Help With
Meal Planning
Below is a resource from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) called the MyPlate Daily Checklist. MyPlate is a tool created by the USDA to help educate people about the importance of a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. It is meant to help people make healthy choices and be mindful of their nutrition. A link to this resource, which contains various other helpful tools and information, can be found under "Additional Resources." The MyPlate Daily Checklist is a helpful tool to use when initially making changes to your diet. It is a good visual representation of your daily intake of each food group, which can help you adjust your diet to meet your needs. It also contains helpful reminders to be physically active and limit certain components of your diet. The example below is the Checklist for a 2,000 calorie diet. A printable version of the Daily Checklist for various intake levels can be found here.
The next tool is a weekly meal planning guide. This guide allows you to plan your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks for the day. It also includes a section at the bottom where you can check off each food group as you include your daily recommendation for that food group in your plan for that day. To the right, there is a section where you can create a grocery list to include anything that is in your plan for the week that you do not already have on hand. Having a plan ahead of time will also help you to avoid going over your budget while grocery shopping. A link to a printable version of this tool can be found here.
USDA ChooseMyPlate.gov. (2017, Mar 20). Myplate daily checklist. Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate-Daily-Checklist