Meal Planning Stress

I'm not good at asking for help... for a couple of reasons. First, it means that I'm failing at something, which is unacceptable to me. And, second, it means "bothering" someone and asking them to take time from their schedule to help me. These are both horrible lies, one that I believe that I'm perfect and since God is the only being who is good, right and perfect, I'm believing that I am in fact God. As well as, I'm believing the lie that people don't love me enough to want to help; want to spend time refining me and making me closer to the person of Jesus.

With this in mind, my friend and I came up with a beautiful plan. She'd help me with meal planning and I'd run with her. I'm thinking she got the lesser end of this deal!

I HATE meal planning! I've tried to sit down and make one before and gave up after about 30 minutes of looking at recipes and writing a grocery list. But, goodness, I was spending WAY too much money on groceries and eating out. And, surely there's a better way!

So, a few weeks ago one Sunday morning, there I sat at my friend's dining room table, cute weekly meal plan/grocery list paper in hand. I sat there with nerves awreck as she gleefully exclaimed how much fun this was and talked about all the different weekly challenges we could do. I nervously smiled and exclaimed "I HAVE NOTHING FOR LUNCH! WHAT CAN I EAT FOR LUNCHES?!!!??!!"

I've accomplished four weeks now and let me tell you... it's getting less scary. Because of the holiday's this past week I was on my own and I DID IT!

Here's what I've learned:
1. check your schedule - on nights where you know you are going to be busy, plan simple meals and/or pre-cook the night before.
2. check the weather - no one wants to eat soup on a 70 degree day!
3. allow for flexibility - I have a general plan, but I'm okay with changing it up through out the week.
4. know what you need - Not only do you need to know what you need at the grocery store, but what you need to survive a week. This took a week for me to figure out, but I now know I really only need to cook two meals a week. The rest of the week I eat left overs or simple sandwiches.