Lack of planning

 

To say I am running around like a chicken with their head chopped off is a generous understatement.  I am finally sitting down to write down a blog post for ya'll. 

So yesterday was apparently supposed to be my son's first day of 6th grade. Big deal! But mom was living on another planet and forgot that it was the first day of school. I'm embarrassed. I'm frustrated. How did I forget that we were starting the school year on Monday?! What a mess. 

But! Charles and I make a great team and we pulled it off seamlessly without much hiccups. He's definitely the yin to my yang and puts up with my scatter-brained-ness. He's a great kid. I'm thankful for him. I sat down last evening and put together his curriculum for the rest of the week and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever gone into a school year so organized and prepared. This is the first state we've lived in long enough to actually need to put together a portfolio for the state to review. I was daunted last month by having to get everything prepared for his evaluation but it all worked out. 

What all of this drama showed me... something that I've been learning as I go is... if you don't plan you plan to fail. However, planning is a skill set in and of itself. As I've mentioned before my life has been slowly improving and changing over the course of the last 2+ years. I've been implementing micro-habits to improve my life. While I do write out a to-do list everyday and I have been doing this for almost a year... I have been struggling lately with time management. I'm finding myself behind on chores, behind on writing blogs, behind on creating Instagram content.. behind on planning the next lesson plans for the following unit. It can lead me to feeling like I'm swimming in a big vat of "no thanks". 

If I want any of this to be successful I have to start being more deliberate with my plans and cleaning up my time and day. One way I've decided to try to make this weight loss endeavor more successful is to focus on new habits each month. I think in August I'll add in better meal planning to streamline meals and cooking for me and perhaps this will free up some mental space and/or time in the coming few weeks. By simplifying meal times I should be able to subtract some of the extra time being spent on compiling grocery lists, brainstorming on what to make for lunch, or getting distracted by elaborate new recipes that I've never made before. 

I go grocery shopping every Wednesday or Thursday. My meal plan for 7/27/2022 to 8/03/2022 is looking like this:

Now that I've taken all of the guesswork out of meal planning for the next week I am hopeful that it will help to get me into a better groove going forward. I know that if I can kind of eat the same foods more often I can lose weight more easily with less mental effort. That's my goal. That isn't really reflected in the current meal plan but after I get settled in with the new school year this coming week then I will sit down and plan out the rest of August and try to utilize as much of similarity to stable out my caloric intake and hopefully drop more pounds with less mental effort. 

Remember, removing as many barriers to success as possible will help you achieve your goals. 

Peace!

Hannah