Meal planning is extremely useful for Lifetime Athletes. You can save money and make it much easier to make healthy choices throughout the week. Use a calendar and write down what you want to have for most of the meals in the week. Some folks like my wife, totally don’t mind having the same things quite consistently. I, on the other hand, crave variety and don’t like to have the same meal twice in a week. To each their own. Compromise in your relationship where you need to by making sure everyone gets a healthy version of their favorites from time to time.
With shopping, make a list of ingredients for the meals on the plan and have 1-2 dedicated times to go to the grocery store. It’s preferable to hit the store when it’s less crowded and after you’ve eaten so there’s less chaos and temptation. Everyone knows that it’s the perimeter of the store where most of the EBD foods reside. That’s partly due to refrigeration but also a common store layout feature. The middle aisles and endcaps have more of the processed foods. Grab and go.
Regarding preparation, when you have the time, make cooking an enjoyable part of the meal experience. However, modern life limits those opportunities for most of us. It’s a great idea to prep by either partially or fully preparing enough ingredients for several meals, all at once, especially on the weekend. Grill up a bunch of meat, cook a lot of rice, chop and roast veggies, etc. Then store them in the fridge in glass containers if possible (there are issues with plastics although not too much with cold storage…just don’t microwave stuff in plastic). From those stores, you can easily build delicious dinners and tasty lunches. A common practice is to build your plate by having a protein source (fat usually comes with it, when that’s called for), a fibrous or non-starchy carb like broccoli, and a starchy carb like white rice, sweet potatoes, or fruit. A good, basic tactic.
Make sure you’ve got a decdent (hard or soft) travel cooler and a high-quality ice pack. Take your lunches to work (most days), bring a shake to the workout or sports practice for afterwards, keep a few sports drinks in your car when you’ll need them. This is a gamechanger. And it’s cheap and easy.
Now, all of those practices tend to speak to the “organized” personality. If that’s you, go for it. But if doing those things is just not your jam (Bam!), remember to keep mostly EBD foods in your vicinity and pull from those as needed.