Man in the Arena with Craig Spear

A System for Meal Plan Mastery

• Craig Spear

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I used to shutter when my wife mentioned the words 'meal plan'.  To me, meal planning used to mean 'no fun', 'rigidity' and most importantly, 'failure' because I often didn't stay true to what was planned.  But over time, I've come to really value the meal planning system my wife and I put in place because it has so many benefits.  

With that, in today's episode, I talk about...

  1. The Three Step System I use to meal plan meals each week
  2. Why this system is so beneficial
  3. Some of the traps to avoid when it comes to creating your meal planning system

Remember, systems are simply a series of steps and processes that are created with intention in order to produce a predictable and desirable outcome.  So if you want to perform at your best, it's vital to put systems in place to ensure your success.

Enjoy!

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Speaker 1:

This is the last episode of the system series, and today I'm talking about a system for meal planning. More specifically, I'm talking about the three-step system I use to plan meals each week, why the system is so beneficial and some of the traps to be mindful of when you set up your own system. Let's jump in. Welcome to man in the Arena. This podcast is for men over 40 who want to master their health and weight loss goals once and for all, with innovative strategies, practical tools and insightful interviews. My goal is to help you overcome your limiting beliefs and achieve your optimal health. It's time to look good, feel good and do better. Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in this week. I'm so excited to talk about my meal planning system because I know it's gonna have a huge impact on your life.

Speaker 1:

Let me just reiterate why I believe so deeply in systems. If you look at life or business or sports or music, behind everything that's sustainable and successful, there's some kind of intentional, well-thought-out system, and that system was developed on purpose and then it was continuously refined to optimize results. Just look at our bodies. We have 11 organ systems that routinely perform vital tasks every day to keep us alive and well, without our respiratory system, our immune system, our central nervous system, and so on and so on, we'd never would have evolved to where we are today. Every successful business has systems. One of the most influential books I read was called the E-Myth by Michael Gerber, and in that book he talks about why systems are so important and how entrepreneurs often fail in their first five years of business because they don't have integral systems. In football, every team has systems built into every element of their existence, from practice to meetings, to offensive defensive systems. So systems matter, and though this is the last episode of this series, I'm gonna come back to systems in the future.

Speaker 1:

The last thing I'll say about systems is this Systems are a series of steps. They're processes that are created with intention, and the reason why we wanna create those processes and steps with an intention is so that we produce a predictable and desirable outcome. Now, the irony of all of this is you're already using systems. The only difference is your systems are most likely unconscious and they're unintentional, and then, because of this, this leads to sporadic or, even worse, undesired results. So, as humans, we're creating systems all the time, and they show up as habits.

Speaker 1:

So today, my goal is to help you create a meal planning system that's intentional and then that becomes a habit. All right, and the reason why I wanna do that is to make your life easier. I also wanna make you healthier and, as a result, this means you're gonna be more successful in your career, in your relationships, and so that's the value of a meal planning system. So, first and foremost, please don't make this system difficult. It's going to take work up front, but ultimately I want it to be really simple for you. Second, set yourself up for success by working on this system one step at a time. Right, we're going to develop the whole system, but then, as you start to integrate it, focus on one thing at a time. Third, does your system have an element of fun or excitement involved? It's got to be something you enjoy doing, otherwise you're going to avoid it at all costs. Lastly, you know, refine your steps as you go.

Speaker 1:

Okay, this is an iterative process. So you're going to create a system, then you're going to integrate it, but you're going to realize that maybe some things don't fit, they don't work. But in doing so, I don't want you to cut corners. Right, we want to keep it simple, but if we're cutting corners, then we're not going to produce the desired outcome we want. So this is how you measure that. This is how you can measure your meal plan as you develop it.

Speaker 1:

You can ask four questions. Is this system something I can easily complete each week? Do I feel like I'm set up for success? Is this system something I look forward to doing each week? And which part of the system am I currently focusing on and refining? So, with that, why do you need a meal planning system?

Speaker 1:

Right, there's lots of reasons, but I'm going to highlight six of them. Number one is decision fatigue. We can only make between seven and 14 quality decisions a day, and our decision making ability dramatically decreases after midday. That's why, if we don't have a plan in place and we haven't made decisions about food ahead of time, we're going to get to the end of our day and we're going to be completely exhausted and fatigued about having to make another decision. And so what we often do is we often make an emotional decision, and that's the second reason, right, we want to make decisions from a conscious place. So we want to make a decision from a neutral place, one that's not emotionally charged, and so, when we're able to get into our prefrontal. When we're not in fight or flight, we're going to make really good quality decisions, and that's the value of a meal planning system.

Speaker 1:

The other thing about a meal planning system is it opens up opportunities to see when you do want to eat off plan, when you are going to eat emotionally or when fog eating is taking place, and then, of course, because of this, you're gaining new insights around certain areas where you can focus your attention. The other thing is, when you don't have a meal plan, that means there's no accountability, and when there's no accountability, there's no risk. And when there's no risk, that means you're not growing. So when we create a plan, that means I've got something that I have to follow through on. When I don't have a plan, that means I don't have to be accountable. So that's the value of having this plan is it creates more accountability.

Speaker 1:

At the same time, if weight loss is one of your goals, then you absolutely need to know what you're eating, when you're eating and where you're going to eat. That the reason that is is this helps create better eating habits in the long run and, of course, that's going to support your weight loss in the long term. More practically okay. When you have a meal plan, you're going to save way more money on groceries, you're going to reduce food waste and at the same time, you're going to be able to reconnect with food in a way that is just way more fulfilling, rather than just this mindless consumption that often leads to us feeling guilty. So, for example, I have a client who is working on drinking less diet soda. So he was drinking about four or five diet sodas a day. Now he's down to one on Saturday and he enjoys that drink so much more because now it's part of his intentional plan. So when he gets to that drink, it's like oh, I've been looking forward to this, it was in my plan, so it's less mindless eating. So that's why we want to have a meal planning system in place.

Speaker 1:

So my meal planning system is really simple. It's three steps and I got to say I still do my daily protocols. But this is something I do with my wife every week. All right, we sit down on a Sunday, we take my daughter to swimming and while we're at swimming watching her swim, we're doing this. At the same time we grab a tea on the way. So it's become this whole routine and it's something we really look forward to, but that's just the overall framework for the week. Now, every day I wake up, I still look at my plan. I can alter it a little bit if I need to. So I'm still setting my daily protocol because I want that added layer of accountability. But this is my weekly meal planning system.

Speaker 1:

The first thing is I want you to make a master list of meals. That's step number one make a master list of meals. So what this means is you do a brainstorm, either with your family or on your own, and you write down all the meals that you like to eat, and I want you to do this without any judgment or any kind of expectation or ideals. So I like Chipotle, and so that makes the list for me. There's another restaurant in town that I like to go to and I like certain meals from that restaurant. That makes my list. It does not have to be a list of healthy, fancy recipes. This has to be foods and meals that are meaningful to you.

Speaker 1:

Once you've got your list, what I want you to do is categorize these meals based on a certain number of categories. So for my, the categories that I use are number one is pre-made meals. So I use a service called Factor and these are unfrozen meals that get pre-made and delivered to my front door each week. So I put a list, a bunch of those meals in that category. Then I have my eating out category, then I have my cooked meals, meals that I prepare and make, and then, of course, I have a leftover category, and then you could go on and on and on. But you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner and you could have five minute meals. You could have longer meals, 30 minute meals. However you want to set this up is entirely up to you. But what you've done is you've created a database of meals that you can go back to, because from that database now you're going to go on to step two, which is to plan the meals into your week.

Speaker 1:

But before I get there, I want to remind you to set yourself up for success, especially when it comes to deciding on your master list of meals. So again, don't be too rigid. You don't want to be perfect in this. It's not about creating a bunch of healthy meals that are going to help you lose weight or build muscle, whatever, it is All right. This is a list of meals that you're going to enjoy eating that are going to keep you on track. And back to my number one philosophy. My number one rule is that you're a grown ass man. You can eat whatever you want, as long as it's intentional, right. At the same time, there's a story I want to share with you that I came across on James Clear's website, and I'm just going to read it to you and then I'll kind of apply it to how this with respect to meal planning.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so James Clear wrote my dad and I loved playing basketball. We used to play hoops in the front yard almost every day when I was growing up. He was also my coach for many years. One thing that always stuck with me was him saying shoot to make it. I think there's a lot of moments in basketball in life where we're just throwing up a shot and hoping it goes in. How I interpreted his mantra was to have intention. If you're going to take a shot, take a good one and take it to make it. Please come back to what he said. When I'm evaluating the decisions I'm making and actions I take, am I shooting to make it? So, when you make your plan and when you create your list, your master list of meals, do so with intention, that you're going to follow through and eat these meals as part of your meal planning system. Right, if you're looking to find a fine meal, you're getting perfect or ideal plan foods that you're going to eat over time. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So step two is the actual planning piece. I want you to look at your week, look at your needs, look at your schedule, your eating times, and this means pulling out your schedule, your calendar, and identifying exactly when you're going to eat and where. So I have a client every Monday morning at 9 am and this is the first thing we do together because it gets him into a good mindset. Okay, we put in his meals every day. And here's the good news Most of you eat the same breakfast every day and some of you are also doing an intermittent fast. So really, we're talking about 14 meals a lunch and a dinner or maybe a snack in between there that you're planning for the entire week. Okay, if you're saying in your head, yes, craig, I get this, but I don't know where I'm always going to be. My schedule is crazy Then I still want you to plan what you can, and then I want you to go back and please listen to an episode I did a couple of months ago called Scramble Rules, because what that episode is going to do is going to help you reframe your mindset around what to do when life goes off script.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so what we do is we take the master list of our meals. In step one, we look at our calendar, we pick the meals we want to eat and we put them into our calendar. That's simple. That's what me and my wife do. Here's our master list what do we want to eat and wear, what time, what days? Now, this is the simple part. The next simple part, but it's really important you go and get the groceries, okay, and not even go and get the groceries, you just get the groceries.

Speaker 1:

And when I say get the groceries, what I mean is I want you to shop for the meals that you've planned, okay, I don't want you to get extra snacks or drinks. Now, if you have kids at home, you do the same thing. You go through their plan, you get their lunches and their dinners and everything sort of organized, and you get the groceries you need for the meals that you've planned, okay. So, as I mentioned, I use Factor, which is a meal delivery service, and that helps me. That shows up every Tuesday at my front door and I know when those meals are gonna arrive and I put them into my calendar accordingly. The other service that I use, which I think is so powerful, is Instacart, and so there's other services out there. Walmart offers one. I know a lot of grocery stores offer different grocery delivery services, but what this allows me to do is I just go online, I get all my groceries for the meals that I plan to eat, and then they show up at my door and I put them in the fridge. Okay, this has helped me spend way less time in the kitchen preparing and cleaning and cooking.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I know that's often a big barrier to people who meal plan. Right. They set the intention ahead of time, they plan their meal, but then it comes to actually making the meal or preparing what they plan to, and that just doesn't appeal to them. So what I want you to do is just make sure you've set yourself up for success. Okay, here's the last part of this system, and I mentioned this before. But you have to make this enjoyable. You have to make it fun. As I mentioned, my wife and I we do this the same time every week. So make sure you're doing this on a regular schedule. Try your best, you know. If you have more time on a Sunday morning, get up early, get this done.

Speaker 1:

Okay, remember, once you've got your system in place, you wanna be sure that you're on the right path and you're gonna ask these questions Is this a system I can complete each week? Do I feel like I'm set up for success? Is this a system I'm looking forward to doing each week, and what part of the system am I currently focusing on and refining? My best advice is start with this first step. Create that list of meals, that master list of meals that you can always go back to. So just brainstorm you and your wife, you and your family, you and your partner whoever that is sit down and create that master list and then just keep adding to it each week.

Speaker 1:

Another thing I recommend doing is create a date night with your partner or with your entire family, and just say guys, every Wednesday we're gonna explore a new recipe and create that together. Make sure it's something that you can repeat each week and if it's something you enjoy, put it on the master list, okay. So, guys, there's my meal planning system. It's simple. It's three steps and it's something that I'm continuously refining as I go and, believe me, it produces the desired outcome I have and I want each week, which is to eat healthy and to also enjoy certain meals so it's not too restrictive. So with that, thanks again for tuning in, guys. I really look forward to next week's episode. In the meantime, keep showing up doing the work so you can look good, feel good and do better. Now is the time to take action and change your life. Head on over to the spear methodcom and discover how I can help you get started on your path better health and weight loss.