As enjoyable as my recent habit of consuming my body weight in cookies on a regular basis has been, it's not a prescription for long-term health, and I've been struggling to eat better and avoid this tendency.
Perhaps you, like myself, are trying to tidy up your dietary habits to help keep food cravings and stress eating at bay. Or perhaps someone in your household understands the fear that can strike the human heart at the sound of the phrase, "weight control." Maybe you just don't have a lot of time to sit down and plan menus these days because frankly, you'd rather play with your kid.
You may or may not be aware that for a nominal fee there are websites where you can subscribe to a menu planning service- they provide a week's worth of menus and a shopping list, and you take it from there. My problem with these in the past has been that they don't handle the vegetarian diet very well, so I've ended up making extensive modifications- and I figured, if I was going to work that hard, why not start from scratch? Anyone with allergies or other special dietary needs would be in the same situation. Well, I found an article by Real Simple which profiles several of these sites. Among them was Meal Mixer, which allows you to set your dietary preferences and also specific foods to include or avoid- and you can upload your favorite recipes for inclusion in your meal plans and shopping lists as well. They offer a two week free trial and the cost to subscribe annually is $52. It lets you plan your snacks and leftovers as well, so your shopping list quantities are accurate.
It also lets you look over the shopping list and remove staple items you have on hand. One dollar a week is a great value for a tool that frees up some time and gives you a little push in the right direction for healthy eating. Eating right will help keep your whole family healthy- and we all know that a sick family is no fun!
Another website you may find helpful in taking care of you is the Healthy Body Calculator. It allows you to calculate your daily calorie needs based on whether you are pregnant or lactating and also based on your daily activity levels. This is much better than the general guidelines you usually encounter- "eat 500 more calories per day," or "eat 300 more calories per day," which don't take into account that you may have a different activity level now than before. Good tool!
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2 comments:
Criminy! I don't think I could consider paying for a site that does what KraftFoods.com does for free. And many other web sites as well. I really feel like this sort of thing is a fad or filler for magazines and I'm kind of disappointed at RealSimple because I love that magazine.
*My mother-in-law boycotts Kraft products and affiliates because of their connection with the tobacco industry. Personally, I take their 1bag5dinner grocery lists and have no problem buying the store brand versions of the things they specify.
I checked out the kraft foods meal planner, and I really don't think the two are comparable. You are limited to only two foods in each category to eliminate on Kraft Foods. (What if I'm allergic to more than two things?)
Also, I think their desire to fill up your day with their own brand of foods skews your calorie vs. volume of food ratio as well as your food choices.
I'd prefer to pay $1 per week to have access to this software without the thing assuming that I will buy a bag of oreos and only eat two. (Since I will actually eat the whole bag, that's just crazy talk!)
I could certainly sit down and do this with pad and paper for free, but I don't, so I consider the dollar well spent.
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