Meal Planning Doesn't Have to Be Hard: Try the Coffee Maker Challenge

What's for supper?

Sometimes those three words are enough to make you want to order a pizza and call it a day. 😂

It's not necessarily because you don't know how to cook or don't have food in the house. Sometimes you're simply tired of making decisions.

That's exactly what Megan the Trainer RD is tackling in Episode 113 of Nourish to Flourish—and she's doing it with a little friendly competition against her coffee maker.

The Hardest Part of Meal Planning Might Be Getting Started

When people hear meal planning or meal prep, it's easy to picture hours in the kitchen, containers covering the countertops, and an entire Sunday afternoon disappearing.

But it doesn't have to look like that.

For many people, the biggest hurdle comes before any cooking happens: deciding what you're going to eat.

We make decisions all day long. By the time supper rolls around, deciding what to make can feel like one more choice we simply don't want to deal with.

That's where having a simple weekly meal plan can help.

Can You Meal Plan Before Your Coffee Is Ready?

Megan decided to make meal planning a little more fun by turning it into a challenge.

Start the coffee. Grab a piece of paper. See how many meals you can plan before the coffee maker finishes.

That's it.

In just a few minutes, Megan maps out the supper meals for the upcoming week—including homemade hamburger helper with venison, sheet-pan kebabs, white chicken chili, and roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese.

No complicated system. No color-coded spreadsheet. Just enough of a plan to take some of those decisions off the table later.

Meal Planning Can Make the Rest of the Week Easier

Once you know what you're eating, a lot of other pieces begin falling into place.

You have a better idea of what needs to go on the grocery list. You know what ingredients you already have. You can look ahead and decide when something needs to come out of the freezer. And when plans change—as they inevitably do—you have a framework you can adjust instead of starting from scratch.

That's the point of meal planning.

It's not about creating a perfect week of eating. It's about making food decisions a little easier when life gets busy.

Keep Your Meal Prep Simple

If you've struggled with meal prepping because it feels overwhelming, try shrinking the task.

You don't necessarily need to prepare every meal for the entire week. Start by deciding what's for supper. Pick a few meals. Build your grocery list from there. Use leftovers when they make sense. Keep a few staples around that give you some flexibility.

And if sitting down to make that plan still sounds like a chore?

Race your coffee maker. ☕️🏁

You might be surprised by how much you can figure out before that first cup is ready.

Need Help Making Nutrition Work for Your Life?

Nutrition doesn't need to be perfect or complicated to move you in the right direction.

At Fitness Lying Down, Megan works with people to find realistic nutrition strategies that fit their schedules, preferences, families, and goals—not someone else's version of the “perfect” diet.

If you're ready for some help figuring out where to begin, a Nutrition Blueprint session can give you a starting point and a plan that makes sense for you.

Now that you know better, let's do better—so we can all BE BETTER.