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You can exercise like a madman but to achieve optimal results you gotta get your eating habits inline.

I’m sorry to break this to ya, but no matter how much you exercise, if you want to improve your health and/or lose some weight you have to focus on what, how and when you eat to achieve optimal results. A balanced exercise regime working in tandem with a planned nutritional program and you will see staggering results… guaranteed!

That’s right; I said the dreaded word… planned.

Meals can be a real challenge to pull off with any sense of regularity. So in an effort to eat optimally, save some money, time and reduce the stress of pulling it all together – wrap your head around this simple concept… plan your meals a week at a time!

Below in point form is sure fire steps to help you meal plan.

- Sit down every Sunday for 15-20 minutes to plan your meals for the upcoming week.

- Write down every meal for each day. Be sure to schedule meals when you are going out for dinner as well. It’s amazing how spur of the moment restaurant visits & take out meals are cut down when you actually schedule them.

- List the ingredients for each recipe and create an ingredient template. To save time organize it in a digital file in the order and layout of your fridge, kitchen, pantry, etc.

- Every Sunday using the ingredient template based on the needs of your meal plan do an inventory of what you have vs. need and create a grocery list.

Strategies to keep you on track

- Don’t skip breakfast! It sets you up for the day and gets your metabolism going… you want this if you are going to lose weight!!

- Prepare what you can ahead of time. Lunches can be made the night before. I actually pour my dry oatmeal into a bowl the night before and leave it on the counter so it’s the first thing I see when I get up in the morning.

Remember that life can get in the way. Things will happen and you will get side tracked, those who are successful recognize this and get back on the plan when it happens.