Find Your Perfect Meal Planning Style

Methods for every schedule and lifestyle to simplify home cooking

If you're trying to cook at home more but feel overwhelmed by meal planning, you're not alone. With so many ways to approach it, deciding what works best for your lifestyle can seem daunting. In this guide, we break down different meal planning types and who would benefit from each of them. Whether you're looking to streamline your weekly meals, save time and money, or bring more variety into your cooking, this post will help you find the best approach based on your schedule, goals, and current season of life. Let’s dive in and find your schedule!

The Meal Planning Types

1.) Full Meal Prep

This is the ultimate level of meal prepping. Full meal prepping means you pick a day to cook ALL of your meals for the work week. You’d put in a large amount of effort, say on a Sunday before the week, but then the rest of the week you don’t have to cook at all, or at least for about 5 days (I wouldn’t recommend eating leftovers beyond this mark). Weekends can be left open for more flexibility or dining out. While it’s not the most common method, this is popular in fitness circles and among those who prioritize a set routine.

This is for someone who:

• prefers a structured routine with little meal decision-making during the week.

• cooks for 1-2 people max.

• doesn’t mind eating the same meals (and portions) 4-5 days in a row.

• might have busy work weeks, but has a good chunk of time open on the weekend.

• is tracking their macros/calories and wants to maintain consistency.

• wants to save money and make sure all of your ingredients get used.

This is NOT for someone who:

• doesn’t like leftovers or gets bored easily with repetitive meals

• can’t spend multiple hours on a weekend day cooking

• feels like doing all of the cooking at once is overwhelming

• dines out frequently during the week and would end up wasting some meals

2.) Split Meal Prep

Split meal prep is similar to full meal prep, except you break it up into smaller chunks. For example, on Sunday you may cook your meals for Mon-Wed, then on Wednesday you cook for Thurs-Sat. Or maybe you meal prep every two days. You can divide it up however you see fit. This is my personal favorite because it’s a nice middle ground between full meal prep (#1) and the daily cook (#3) in terms of decision-making, cooking time, and variety.

This is for someone who:

• likes the concept of meal prepping to have cooking/decision-making-free days, but wants a more flexible, less intense version.

• is okay with leftovers, but wants a little more variety than full meal prepping.

• has time mid-week to do some cooking.

This is NOT for someone who:

• doesn’t like leftovers.

• knows they won’t cook in the middle of the workweek.

3.) The Daily Cook

The daily cook makes meals right before eating—say, cooking dinner fresh each night. This style offers a lot of flexibility and allows for adapting to cravings or schedule changes on a day-to-day basis. This option can still be utilized for those who like to pick out their meals in advance, but you’re just not cooking in advance.

This is for someone who:

• likes to go with the flow and decide what they want to eat in the moment/day of.

• has a more unpredictable schedule and may need to have certain meal slots open for social/work outings.

• likes more variety throughout the week and experimenting with different meals.

• enjoys cooking more frequently and has the time to do so.

• might have to feed a larger group (families).

This is NOT for someone who:

• gets decision fatigue deciding what to eat every day or having to pick out multiple meals each week.

• doesn’t like to cook (or clean the dishes) on a daily basis

• has a busy evening schedule that leaves limited time for cooking

Pro Tips

1.) Combine Types: Feel free to mix and match these types if that works better for you. Maybe you’re someone who likes to repeat breakfasts so you batch breakfast ahead for the week (#1), but you like more variety for dinner so you cook a new dinner each night (#3). I used to do a combo of #2 and #3 and would cook a new dinner every night and make enough for leftovers for lunch the next day.

2.) Focus On One Meal At A Time: You don’t have to plan all meals to experience the benefits. If you are a beginner, I recommend just picking one meal to start meal prepping for. If you’re someone who consistently eats outside the home for a particular meal (ex: your work caters lunch), focus on prepping breakfast and dinner instead.

3.) Limit Grocery Trips: To save time, aim for 1–2 grocery trips per week. This requires some planning, but most food will last a full week or you can use the quicker-to-spoil foods first. Or you can store items in the freezer and thaw the night before.

Don’t Fret, There’s More Tools

If none of these meal-prepping schedules are quite right for you, there are even more options:

Batch Cooking

Batch cooking is a GREAT option for beginners! I always recommend it to new cooks or those with busy schedules. It can be used in a similar style to full meal prepping (#1) or split meal prepping (#2), the difference is that you prep “ingredients” rather than making formal recipes.

I recommend picking 3 options from each category of the meal checklist. So that would be:

• 3 proteins

  • Ex: salmon, chicken breast, ground beef

• 3 starchy carbs (whole grains, beans, fruit, starchy veggies)

  • Ex: berries, quinoa, sweet potato

• 3 fat sources (or less if your proteins contain fat)

  • Ex: avocado, chia seeds

• 3 non-starchy veggies

  • Ex: broccoli, bell peppers, spinach

Now here’s the ultimate hack - go to Chat GPT and ask it the following:

“Can you give me meal ideas to make with my batch cooking? I will have the following prepped ingredients XXX…. You can add in condiments, spices, and sauces, but no additional main ingredients.”

Now watch it give you multiple meal ideas using your ingredients!! It’s incredible! You can even tell it which options you like and ask it to make you a grocery list.

Meal Delivery

If it’s in your budget, meal delivery is a wonderful tool to save time. Some of my favorites are Factor, Territory Foods, and Trifecta. I have several clients who utilize meal delivery for just one of their meals for the work week (ex: lunches only) to take some of the burden off cooking.

Grocery Delivery/Pick Up

This is another wonderful time-saving service, especially for someone who struggles more with the shopping aspect. You can have your groceries delivered to your doorstep or you can utilize your store’s shop-for-you service where you can just pick up your bags instead of hand-picking out all your items. Often the pick-up option is free!

What Did You Pick?

I’m curious, which option are you going to try? Let me know in the post’s comments. I’m currently experimenting with split meal prep (#2) and loving it. Once you get your schedule locked down, the next step is deciding what to eat—I’ve got this covered in another article. Enjoy!