Monday, January 20, 2014

I can't plan a weekly menu.



I want to plan weekly meals. I really do. And I have in the past, and I love knowing what's for dinner by simply looking at the sticky note on the fridge and getting items out to defrost accordingly for the next days meals. It makes me happy. And less stressed. And don't get me started if it's a crock pot meal on the docket...knowing what's for dinner and knowing that it's cooking away while I'm at work? Oh yeah...happiness, for sure.

But I have a problem. (A few, really.)

I don't just want to plan meals. I want to plan healthy meals. And I want to plan healthy meals using what I have on hand. And if I don't have it on hand, I want to plan a meal using what's on sale at the grocery store.

And the meal can't just be healthy. If any of you are my Pinterest friends, you may have noticed I was pinning information about "brain foods" and "memory foods". So now as I am thinking of weekly meals I'm thinking of the health benefits of each item on the menu. And if you read enough info and dig deep enough you start learning about what foods to eat with other foods to get the maximum benefits of each item. (But you don't continue reading because at this point you are beginning to get a bit overwhelmed.)

Then you come across a list of the 100 things Dr. Oz wants on your grocery list. And you pin it. And now I think I need to plan our meals by it. And I don't even care for Dr. Oz.

So what started out as me wanting to make my life easier by planning our weekly meals has now morphed into a nightmare of too much information, too much time spent pinning, and after all of that, still no meal plan.

So an hour later, 783 pins later, a fried brain and no weekly menu I'm ready to hop in the car and go through the drive-thru.

Deep breath. And exhale.

So, as is often the case, writing here helps me to work things through. Things as deep as depression and anxiety or as shallow as a simple weekly menu. And the conclusion I've come to is this: I need to start small. Maybe that means I add kale to our salads this week. Then maybe next week I can add in another small change like bringing back our morning smoothies. And rather than thinking I need 700 smoothie recipes, find one that we all like and make that one for a while.

And then, when we are ready for a change, make a change. I don't need to do it all, RIGHT NOW.

So now what?

Well, I think I'm gonna back up and start from the beginning. I'm going to plan balanced meals for the week and add a new thing here or there...like adding kale to our salads. And then I'll go from there.

Do any of you do this? Please tell me I'm not alone.

(Sigh....I have a feeling that this year of being productive is going to be more of a challenge than I realized.)


1 comment:

Denise said...

okay, with starting to now work full-time, I've decided to use a meal planning service that I probably found on Pinterest!!

It is called Fresh 20 and it was $15 for 3 months. Now, that said...I'm trying it and have yet to give it a solid recommendation but it is worth a thought :)