Sarah has been eating and enjoying food for over 30 years – recipes and adventures are relayed weekly on her blog Gastro-A-Go-Go. When she’s not unwrapping Luna bars or cooking frozen pizzas, Sarah can be found doing advocacy work for people healing from sexual abuse and violence, watching awesomely terrible reality television, or hosting evenings full of board games. Connect with her on Twitter and Pinterest.
Making lists is my jam. Checking off check boxes causes an Olympic adrenaline rush in my soul. You bet your bottom dollar one of my relaxation go-to’s is organizing my Google Calendar.
So, weekly meal planning should be a no-brainer for my Type-A tendencies. And yet, I find the idea daunting for some reason. The number of inspiring Pinterest pins I’ve seen, promising me time and money saved, AND mega health points earned, has finally gotten the best of me.
Meal Plan via SublimeReflection.com on Pinterest
Photo Credit: Adventures of a DIY Mom on Pinterest
Photo Credit: allshecooks.com on Pinterest
I decided this was the week the magic was going to happen. Time to check those zen/healthy/planful checkboxes (cue adrenaline rush).
Here’s where I started Sunday:
Here’s where I ended up on Saturday:
Fair enough.
What I would change:
Being able to edit my list more cleanly would have been ideal. For example, on Thursday there was no way I was turning down breakroom donuts for my planned handful of almonds. Being able to erase previous almond-y plans and discretely substitute “donut” would make me feel less spastic/totally addicted to all things sugar.
I shouldn’t have bought all the groceries in one fell swoop on Sunday. Those berries and avocados were such sad little fruits by the time I got around to them on Friday, that I ended up apologizing to them out loud.
What I would keep:
Carrying around a list at the grocery store added to an overall sense of accomplishment and purpose (and lessened the time I needed to mumble to myself “Hummus, hummus, remember the hummus,” like I do under my breath every week).
I dusted off some recipe books and paged through them when making my plan. Did I use any of them? Nada. BUT – I *thought* about it, which was pretty exciting.
I actually ended up liking this whole meal planning thing more than I thought I would. Like most things, it wasn’t the Pinterest-perfect way I imagined it would be (maybe if I had my hair in a fishtail braid and ate the meals out of blue mason jars?). But I’m a total fan of taking what works and leaving the rest, and enough worked here to start making me a meal planning believer.
If you have any awesome inside tips on how you rock meal planning, let me know – my purple pen and I are always poised for action.
About these ads
