Hi! I am a new diabetic myself, was diagnosed on March 10th. As for meal planning I do not write anything down as far as meals go, but I was hospitalized when diagnosed because my BS and A1C were so high. There I was given a meal plan and also paid a visit by a diatician, I keep this plan on my fridge and use it every day. What it does is tell you how many carbs are counted in all foods. I buy and eat all the foods I like just as before, but go by the carb counts now to know exactly how many carbs I am getting with each meal and just fix my plates accordingly. It is such an easy way to plan meals and you will find that you can eat anything you want to eat including sweets with sugar if you like as long as you don't go over your total carb count. I don't know if you got one of these food plans or not, if you weren't hospitalized you probably didn't. But if you could get one for a diatician with no charge or talk to your doctor about how you can get one it would be a great help I believe. You do need to eat more veggies, raw or cooked, but these are listed as carb free and to help you get full without overdoing on the carbs, because portiions of those are small amounts. Eating my 3 meals a day and sometimes snacks keeps me from getting hungry at all and I never crave sweets any more like I used to. I hope this will help you. Please let me know.

I don't do a strict weekly menu plan, but I do plan a little, so when I shop I get the things I need for what it is I'm going to do. I plan the main course, like chicken cacciatore, chicken soup, whatever, usually about two days ahead from what I have in the freezer. I keep frozen chicken thighs, ground beef, fish, shrimp in the freezer, along with some frozen vegetables.
for breakfast there are about 3 main things I choose from, hot cereal, eggs, cold cereal.

lunch is really open cuz I might be out or I might be home, and don't like to work hard on it usually. I keep sandwich stuff and salad stuff, and maybe leftovers, or put something in the slow cooker earlier.

I keep fruit and nuts for snacks.

So, see, I plan basically, but choose specifically more just before. Our bodies often tell us what we need, if we listen and separate sweet cravings from real body signals.

Don't forget lots of liquids.

I have always been a grab as I go kind of person too, and to a large degree, still am. Probably too much so.

But I live about twenty minutes from a store. So I keep a lot of stuff in the freezer. Frozen vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, some "thin" sandwich buns and frozen fruit. I also keep canned, no sugar added fruit on hand, no sugar added peanut butter (I prefer Laura Scudders) and I like to have plain, sugar free, Greek Yogurt, with some of the fruit added. I also like the veggie/soy burgers and sausage, eggs and provolone or Jarlsburg cheese. I get a lot of this stuff at Costco.

Anyway, this gives me easy meals, without having to give much thought to them. I hope this helps.

I do like the idea of the guide that janice67 mentions. I am going to try and get one.

I recently started planning meals, more so to save myself time and money at the grocery store. It significantly helps and when I'm hungry I know exactly what I planned on cooking. Lots of fresh vegetables, greens, chicken, shrimp, fish, etc...fruit and nuts for snacks. It helps!

I grew up without plans and I continued that thru my life lol...I tell my hubby who now cooks since he is retired "open the freezer and what ever falls out, cook it"

I count my carbs, we cook healthy and yes we go out once a week, I just now make sure of healthier choices and in time it becomes natural

Thanks--all of this feedback seems feasible for me to try..Can do it right w/o being rigid. Thanks. (Now I need to learn carb counting).

get yourself a good carb book at the book store, or go and join either Sparkpeople or Lose it. With these two groups, you can have access to their data base and they will do the figuring for you, plus if something is not there, you will have the ability to add your own...just read the labels and remember portions.

I have both online groups on my tablet, and hand held since I can take with me and add thru out the day.

Thank you--I will go to both sites.

I do meal planning because of budgetary and family size. I like to vary my breakfasts by the week. I work in office three times a week. This week for example I bought english muffins and will make an english muffin with egg and cheese for breakfast each day. last week I had smart start cereal, and I think the week before was greek yogurt and fruit. Hope this helps.