"Re-think Meal Planning" Workshop ( Episode 79)

Feeling overwhelmed by the weekly grind of “simply” putting dinner on the table? Did you know that it’s not really that simple? This episode isn't about recipes and grocery lists; it's a candid discussion about the realities of feeding a family (or just yourself) amidst the whirlwind of life.  I share simple tips and practical strategies to help avoid the last-minute scramble and make meal planning & prep a smoother and more peaceful part of your weekly rhythm. 

• Main points: 
  • Be aware of what I refer to as“emotional labor”- all the thoughts & feelings related to the activities needed to run a home, including putting dinner on the table.
  • Meal planning seems simple, but it actually involves a lot of steps, all of which require mental energy and many of which require physical energy.
  • Take some time to identify all the steps involved (e.g., planning, grocery shopping, prepping, cooking, cleaning up).
    • Notice your thoughts and feelings about each one. 
    • Consider balancing task division so no one person is stuck always doing the set of activities they hate.
    • Recognize that few people have high mental energy during the hour when dinner needs to be prepared.
  • Free Meal Planning guide

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Transcript

Kelly Tibbitts: 0:09

Welcome to the Live a Vibrant Life podcast. I'm Life Coach Kelly Tibbitts, and each week I'll be here to encourage and equip you with the tools you need to grow in self-awareness and invest your best energy in your dreams and your purpose. I believe self-awareness changes everything. Let's get started. Hey, friends, today I'm sharing a workshop that I did that is available for you to download and watch the video if you'd like, or grab the workbook, and it's one of the tools that I think can really serve you as we get ready for the spring series called Creating a Home. You Love Coming Home To. One of the things that I never knew, that I discovered these last five years that I really want to pass down, especially to my daughters and women, their age is the understanding of emotional labor, what it means to hold in your head and your body all of the things that are needed to run a home. I was a mom of three children, had two part-time jobs and, because the income I brought in didn't match my husband's, I had all these thoughts about my responsibilities and how I was, you know, being an equal part of this family, and if I could go back in time, I would have done so many things differently, because what happened is I became very resentful and frustrated because I was constantly going past my limits. So one of the things that all of us need to do is eat food, and if we can create meal plans, we're going to save money. We're going to give out much less energy, and the problem that many of the people that I've worked with discovered is few people have high mental energy during that hour when dinner needs to be prepared. So if we can just use this workshop to create the plan in advance, you get all that mental energy back. You might even save some physical energy because you're not running out to the store at the last minute. So I hope this workshop serves you. If it does, would you share it with a friend and let them know about the coaching with Kelly website kellytipidscom? You can also send them over to Facebook or Instagram to follow me. Share this podcast with them. I hope that this saves you time. It saves you money, but it helps you align your energy and give it to the important results that are so important to you as we head into spring. Thanks for listening.

Kelly Tibbitts: 2:17

Welcome to rethink meal planning, no matter what season you're in. You will find that using the three tools of noticing, deciding and practicing can make meal planning, meal prep and dinner time so much easier. So the three steps to any of the things that we do through our coaching program are notice, decide and practice. So the first thing we want to do when we're thinking about meal planning and meal prepping is really to be honest, what does reality look like today? Not what we're hoping for in the future, not what was, but without any self judgment, just looking honestly at the energy needed for the daily life that you're living. What are you noticing when you think about making dinner five to seven nights a week? Just grab a piece of paper and write down all the things you're thinking. What we want to do, then, is be deliberate, in which thought we keep on repeat. What thought do we want to think about preparing dinner, about having our family eat together? Whatever it is that's important to you? We want to write that thought down and then, finally, we want to find three to five small practices that we could use on a regular basis.

Kelly Tibbitts: 3:25

While you're writing down the things that you're noticing, you may notice some interesting thoughts come up. I know one that came up for me was a thought that said good mom should always have dinner ready for my three children. And that thought was a judgment, thought that I was a good mom if there was dinner and I was not a good mom if we had to go through the Wendy's drive-thru. And the reality is I, like everybody else, had a limited amount of energy when my children were growing up. I was running out of emotional, mental, physical energy right around the time that dinner needed to be made, and so often the easiest thing was to just choose a drive-thru. Now, if I had had this information earlier, I would know that probably on the weekend I need to make the plan with my good mental energy and go grocery shopping, prepping, putting everything away, cleaning out the refrigerator, again on a day that we weren't incredibly busy. So that might be.

Kelly Tibbitts: 4:13

What you notice is your energy is already given out to things that are important and you're running out of the energy you need mentally, physically, emotionally to make the plan for dinner, then to go and prepare everything and there's a lot of steps involved, isn't there, in creating the meals that we want to make. And so the first thing we want to do and notice is just use some of these tools that we've given you when are you in the stage of life I'm now in the emptiness stage, so that's a different amount of food to make. That's a different amount of people who are home at different times. Maybe you have kids at home, maybe you have an empty nest, maybe they're grandchildren coming by. Maybe you, like some of my friends, are making food for your elderly parents or other people. How many people do you need to cook for? What needs to happen Right? Is it fall, winter, summer, spring? Are you cooking inside or out? If you just took a few minutes and either just looked at this notice page and had a notebook nearby to answer the questions, I think you're going to find some of the answers that you've been looking for, and so what we really are trying to notice is All the steps involved in feeding the people that you feed.

Kelly Tibbitts: 5:25

There is the step of thinking about what to make. Then you have to make a grocery list. You have to consider other people's needs. Maybe you, like me, like to use coupons. You have to actually go grocery shopping. You have to load the food, put it away. There's prep time for each meal measuring, chopping, cooking. There is also all of the eating Creating leftovers, cleaning up time right, and so to put into a calendar that dinners 30 minutes is unrealistic for most people. Then, from there, we want to think about well, what is important for you at this time? What's the reason that you're having dinner at the time you're having it? Is it still based on the idea that six years ago you had, you know, a dance class at four o'clock? That no longer happens. It would be so good for each of the days of the week for you to realize where am I now? One of the things that might serve you is the little chart at the bottom of this page. If you could just take a few moments and think about all the steps involved in meals.

Kelly Tibbitts: 6:26

What do you love to do? For me, I don't mind cleaning out the refrigerator. I don't mind going to the grocery store. I really do like organizing spaces. That's probably the thing I love the most. But there are many things I like.

Kelly Tibbitts: 6:38

I don't mind cooking, but I don't enjoy it. You know, of course I enjoy eating and then cleaning up the leftovers. A little less of what I enjoy doing dishes a little less, but cooking every single day. If I don't guard my thoughts, if I don't manage my mind, that can slip very quickly into the things that I hate. And the problem is, once we have a thought on repeat, it's creating feelings in our body, and so, as you begin to notice what you're thinking, notice where those thoughts go. Does it help you to think that you love, like, don't mind, dislike or really hate something? And the good news is there are things that are out of our control, but what we think is always 100% in our control.

Kelly Tibbitts: 7:21

So now we want to decide. What do you want to think about the fact that there are meals to prepare, meals to eat, people to share the food with? Right, it is such a gift to be able to have a meal with somebody else. So, even if you're in a season of empty nesting or living on your own, are there people that you can invite over on occasion? And then, finally, what practices will serve you?

Kelly Tibbitts: 7:41

Doing two to three small steps on a regular basis can move you close to the results that you want, and so, if you take the little system that we have, we've encouraged you to just print the page here so you can fill it in yourself, and I've given you some ideas of how to limit the mental energy that goes out with meal prep. So on Monday nights, if you decide we're just gonna have something that is sort of a rice bowl salad type thing, tuesday nights maybe it'll be a burger or sandwich, wednesday night could be what sounds fun all the different things that don't make it into this little chart Thursday night something like a taco or nacho night, and then finally, on Friday, maybe something that's pasta, and so I've given you one month's worth of ideas, but ideally you go to the page that looks blank like this and you fill it in for yourself At the end. What we're really hoping for is you to take the mental energy that you may not have at five o'clock and Invest it on the weekend to create the plan. So you know when you need to clean the refrigerator, when you need to go grocery shopping, when you need to prep the food, at what time of day will you be cooking and cleaning it and when you take the time to invest your energy when it matches Right.

Kelly Tibbitts: 8:50

If you're low on mental energy at four o'clock, that's a really hard time to make a plan for the evening. So use the time that you have that serves you best. So if your physical energy is early in the morning, that might be when you grocery shop, clean the fridge. If your physical energy is better at night, then make the plan that way, and so, if you want to go a little deeper in this, here's all the information. Will be having some upcoming Workshops, but I hope that this does serve you and helps you create the meals that you want to create on a regular basis. Thank you for joining the live a vibrant life podcast. I hope our time together encourage you and will equip you with the tools you need to move your life Into the vibrant life you desire. I'm here to help you live a brave, creative, purpose filled life, and if you'd like to learn more, you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook, kelly to bits life coach, or visit my website, kelly to bits calm. I look forward to connecting again soon. I.