Whole30 Meal Planning Template Guide
Whole30 Meal Planning Template Guide – plan out all of your Whole30 meals with this FREE printable template guide and explanation videos. Tips for successful and efficient menu planning. Plus, 1 week of Whole30 dinners, lunches and breakfasts with a grocery list.
Table of Contents
Free Whole30 Meal Planning Template
I created this form for myself, and it has helped me immensely! I’m sharing the Apple Pages and Microsoft Word version with you to download, for free!
Click the green button below, and my free meal planning template will open in a new window for you to download and save.
Free Meal Planning Template (MS Word version)
Free Grocery Store List (MS Word Version)
Watch How to Use and Fill Out the Meal Plan Guide and Grocery Store List
Before You Meal Plan
There are 2 steps I recommend taking before you begin filling out the meal planning template.
- Look At Your Calendar:Â Check your calendar to get a feel for your week. Have a weeknight activity? Plan on a slow cooker meal or leftovers. Have an open day? Try something fancy and fun!
- Look At The Weather: Check out the weather for the coming week. Make meals that coincide with the weather. Is it going to be cold and rainy on a specific day? Make a soup. Is it going to be really hot on a specific day? Make a salad or grill outside.
How To Meal Plan
Now that you’ve got a good idea of what your schedule and the weather is going to be like for the coming week, it’s time to fill in your meals!
- Access Your Favorite Recipes: Head to your cookbooks, favorite blogs and/or Pinterest for recipe inspiration.
- Check Coupons:Â To save money on my organic produce, I check the weekly ads of the grocery store I shop at (sprouts and costco!), to see if I can get dinners using the sale produce.
- First Choose Your Dinners:Â Start filling in dinners first. Fill in the main dish and sides you want to prepare for each day, then as you’re looking at the recipe fill in the ingredients you will need that you don’t already have.
- Choose Your Lunches:Â My lunches are always something I meal prepped on Sunday, or leftovers from the night before. I like filling in lunches after dinners so I can jot in “leftovers” if it applies.
- Choose Your Breakfasts: I am all about simple for breakfasts. I’m 100% fine with eggs and either bacon or sausage for breakfast every day. But if you want to get fancier, go for it!
- Fill In Your Extras:Â This is where you’ll add in additional food to have on hand that wasn’t covered in recipe ingredients. Add in some fruits, vegetables, snacks, etc as well as household items you may need, like toilet paper or soap.
- Make Your Grocery List:Â After everything is filled out, go through and make your grocery list. I divide mine by stores since I do my shopping at Costco and Trader Joe’s. I cross off the item on the meal planning guide once I put it on the grocery list to ensure I don’t forget anything.
Tips on Meal Planning
A few more efficiency tips I’ve found make for easy meals during the week, and easier menu planning.
- To have easier menu parameters, we do 1 beef dinner, 1 pork dinner, 1 fish dinner and 4 chicken dinners. 1 of the chicken dinners is usually a soup or a salad.
- I break down 2 chickens a week that I get from ButcherBox (which I highly recommend!). So we have 1 meal that is chicken thighs, 2 dinners that are chicken breasts, and 1 dinner that is drumsticks and wings. Having chicken in a variety of cuts brings lots of variety to the chicken meals so it never feels boring.
- I always do 2 vegetable sides with every meal.
- When planning my meals and sides, I make sure I will never need more than 2 pans on the stove. So 1 of my vegetable sides is always roasted. Much easier, less clean up, and I hate when my stove top is overcrowded with pans. Often both vegetable sides are roasted!
Week 1 Whole30 Meal Plan & Grocery List
To get you started, I’ve put together your first week of meals (including breakfast, lunch and dinner), plus your grocery list. For free! This will also show you how everything looks filled out. Just click the green buttons below to print or download.
This is a meal plan and grocery list designed to feed 2 people. Adjust accordingly.
Free Whole30 Week 1 Meal Plan Shopping List
Recipe links in the Week 1 Meal Plan:
- Whole30 Salmon with Orange Dill Butter
- Whole30 Italian Meatballs
- Whole30 Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
- Whole30 Chicken Piccata
- Whole30 Chimichurri Chicken Skewers
- Whole30 Balsamic Mustard Pork Chops
- Whole30 Roast Chicken and Gravy
- Whole30 Sausage and Veggie Meal Prep
- Whole30 Broccoli Salad
- Whole30 Breakfast Sausage Patties
Additional Whole30 Recipes
I have got a TON of additional Whole30 recipes for you! For dinner, lunch, breakfasts and snacks.
After you finish your Whole30, I recommend adapting a Paleo diet. I have a TON of Paleo recipes too!
8 Comments on “Whole30 Meal Planning Template Guide”
I just watched how to use your meal planning & grocery templates. I think this is going to be a game changer for my lifestyle change to healthy eating. Love your recipes & all the help you give! You are my favorite blogger!
Thank you so much Natalie for sharing so much with us!!! This has just been a breath of fresh air for me. I made it through 1 round of Whole 30, but after meeting with my doctor to see how it had helped (I’d actually gotten worse) determined that I needed to do the Whole 30 Low Histamine. UGHH The most difficult part is trying to figure out what I can eat for breakfast,, on the go meals and snacks, I was only doing fruits but I’m starving most the day until supper. Would you mind sharing a few ideas with me? I’m allergic to egg whites and shrimp and am beginning to suspect a possible problem with coconut (but hoping not) Thank you so much for your time and knowledge!!!
Hi Jennifer! So glad you’ve found Whole30 and making the right move to clean eating to improve your health! My favorite no egg breakfast is this sausage and bell pepper bake. Add in some avocado! Yummy! Favorite on the go snacks are packets of nut butter, nuts, Chomps beef sticks, and cut up veggies. Not the most exciting, but they do the trick! Hope this helps you!
Firstly, I just signed up, 3 days ago. I’ve not started a Whole 30 yet, as everything I’ve read, said to read, learn and plan. So I’m doing that. Reading all I can on this plan, as well as several different peoples take on this plan. I shall tell you why I chose you. Apart from some amazing looking recipes, I love that you have, not only a Whole 30, but also a Whole 15, and Whole 7! My life is insanely busy, especially during the spring and summer months. I looked at my calendar, and my first less busy month is October!! This is the first time I will have no distractions!! So I love that I can do a 15 or 7 day plan. Of course I want to do a whole month, but just to know I can ease into it , is comforting. I already eat quite clean, maybe 60/40, or even 70/30, so keep the information coming, so I can learn as I head towards my first Whole 30!
Thanks!!
Thank you SO MUCH for your kind words Donna! That means so much! And yes, sometimes life is so busy that you can only commit to a 7 or maybe 15 stretch of Whole30. For the full benefit of the program, you of course want to commit to 30 days. But something is better than nothing! Rooting for you and your health journey!