for them too. At dinner, we try to follow Canada’s Food Guide and use the eat well plate method to remind ourselves to have at least half a plate of veggies and balanced portions of everything else. For snacks, I found this article on snack ideas for gymnasts helpful.

This method has saved me a tremendous amount of time and lessened the stress of an overall hectic after-school schedule. There’s many time-saving tricks out there but this plan is something that has stuck with me for two years and I couldn’t imagine my week without it. Hopefully it’s helpful to some of you, too.

*All opinions expressed here are my own and not endorsed or sponsored by OGC.

Photo by Lucas Swinden on Unsplash

Photo by Ella Olsson on Unsplash