While the MIND Diet outlines the important brain healthy foods we need to be eating, we rarely eat these foods in isolation. Rather, we most often eat these various foods in the context of a meal. There are exceptions, like grabbing and eating a handful of nuts or berries. So, when it comes to eating for brain health and living your best cognitive life, meal planning is essential.

The good news is that with a little forethought and some helpful meal planning tools and tips, following the MIND Diet is not as difficult as you may think. And, with the help of a Good Thinking Bar to fill in the gaps, adhering to the MIND Diet is easy peasy.

To get you started, we have compiled some meal planning tips, curated 21 of our favorite MIND Diet recipes from our favorite MIND Diet chefs, and dropped them into a weekly meal plan template. You can use it for your starter plan, then add or subtract meals as you would like.

1. Keep it simple, so you can stay consistent. According to Marth Clare Morris, the creator of the MIND Diet, studies show that healthy eaters are consistent in the foods they eat and the dishes they create. Personally, I have about 15 regular items that I cycle through each week.

2. Upgrade your regular pasta & rice with whole grain pasta and riced cauliflower. Or try spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti noodles. Also look for Zoodles (zucchini noodles) as a replacement for your regular noodles. These simple changes can make a big difference in achieving your MIND diet vegetable goals. Once you start looking, you will find many new plant-based alternatives to the less healthy stuff you're eating now.

3. Sprinkle in nuts & berries during breakfast and lunch. They go great in smoothies or in salads. To be honest, it’s pretty easy to meet your daily berry and nut requirements. If need be, you can grab a small handful of each out of the fridge and pantry, pop them in your mouth, and you’re done for the day.

4. I like to load up on salads and bowls for lunch because they're pretty easy to put together and don’t weigh me down during the day. With one large salad I can check off my daily leafy greens requirement and a good portion of my other vegetable requirement. I usually find a way to add some legumes (e.g. chickpeas) to the salad to check off my legume requirement.

5. Health experts often recommend treating legumes as a carbohydrate because both are high in starch. For this reason, I put legumes in the context of my grain requirement. If you’re being careful about your total carbohydrate intake, putting beans and grains together will help you keep track more easily.

6. Don’t forget to have plenty of Good Thinking Bars on hand for the times when things don’t go as planned and you find yourself short on veggies, nuts, berries and all the other good stuff your brain is hungry for.

The first thing I like to do is to prepare a high level meal plan that lays out the types of meals I like to have during the week. For example, at lunchtime easy salads and wraps are a priority. So, I put salads on my plan first. I also like smoothies and egg dishes for breakfast, so I plug those in next. Then, I find a spot for fish a few times per week. I keep working this away until my calendar is full. My weekly plan usually looks something like this:

Once I have a basic plan in place, I fill it in with specific meals that I would like. I usually have a list of tried and true meals that I rotate in and out from week to week. They’re usually pretty basic during the weekdays and I try to add some excitement at dinner and on the weekends. I have reviewed several of my favorite MIND Diet cookbooks recipe blogs, then selected 21 recipes that I really like. I hope you do too.

About Good Thinking Foods

The goal for Good Thinking Foods is to provide people with proven brain nutrition in an easy to eat snack form. It’s our hope that by providing brain healthy food in a convenient and affordable form, we can help reduce the rate of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases for millions of people around the world.