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Can you practice intuitive eating while doing meal prep or following a meal plan? Intuitive eating meal planning is a great middle ground, when you have nutrition goals you want to reach and want to incorporate intuitive eating principles!

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I work with many clients on achieving food freedom through intuitive eating.

However, there is a misconception that intuitive eating has no structure and is just “eat what you want when you want.”

While that mentality may work for some people, it doesn’t for most of us.

Therefore, being aware of intuitive eating meal prep and using knowledge and preferences to prep food ahead of time for you and/or your family can certainly be helpful!

So, let’s talk about intuitive eating and meal planning, and what that looks like.

Can I Have an Intuitive Eating Meal Plan?

People think meal planning has to be rigid, and all or nothing.

Remember, black and white thinking does not mesh with intuitive eating. When learning to become an intuitive eater, there is a lot of nuance.

Sometimes we take steps back to move forward.

Intuitive eating and meal planning can certainly exist together.

I always like to point out that meal planning is not necessarily synonymous with a meal plan.

A meal plan (noun) is generally something you follow that tells you what to eat. Or, has suggestions to choose from.

On the contrary, meal planning (verb) is something done to make your life easier.

Intuitive Eating, although difficult to begin and learn, once understood can make life easier.

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When just beginning, I generally recommend these 5 ways to start intuitive eating. It takes the stress out of eating, food rules, and food choices.

So, intuitive eating and meal planning are both great for relieving some of the stress and pressure from being a perfect eater.

I thought it would be helpful to talk about each separately, and then combine them together into what I’m calling intuitive meal prep.

Intuitive Eating For Your Meal Plan

Intuitive eating simply put, is being intuitive with what your body wants.

We could talk about physical hunger vs. emotional hunger, feeling your fullness and food cravings, but essentially if you’re listening to your body, you’re on the right track.

But, listening to your body can be challenging if you’re stuck in the diet mentality.

What Is Intuitive Eating Meal Prep?

Here are some reasons why intuitive eating meal prep is important and what it can translate to.

• You don’t let yourself get too hungry because you know that feels like crap. To counteract this, you prep snacks in advance, like chocolate zucchini muffins or trail mix bars.
• You realize that you may overeat and get over-full sometimes (don’t we all) because we’re all still learning and there’s no such thing as perfect. However, you’re aware that eating more than you’re hungry for doesn’t always feel good. So, you check in with your intuitive eating hunger scale earlier and more often to prevent getting down to a 1 or 2.
• Choose what sounds good in the moment – If you can’t stop thinking about a cupcake, there may be a reason for it. You may have kept it as a forbidden food for too long.
• You stock up on quality meat (we use Butcher Box) and just cook a bunch on Sunday that you can add to things like rice bowls, salads, burgers and more.

Here’s a personal example. I tend to overeat when there’s a spread of yummy desserts in front of me that I want to try. Or, if I’m out with friends and we all order different dishes and I want to try a little of everything.

While the physical fullness is temporary, the overall experience is very pleasurable and memorable.

Intuitive eating refers not only to choosing meals and snacks that sound good in the moment, but making use of what you already have prepped that can nourish and sustain you.

Practical Meal Prep

Meal prepping can be a lifesaver. Believe me – I’m living in this week. I don’t have to put the mental energy into cooking foods when I’m drained at the end of the day.

These tips on athlete meal prep ideas can apply to everyone!

However, I know that not all weeks are the same and meal prep wouldn’t work for every week – or, every week just looks different.

Remember, we’re talking about meal prep or meal planning, not following a rigid meal plan.

It’s important to differentiate because you can do all the meal planning based on hitting certain macros, or you can do it all out of gentle nutrition.

The act of meal prepping is a great way to fit more time into your schedule and save money.

You can review this pantry staples list to keep prime foods and ingredients on hand for quick recipes.

Believe me, I’ve gone to the store before without a list and without rhyme or reason for using the ingredients and I’ve spent so much more money and even worse, let the ingredients go to waste.

Having a plan is important!

“What if I do all this meal prep and then I don’t want the food?”

There are a few different ways to answer this question.

First, remember that not every meal has to be “OMG AMAZING” with intuitive eating.

Sometimes you just eat a meal and move on. You’ve nourished your body, and spent minimal time and energy making/stressing about the food, so you can move on with your day.

Prime example: You come home from work at 5. You have a soccer game at 7, and you know you need to eat before it.

You don’t have time to cook something from scratch based on what you really want, but you have something pre-made that tasted good yesterday.

It may not be what you want in this exact moment, but it’s there, it’s easy, it’s balanced and it will do.

What’s the alternate scenario?

You don’t meal plan and you really want xyz for dinner.

It’s been a long day, but you stop at the store on the way home to buy the ingredients (because you didn’t pre-plan).

Finally, you get home and have to tend to the kids, laundry, pack lunches for the next day, etc. etc. and before you know it, it’s 8:30 pm and you don’t even want this dinner anymore!

You could also just stop and get takeout on the way home for something you’re really craving and that is still totally an option, or even use a meal delivery service, like Blue Apron.

Meal planning doesn’t prevent you from doing that. 

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If you really don’t want the food that you’ve meal prepped, you can either freeze it for another time, or save it for lunch or dinner the following day.

Or eat part of it and pair it with something you do want!

Again, nothing has to ever be black and white. I think the more we can look at this with flexibility, the better.

If you get sick of the food day after day, repurpose it! Leftovers can be fun.

Don’t just eat a sweetpotato with your turkey burger again. Stuff it with beans and cheese!

Use a different dressing, or topping – marinara sauce goes well with just about everything in my book.

Top your veggies with different cheeses, sauces, herbs, hemp seeds, seasonings, nutritional yeast, etc.

Combine Intuitive Eating with your Meal Plan or Meal Planning

Both mesh because meal planning is a form of gentle nutrition.

It’s choosing meals and recipes that sound good to you and you know are satisfying.

Recipes that have carbs, fat, protein and fiber, or some combination of the performance plate – not just a low carb meal. It’s choosing meals based on foods you LIKE.

I would never tell someone to do a bunch of meal prep and make a kale and broccoli salad if they hate kale!

That is not intuitive at all and that would basically make me hate meal prep if I hated kale.

That is not intuitive meal prep.

Insetad, meal planning utilizes that plan and caters it to your schedule.

So, maybe you purposefully plan for dinner out with your girlfriends one night.

That’s one less meal to cook and an opportunity to socialize and order what you want in the moment.

Meal planning allows a flexible structure (because nothing is set in stone and you can always bypass a meal) so you can spend your mental energy on other things that invigorate you.

Maybe it’s more joyful movement because without meal planning, you come home from work and only have time to eat dinner before you pass out.

In that scenario, there’s no time for exercise and then you don’t feel like yourself. Check out intuitive eating and exercise, and tips for balancing them.

Having something pre-prepared or a convenience dinner option would be ideal.

Or, maybe you’re not up as late washing dishes from cooking so late so you can actually enjoy a movie with your significant other and/or an early bedtime.

All great forms of self care!

When you go through the act of meal planning, (hopefully) you’re cooking a few different things that may appeal to different moods.

But, again, there’s no one right way to do meal planning.

So maybe for you, it’s just washing and chopping veggies so you can quickly add them to your lunches or dinners.

That’s a gentle nutrition move because you know without doing that, you may not get your veggies or feel as good.

Or, maybe it’s thawing the meat the night before and pairing it with the sweetpotatoes you baked on Sunday and the veggies you cut on Sunday.

That’s turning a 45-minute dinner into a 15-minute dinner. That works too!

Either way, it’s helping you de-stress about thinking about food.

It drastically cuts down the amount of time you think about food.

Meal Planning and Intuitive Eating Final Points

Here are some final points about how the two go together.

• Buy a variety of ingredients and nutrients from the grocery store – carbs, fats, proteins, veggies, dairy, fun foods.
  • I’d say plan for 2-3 recipes for the week, but you can do up to 5! Do whatever is doable and comfortable for you
• Keep some pantry staples on hand that you can always cook quickly!
  • Mine are microwavable rice, frozen veggies, canned beans, pizza dough, lentils, potatoes, sweet potatoes, canned tuna, pasta, whole grain bread. I often keep nitrate-free pre-cooked chicken sausage on hand at all times when all else fails and I didn’t meal prep and run out of time for dinner. Or, eggs, veggies and toast is my ultimate go to!
• Incorporate the main macronutrients in all of your meals
• Cook things in bulk, like boiling rice or quinoa, baking potatoes and/or veggies, and sauteeing chicken or steak. It takes the same amount of time to cook 4 of these as it does 1 so do it in bulk if you can!
• Choose foods you like so you feel full and satisfied after eating
• Aim for one pot recipes – like taco tortellini, turkey taco quinoa skillet or pizza beans.

If you’re looking for other ways to loosely meal plan and save time, consider

• Online shopping (with discounts)/ Grocery delivery
• Meal Delivery services
• Ingredients that can be dressed up in 2 different meals (i.e. shredded chicken in the crockpot for tacos and/or for your stir fry)

• Simple Meal Prep for Athletes
• 7 Make Ahead Breakfast Ideas
• 50 Freezer Meals for New Moms
• Cheap College Meal Ideas for anyone on a budget

Do you think meal planning and intuitive eating can go together?