The middle of this summer my mom had a health scare - they really are Scary!
It has prompted a lot of changes in our entire family in the way we eat. (She and my dad both are trying to lower their blood pressure and watch their cholesterol)
She asked for my help in menu planning and working on some ideas of what would be good for them and easy to prepare.
At first I felt very much like... why in the world is she asking ME!? - But as we (eventually) sat down and started to plan, I was (BRAG!) impressed with how much I knew.
** It took us a while to actually get started. My mom kept buying things like notepads and white boards, she actually bought two different white boards. She bought colorful pens and stickers and kept planning nights that she was going to sit down and do it. But she never did, We never did. We just kept planning that we were going to Menu Plan.
I think that so many of us get stuck right there! That we don't know how to get started - or we think that if we just get this one "thing" that it is going to somehow happen for us. That the lists are going to make themselves.
When I first started learning about Food $ense, I wasn't sure how to start either. This is my first blog post on Menu Planning - I love the picture and I remember how overwhelmed and out of my element I felt.
But I kept doing it - and I kept working at it. I posted about it again, with some tips that helped.
But I tried to keep at it. I realized almost immediately how much it helped in every aspect of my life with food. I didn't do it every week, and when I didn't things didn't go well. I was stressed out, spending too much money and we were not eating as well as we should have been.
I kept at it, and I learned a lot - I had to make adjustments -
But I have just kept at it, You can too! The plans and the lists to make themselves, You have to take the time and sometimes you have to make yourself do it. Your style will evolve with your needs and your confidence. Maybe you'll set aside a few hours and pour over recipes online and in books and venture into fancy cuisine. Maybe you'll be like my parents and realize how much you enjoy simple eating and plan meals like grilled cheese and bottled fruit. As long as you are doing it, there is no right or wrong way.
But that is the biggest secret to all of Menu Planning - you just have to do it.
