Planning your meals (getting organized)

The biggest hurdle I faced with my journey was having healthy food available so that I would not give in to the urge to stop at the fast food place. I shared this with some of my friends but figured there might be others who are struggling in this area.

I get paid every two weeks, so the day before pay day I plan a menu for the next two weeks. I have been using mostly recipes from skinnytaste.com because I have found that most of them are very tasty as well as healthy if you stick to the recommended portions. Since January 1, I have not had the same thing twice and my husband has enjoyed most of the recipes.

I use ziplist.com to create a shopping list. I can browse the recipes from skinnytaste and other great websites and click a button to add them to my recipe box, and all I have to do is click on add-to-list and it creates a shopping list for me. Ziplist also has an app for your smartphone that is free. And they have a toolbar that you can install on your computer that will allow you to click on any recipe on the web and add it to your recipe box.

The only drawback to ziplist is that they don't group like items on the shopping list so I have to spend a few more minutes to do that. I have sent them an email requesting this ability and they gave me a reason why they don't currently do it that way, but maybe if more people suggested it, they would change it.

I have also found that I seem to be saving money this way also. Because I usually take whatever leftovers I have from the night before for lunch the next day and that ensures I am also eating something healthy for lunch.

I have a few standards that I eat for breakfast to make that more of a no-brainer (like oatmeal, peanut butter on whole wheat toast, or homemade egg mc muffins). Hope this helps if even just one person!