Can you really eat healthier because of meal planning?
Yes, yes you can!
Planned meals mean you most likely already went to the grocery store. When you have food at home it is much easier to avoid going to the drive-through line or ordering a pizza (sometimes 
), you already spent money on the food at home so it is important to eat it.
Staying away from drive-throughs and other quick foods usually means you will be eating healthier. If you are like me, if I order french fries (and I almost always order french fries) I will eat them all. So if I can stay away from them most days, it is usually a good thing. I also usually pick something at a restaurant I don’t normally make at home. This includes other fried foods, breaded items, or eating 150 bowls of tortilla chips. Staying home and cooking means I am not in temptation as often.
Meal planning also means you will probably accidentally eat more vegetables. Most homemade recipes have at least an onion, celery, carrot, or peppers and onions combo in them. These are aromatic and flavorful vegetables. When you put these in the recipes you will eat them! You can also easily add vegetables like pumpkin and carrot purres to soups and sauces.
It is also easy to steam a bag of vegetables for a side dish, slice up a carrot, or an apple, and have that as a side too. These side dishes are quick, flavorful, and a great way to add more fiber to your diet. Yay, vegetables!
Lastly, you will be the one purchasing your proteins. When you are the one purchasing and looking at your proteins, and not just ordering whatever the restaurant owner decided, you get to decide the fat content of proteins like ground meat.
If you didn’t know, the % of ground beef means you are picking what percentage of fat to lean you are purchasing. 80/20 means it is 80% lean and 20% fat in the meat you are buying. The higher the number on the right side means it is more lean, so 93/7 is less fat than the 80/20. You are also in control of whatever other proteins and the quality you want. You can see the color, cut, and marbling of the meat making it exactly what you want to consume!
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