Time for me to talk about one of my all time favorite things in the world... No, not chocolate, and not sleeping in without the kids burning down the house.... Menu Planning. I know, you guys already all do it and I am preaching to the choir. You all do it, right??
When I first learned about Food $ense. It seemed so overwhelming and so beyond my "smartness-level". But I was desperate to stop the cycle of being overwhelmed by the "chore" of feeding my family . I was tired of being in fear of the budget and annoyed with the idea of making dinner every night and scared that my kids were going to be over weight and at risk for all those scary things that are related to chronic bad eating habits - like diabetes, heart disease.
And so I sucked it up and stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to take the baby steps to make a change. When I read back to how I was feeling when I started. I am amazed at how far I have come. That was 802 posts ago!!
But I am still so far from perfect. I will confess, I still have some oreos in my pantry. On Friday my 6 yr old had peanut butter and jelly for every meal (not that there is anything wrong with that) and this morning my 2 year old had mac and cheese for breakfast (two bowls). Sometimes I "forget" to menu plan (and I regret it all week), Sometimes I don't shop the outside of the store... Sometimes I do beg my husband to pick up a pizza on the way home... because I have HAD it!
But those are choices that I am choosing to make, not that I feel like are being forced on me because I don't know how to be any other way.
Back to the wonder of Menu Planning. If you haven't been brave enough to start it. Do it Now. Take that brave little baby step, get out a piece of paper and write something down. All you have to do is just start.
Here is the Handout that I first got from Food $ense to get me motivated.
Here is the online class that I took that explained it more to me.
Don't be afraid to jump on in. The only wrong way to do it is to Not do it!!
