November Week 3 Group Challenge - Holiday Meal Planning vs Standard Meal Planning
This week's challenge is in preparation of the coming holiday season…in the US starting with Thanksgiving (Canada had theirs last month) and then worldwide, the Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and a few others. All of them usually include gatherings with family and friends, sharing of meals and sometimes gift exchanges. If you're not a holiday person or simply not observing this year, use this week to plan your usual meal planning routine. Here are a few questions to lead into our planning and discussion for the week.
- Are you expecting company to come and stay with you during the holidays?
- How do you plan your meals?
- Does everyone bring something and it's more like a potluck?
- Or do you do most of the cooking and everyone just comes to your house for the celebration?
- Or do you pick a restaurant and go out together?
- How do you plan for picky eaters or special dietary needs?
- Do you plan activities, with schedules each day?
- Or do you wing it and have more of a casual schedule each day?
- Do you use a theme each year or stick with more tried and true recipes from your family history?
- How do you minimize stress, and allow yourself to enjoy the holiday as well?
- Do family/friends tend to pitch in and help or do you do a one-person show?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this and how it is different from your usual meal planning? Remember to give yourself grace, as planning is a LOT and as you know, the holidays tend to be an emotional time as well. Make sure to build breaks, physical and mental into your schedules.
See you in the chat thread…I will put in a few meal planning sheets for those who like them…or feel free to post you own.
Jessica 🦃 🎅
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Here's one option…
Jessica
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Where's your favorite store/restaurant to start your shopping/planning for any holiday gathering?
Is budget a deeper consideration this year?
Jessica
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I will be sitting this week out. My son and I both are working on Thanksgiving. We will be having our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Just the two of us since we don't have family that live near by. Will be getting our Thanksgiving dinner from HelloFresh too.
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- Are you expecting company to come and stay with you during the holidays? No, it's just me and Rich. We will probably be the visitors at other people's gatherings
- How do you plan your meals? Since Rich and I both have dietary restrictions, any meals at home will follow our standard guidelines. If we are visiting other people, we choose very carefully only our favorite foods, and keep quantities small.
- Does everyone bring something and it's more like a potluck? As an invited guest, I never arrive empty handed. I ask the host, but even if told not to bring anything, I will likely bring a healthy dish to share.
- Or do you do most of the cooking and everyone just comes to your house for the celebration? When I'm the host, I plan on doing all the cooking, but will gladly modify plans if guests ask me what they should bring.
- Or do you pick a restaurant and go out together? We've done that too! I have a favorite restaurant in mind. If my current Thanksgiving plan falls through, I will make a reservation for me and Rich.
- How do you plan for picky eaters or special dietary needs? Oh, that would be Rich's sister! Always ASK.
- Do you plan activities, with schedules each day? No! We'll go with the flow.
- Or do you wing it and have more of a casual schedule each day? Winging it
- Do you use a theme each year or stick with more tried and true recipes from your family history? Tried and trusted recipes. Any experiments are prepared and tested on my coworkers ahead time!
- How do you minimize stress, and allow yourself to enjoy the holiday as well? I'm great at organizing and figuring out the timeliness. My years as a cook in the family restaurant pays off. Also, I'm not much of a social butterfly. I prefer to be busy working.
- Do family/friends tend to pitch in and help or do you do a one-person show? Always accept help when it's offered.
Where's your favorite store/restaurant to start your shopping/planning for any holiday gathering? Favorite store is Hannaford.
Is budget a deeper consideration this year? Not really. After a lifetime of skimping and saving, I no longer want to do things on the cheap. It's only money. 100 years from now, we'll never know the difference.
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- Are you expecting company to come and stay with you during the holidays? It's come and go.
- How do you plan your meals? Order
- Does everyone bring something and it's more like a potluck? Yes
- Or do you do most of the cooking and everyone just comes to your house for the celebration? Share
- Or do you pick a restaurant and go out together?
- How do you plan for picky eaters or special dietary needs? No picky eaters.
- Do you plan activities, with schedules each day? No
- Or do you wing it and have more of a casual schedule each day? It's come and go.
- Do you use a theme each year or stick with more tried and true recipes from your family history? Tried and true for my part.
- How do you minimize stress, and allow yourself to enjoy the holiday as well? I order my food and my children bring their own dishes. They also clean up before they leave.
- Do family/friends tend to pitch in and help or do you do a one-person show? I have very bad vertigo, so I order food and my family bring food. It's always a come and go. They'll stay and visit for a while and then go to their main celebrations.
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Where's your favorite store/restaurant to start your shopping/planning for any holiday gathering? As far as groceries, I usually order my Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner from Dillons which is a Kroger store. I start very early with my Christmas shopping. My favorite is fanatic online as my kids are all into sports. For other gifts I just shop around online. I don't go out grocery shopping or gift shopping so most of my shopping is online shopping and my caregiver goes to get things for me locally.
Is budget a deeper consideration this year? I decided to buy less this year. My children bring quite a bit but I always get the turkey and ham. This year I'm only getting the ham.
Jessica, thanks for these challenges. They do help me a lot to keep focused. You are appreciate it.
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- Are you expecting company to come and stay with you during the holidays? We're going to our sister's family's house
- How do you plan your meals? Our weekly meal plan will be made and we'll add in Thanksgiving dinner for Thursday
- Does everyone bring something and it's more like a potluck? We all bring something
- Or do you do most of the cooking and everyone just comes to your house for the celebration? My sister and her husband makes most of the meal then we all bring something.
- Or do you pick a restaurant and go out together? No
- How do you plan for picky eaters or special dietary needs? No picky eaters
- Do you plan activities, with schedules each day? I'll do my workouts as scheduled
- Or do you wing it and have more of a casual schedule each day? Thanksgiving day is usually pretty casual, that's the only day we'll be traveling
- Do you use a theme each year or stick with more tried and true recipes from your family history? Tried and true family recipes
- How do you minimize stress, and allow yourself to enjoy the holiday as well? The holiday is pretty low-key for us, visiting with the family and enjoying a great meal
- Do family/friends tend to pitch in and help or do you do a one-person show? We all pitch in
One tip that I learned at WW was to think about the meal and imagine a plate sectioned out. You think about the food that will be there and what you're willing to indulge in, like Mom's stuffing, and then you have an idea of what the meal will "cost" you calorie-wise.
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