Small Step – Make a Plan

Take some time this Sunday to look at your upcoming week. Figure out what your work, family and social commitments are. For example, this week I have to work late on Tuesday to teach a class.

Once you've looked at your time commitments, you can plan your meals or workouts or both based on this. If you’re new to planning I’d only pick one at a time.

For food, Carly does our shopping on Friday because she has that day off each week. We plan our  meals for the week from Saturday to Thursday (Friday we always eat leftovers or salads with leftovers). This week she has an appointment Monday after work and I work late so we planned to pre-make soup today for Monday and to eat leftovers on Tuesday (either from the freezer or what we made through the weekend).

We also try to plan meals that use vegetables that go bad quickly (like bean sprouts) earlier in the week and feature meals with pantry staples like beans, rice, artichokes and olives later in the week. We also try to analyze the fridge and pantry to make sure we’re using up what we have before buying new things. Once this is done, we make our weekly list in an app called Our Groceries. This app is great because it saves your previous items, so it’s easy to add the things you buy regularly.

For workouts, I’m loosely following a combination of half marathon training plans for my race on March 23rd. I schedule 4 run days (1 with strength training), 1 crosstraining + strength day, 1 yoga day, and 1 day to rest or take a long walk or do yoga. I usually do the same thing each day of the week, but will be switching my long run to Sunday (from Saturday) in 2 weeks since my race is on Sunday. It’s important for me to consider my other time commitments when I make my training schedule, and I try to make sure I take advantage of days where I have off work or go in late. I've shared my training plan before if you’re interested in taking a look!