First Week Using The Mommy Meal Planner

Wow! This is a total lifestyle change for me and my family. I have never been the cook and have no idea how I have gone so long living like I have. Ellen gave me my meal planning guide this week. At first I decided I was going to try to follow this plan for all three meals. Then after a day I realized that maybe aiming for one meal a day would be more realistic. She encourages you to go at your own pace and trust me you will find this fast~ I decided that I would use the Harris Teeter Express Lane to get my grocery list completed that she provided. I have a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old and trying to find 50 new items in the store may be a challenge. If you go to our website you will see a coupon that will allow you to use this service for free. I completed my list and was very pleased when I was unpacking the groceries to see all my new items.

I looked at my weekly meal planner before each meal and decided what I had time to make and went from there. At lunch two days this week, I made full recipes and divided the servings and froze the ones I did not eat. This means two days next week I already have lunches done. One evening I was able to save a serving as well and will eat this for lunch this week. My week was packed with dinners out. Even though I was not eating exactly what was on my list I found myself making such an effort to cut out little things that normally I would not even have noticed on my plate.

Since I am breastfeeding it is very important for me to have access to healthy snacks during the day. A huge bowl of apples was a great way for me to meet this need. I am not a huge breakfast person, but I find I do have time for breakfast in the morning. So I have started eating a good breakfast and find that I am less likely to eat junk for lunch because of the lack of time.

On my list was soy milk and creamer. I thought there is no way. This is one thing I will not do. Well. well. well. I love soy creamer! In her helpful hints for me and my diet she recommends me cutting down from 4 cups of coffee to 2 and then having green tea instead in the afternoons. I am going to aim for this next week. I may surprise myself and get to three meals a day from the planner and then aim to use the meal tracker the next week!

Helpful hint - When using online shopping use few words to get more results. Example instead of whole wheat english muffins, use wheat english muffins.

***My husband has been very impressed with the meals so far and eating them with me:)