Strategy for Success: Menu Planning

As I've probably already mentioned, I tended to easily fall into the pattern of waiting too long to eat and then grabbing whatever to satisfy my by-then-ravenous appetite. I  was at especially high risk at lunchtime, since that's when I would often be out of the house and away from healthier food options.

But, it could also be a problem at dinner, too, especially if I had been out all day and there was nothing on hand for me to easily and quickly cook up when I arrived at home on the later side. That's when I would often resort to ordering some take-out or going out to eat.

I realized that I needed to be more organized and more prepared, but it was just so hard to change my bad habits.

Then, some weeks ago, I found this handy meal planner at The Container Store:

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This meal planner is divided into two sections. Across the top, there's space for you to enter your meals for the week: lunch, dinner and snacks/dessert. In the lower half, there's space for any important meetings or activities (a.m., noon, and p.m.). 

This planner is marketed to moms and the idea is that you might want to know that on Thursday evening you have Annie's school play, so for Thursday dinner you'll be ordering pizza, or that sort of thing. But mom or no, I think this is still quite a good tool if what you want is to organize your menu and plan your shopping accordingly.

Now all I have to do is be consistent and come up with creative meals to fill in all the boxes!