Because I have a bazillion hobbies, sometimes people (particularly) other moms ask me how I fit everything in.
Truth is, I have been struggling with that a bit recently. The short of it is this. By the time I get done with work and hang out with Alex a bit, I am ready to go to bed. And when I am ready to go to bed, there is little fighting the urge. Trust me on this one. But, in thinking about how I had been fitting it all in, so to say, when I was doing that has a lot to do with planning.
Last week, Sunday, on a whim, I decided to make some goals specifically for the week. What this meant is what I had to think about the specific things I wanted to achieve a lot. This lead me to do much more planning, and I got most of that stuff done. So, I’m going to try to get back on track by getting back on the planning bandwagon.
The fastest pitfall for me is a failure to plan food-wise. It can start the spiral into unwanted depths. Here is how it goes when it’s broken. I wake up, don’t know we’re going to eat. Then I slap some stuff together. Then I pack Alex’s snack for school. I may or may not pack a lunch. If I don’t pack a lunch, it means I won’t work out at lunchtime because I have to spend that time procuring lunch. If I pack a lunch, things might work out…or they might not. I might not pack enough…and then I have to go find food at lunch time…and I don’t work out at lunch. In either case, if I haven’t planned, I certainly didn’t pack a snack. That means that I am starving at the end of the day. Then I may or may not make decent dinner choices. If I do. Yay! One victory! Celebrate it! If not, probably what is going to happen is that I am going to eat too much of something I shouldn’t eat and then crash. Which means no planning that night. This leads directly into day two of the crappy cycle.
So, today, I went to the store, bought a piece of meat and a much of veggies and prepped them so that I can easily make meals next week. Cabbage=roasted. Sweet potatoes=baked. Pork loin=slow cooked. Kale and beet greens=stir-fried. I don’t have to worry at all about meals this week. This chunk of time this morning will pay crazy dividends during the week. This is going to give me the time to get back into some of those other things.
Now, just to turn this back into a habit.