At 4.30pm every day, you could almost always find me staring into the fridge wondering what the heck to make everyone for tea. Or at least you could until meal planning (and Kitchen Titbits) entered my life.
There was some resistance at first. I knew meal planning made sense from every angle; it’d save me time, money, energy etc. but change is hard. Our brains are programmed to keep us on the path of least resistance. As a personal trainer and lifestyle coach, I see this in my work life, as well as my personal life, a LOT.
So, if you’re in that place now – you like the idea of meal planning but can’t quite muster up the energy to try it, or you used to do it but have fallen off the wagon and need a little motivation – read on for a little boost to get you started (again).
5 ways meal planning saved my sanity (and could save yours);
1) Instead of staring into the fridge at 4.30 every evening wondering what I could make out of 3 manky mushrooms, half a tin of beans and some leftover pasta, I now simply look at my meal plan and prepare whatever it tells me to, it’s as simple as that. Stop using up valuable energy rethinking the same boring problem every day. Do it once at the beginning of the week and then forget it.
2) There are no (or fewer), ‘I don’t like this’ complaints which equates to fewer Weetabix-for-dinner incidents. Why? Because the kids (and husband) get to choose a meal each to put on the plan. Getting everyone involved in planning meals will lead to more enjoyable (aka less whingey) mealtimes, guaranteed.
3) Rather than throwing some pasta and pesto on a plate for the kids every day and then nibbling their leftovers, I actually now eat proper, tasty, grown-up meals. Which also means less late night stress-snacking. Stop living off the kids’ crumbs and chocolate, it’ll do your body the world of good.
4) I’m no longer the only one who bothers making dinner, hoo-flipping-ray! Now I can just point to the plan and get the husband to cook (which, we’ve discovered, is something he’s much better at than I am). So, I get to do something like take a bath or go for a walk (or just tidy up the house but still, that saves my sanity too sometimes). Don’t take all the mealtime responsibility on yourself, share the load.
5) My food waste guilt has gone! While there are still plate scrapings going into the food bin at times, I now rarely find a random vegetable found stuck to the back of the fridge, or half a bowl of mashed potato unloved and forgotten about. Because with proper meal planning, even the leftovers are built into the plan and often made into something new and interesting. Help your planet as well as your wallet.
This last one is probably the biggest incentive for me to keep going with the meal planning. As a climate-conscious mum, food waste is something that I know we must all reduce to improve our carbon footprint, and it’s one of the few things we actually have control over! Which one is likely to motivate you the most?
So there you have it. If you want to save your sanity (and the planet), stop umming and ahhhing and just give meal planning a go. I promise, it’ll revolutionise tea-time.
Thanks to Heather Keats for this guest blog post.
Hop on over to her Instagram account to find out more about what she’s up!