Week 4:
13 to-dos: 7 completed 3 progress made 3 untouched
Another week where I got quite a bit done, but apparently I didn’t listen to my own advice about procrastinating again. I’ll have to step it up this next week.
But instead of focusing on my missteps this week, I’d like to focus on on of my solid successes – meal planning. One of my self-improvement goals was to regularly meal plan. It helps me out in several ways – it’s a big help financially and to be honest, it keeps my husband and I out of the looping argument of “you choose dinner; no you choose.”
It also helps get us out of the cycle of thinking what sounds good. Instead with the meal plan we look forward to what we’ve planned.
One of the ways I’ve set up meal planning to be easier is by making a “meal-plan map.” I started out listing meals I know our family will eat. (To be totally honest, I am by far the pickiest eater in the house). Then I began to build up a week 1 and a week 2 (how big your list is will determine your weeks). Sunday and Saturday are usually penciled in as our new recipe days. I try to balance the weeks out so as not to have back to back beef or pasta or chicken. As we try new recipes, I note if it’s something we want to have again, how long it takes and then set it aside to build out another week. We’re actually building what our week 4 will look like currently.
Now to my weekly goal step: meal plan for the upcoming week. I look at our meal plan map and take the number we’re on (last week it was week 3) and then make it to fit what we have going on for that week. For example – if we have a birthday dinner out planned, then I might move the “planned” meal to a different day. I confirm the plan with my husband and we build the shopping list from there.
Having the meal plan map helps me not have to come up from scratch what meals to have for the week. It also allows for flexibility with our busy schedules.
SimplySaraly 