Planning for Success

Success doesn't just happen, you have to plan for it!

This holds especially true for my nutrition. When I need to stay on top of a healthy eating lifestyle and I'm cooking for my family I really couldn't do it without planning.

Every week without fail I sit down and set out my game plan for the entire week.
I decide on what dinners we'll be eating as a family for the week ahead and list them out. While I'm doing this I take into account anything that's going on during the week and make sure I plan suitable meals. For example, if I know we're going to be home late one evening because of football practice I make sure to plan in a quick and easy meal for that evening, or I plan in something that I can prepare up front to save time to ensure we don't end up eating too late.

Then I use this plan to write out my full shopping list. I nearly always order my food online, either for delivery, or for me to pick up. I absolutely cannot stand food shopping so this is the best way for me. It means I can manage it without it being a massive aggravation. I also get that time back to do other, more exciting stuff! Things like this...

Once I've got the shopping back home I check all of the use before dates and double check that these fit in with the meal plan. I usually have to make a few tweaks here and there so that we'll eat everything before its expiry date, and I freeze meat at this point if I need to, noting down which day I'll need to get it out of the freezer to thaw.

The key is to look out for and anticipate any potential obstacles and be sure to plan around them so they don't throw you off track.

Once the weekly meal plan is set I write it down so it's visual and available to me and I can refer to it every day. Sometimes it'll just be on a bit of paper that annoyingly hangs around on the kitchen worktop all week, other times it's a bit more formal, like this.....

Then, I STICK TO IT!!!!
Simple as that.
Healthy week of eating in the bag. Repeat for next week :)