Welcome to Day 24 of the Just For Today Challenge – 31 Days To A Better You. We’re in the home stretch of the Challenge. How are you doing so far? Are you seeing any changes in your life for the better? I am, that’s for sure!

For those of you who are new to the site, here’s a recap of some of Challenges you missed so far. Please do go back and complete them as they will make a difference in your life. The rest of us have been busy creating our list of 101 Things To Do Before You Die, we’ve scheduled our dates for the year, we’re Waking Up Earlier, we’re calling our friends more often, we’re taking pictures, we’ve written down our 25 Proudest Moments, we’re starting to Eat a Healthy Breakfast, we’re getting outside and enjoying nature, we’re Saying Thank You more often, we’re taking a break from the news and we’re watching less TV. One of the big ones included telling people that You Love Them and Saving Your Money. In Day 14, we also took action on our goals and on Day 15 we started Asking For What We Want. We also Got Rid of Some Stuff, Started a Gratitude Journal, Updated Our Resumes, started Taking Care of our Health, and Got More Quality Sleep. We’ve made a lot of changes, but we’re not finished yet.

It’s time to plan out your meals for the week for Day 24 of the Just For Today Challenge – 31 Days To A Better You.

How’s your health and weight these days? Like most people can you stand to lose some weight and get more healthy? I know that I can, that’s for sure! One of the best ways to fight the bulge (besides exercise, which we are already doing) is to pre-plan our meals for the week. This is such an easy thing to do, and it can make a big difference in your life.

Aren’t you sick of hearing “What’s for dinner?” or how about ”Are we having meatloaf, again?” I open my cupboards and I have the same foods every week, it seems. I try to incorporate some new recipes and different foods into my diet, but it’s tough. Who wants to come home after working all day and then have to think about what to cook for dinner? Do I even have the right ingredients to cook that? Well, let’s check. Oops, don’t have that ingredient and I’m too hungry (and too lazy) to go to the grocery store, so I guess it’s a TV dinner for supper, again. Or maybe some rice in the rice cooker. Not the most appetizing or healthy meals, that’s for sure.

Let’s change that. Let’s pre-plan what we will be having for breakfast, lunch and dinner this week.

Get out your cookbooks (you have those, right? If not, check out www.recipe.com) and see what recipes inspire you.

What haven’t you eaten for a while? Or ever? Has something caught your eye in the cookbooks and you’ve always wanted to try to cook it? Why not go for it this week? Cook something different for your family and see if you can incorporate some new foods and introduce some new tasty foods to your family.

You know what? I never used to like onions at all. I hated them with a passion. But, one summer I started a garden and actually grew my own green onions and started eating them in salad. That lead me to cooking with white onions and now I put them with almost every single meat recipe that I cook. There’s something about growing your own food and seeing it come out of the ground that overcomes your aversion to trying new foods. I know someone who had never eaten spaghetti until they were 25 years old. Can you imagine? Until I started eating sushi, I never had an avocado before. I didn’t know how yummy they were. Now, I even have one sitting in my fridge. You never know what new foods you will start to love, until you try them. I still don’t like mushrooms, though. Can’t bring myself to eat them and never will

So, get out the cookbooks, see what inspires you (do this with your family so that they have a say, too) and start filling in which days and which meals you will be eating this week. Try not to do the Chicken on Monday, Meatloaf on Tuesday, Pork on Wednesday, etc. routine. Having meat, especially red meat more than twice a week is not optimum for your health. Try for some meatless meals and incorporate more vegetables and fruits into your meals. You’ll be saving money and your health. 

If you are vegetarian, try to see if you can incorporate some different vegetables and protein sources that you haven’t tried before. There are also tons of recipes online for vegetarians.

Now that you are inspired by some new recipes, start writing down either on a sheet of paper or on a calendar what you will be cooking this week for each of the Monday – Sunday meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Once you’ve filled in all of your meals for the week, make a list of what ingredients you will need to make those fabulous meals. Check your cupboards for those items that you will need. Once you have your grocery list, then get thee to the grocery store so that you will have everything you need to make the meals for the week.

Now that you know what you will be eating for each of the 3 meals each day, this will (I hope) stop you from unconsciously eating – you know exactly what you will be eating at each meal. You will look forward to trying out that new recipe or food - anticipation is a good thing. There’s no “What are we having for dinner?’ this week, because everyone in the family will know exactly what’s for dinner because they helped pick those recipes and they are written down for everyone to see.

This Challenge shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to complete. One hour for the preplanning and another hour to obtain the groceries.

Let me know how it goes with introducing some new recipes and different foods to your family by leaving a comment below. What did you try cooking this week that your family loved? What flopped? If you are already a preplanning food fanatic, let the rest of us know your secrets. Thanks!

For a list of all of the Challenges, see the Just For Today Challenge page.

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Tagged as: Food, Health, Just For Today Challenge, Preplanning