Many Ways to Rethink Meal Planning

Here is a Tidbit for Today

Judi Adamyk from A Practical Life on Substack shares a few thoughts about meal planning that supports—rather than drains—our energy.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

• Start Where You Are: Whether you build a menu from your pantry inventory, start with a fun recipe, or  pull together a “girl dinner” or leftovers, meal planning doesn’t have to be restrictive or rigid.
• Habit-Stack for Success: Tie tomorrow’s dinner prep into tonight’s cooking routine by taking out meat to thaw while you’re making your current meal. This small habit shift makes a big difference!
• Align with Your Energy: Meal planning should match your life and mental energy. If mornings aren’t your thing, skip the slow cooker and opt for 30-minute dinners in the afternoon or evening instead.

Meal planning isn’t one-size-fits-all, and that’s the point. Give yourself permission to do what works best for your lifestyle.

How do you make meal planning work for you?

• Join Kelly's Group Coaching Program
• Join Kelly’s Free community on Skool
• Follow Judi Adamyk on Substack

 Let's connect.

I am cheering for you!

Transcript

0:00

Mornings can be so busy. What I would try to do is when I was making the meal today, I'd take out tomorrow. Mm. Then it had time to thaw that evening and could sit in the fridge. I've never heard that before. That is a really good tool. Welcome to the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I'm life coach Kelly Kibbitz, 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. Welcome to my first Thursday tidbits. I'm gonna take a few moments on Thursdays and share just a small bite of something that we're talking about in my coaching program. And this week we're talking about ways to rethink meal planning. I'm sharing something that Judy Adamyk- host of a practical life on Substack, has shared with me. I promise you, if I had learned this when my children were young, it would've helped me a lot. Five minutes to think about meal planning this week. And let me know if something from our quick conversation helped you rethink meal planning this week. As we step into the spring, I'm gonna be talking about some self-awareness tools. I'd love for you to join me. I have a school program spelled S-K-O-O-L, that's linked in my podcast, at Instagram website. It's free and it's a way to meet other people who are interested in doing what you and I are doing, taking small steps to live a vibrant life. Thanks for listening. You and I both served in ministry, we've raised children, we've been busy women. When I didn't know better, when I knew like meal planning was all these steps and things that depleted me and I was making the list too hard, it wasn't okay to just have grilled cheese make a homemade meal. I ended up setting the bar so high that it would be like, forget it, it's five o'clock list run through McDonald's. Right. I didn't really think through meal planning. How did meal planning help you as a young mom? Well, I only had to sit down once and think about what I was going to make for the week. I also knew I had on hand, this is my grocery list, what I've chosen the recipes for,'cause I'm a recipe follower. These are the things that I know I have in my pantry or in my freezer and in my fridge that I will be able to make these things. Now, it may not always turn out that the meal I plan for Monday happens on Monday, but at least I know I can switch it out and I will have everything that I need. It's literally the sticky note system, but with menus. Right. Did you start in your pantry, in your freezer, or did you start in the magazine with the recipe idea? I often started with a meat inventory, so I know it's in my freezer, right? And I work off of that, or I start with the recipe and go, okay, taco Tuesday, let's do tacos, let's do chicken this week. You've done both. You've started with what's already in the house, but then also if you get inspired by fun recipe. Yeah. Or you just are in the mood for it. I find that if I do it all at once, it only takes me half an hour, maybe to plan the whole week, to plan the whole week. I would look at my menu, take the meat out, put it in the fridge, or even do it the night before. You've worked with me for a bit. And you know that mental energy is different from physical energy. I think a lot of women don't realize that to meal prep you actually need mental energy. You need a way to remember what you said you were going to make and maybe five minutes in the morning to make sure the ingredients were all there. Right. How did you create a habit? Where you were able to check your meat and take it out. Mornings can be so busy, it's hard to do it. What I would try to do is when I was making the meal today, I'd take out tomorrow. Mm. So then it had time to thaw that evening and could sit in the fridge. I've never heard that before. That is a really good tool. Yeah. When you're making the dinner for tonight, take a few minutes to think about tomorrow. Take it out as if you were taking out today's meat, but take out tomorrow's meat instead. That's so powerful. That combines, like James Clear would say two habits together. You're already making dinner tonight, right? Right. You can think about what you need for tomorrow. Yes, it's on the list in front of you. You know what? Tomorrow you're gonna have, I think another thing, you've got Instagram, beautiful Foods, and you've got the idea of what everybody else is doing. Oh, people have a rule, like you can't have sandwiches and counted as dinner. I think it's fun. Call it girl dinner and you can just put like basically charcuterie on your plate, right? You put some leftover money and some apples and you can call it dinner. Yeah. I do think that's a helpful thought is that it doesn't have to be a meat and potato to be dinner. It can be leftovers, right? It can be soup. Leftovers are good. I also had a really good 30 minute dinner recipe book that I used endlessly because it took less than 30 minutes and I knew it could get done. That is important too, for people to notice. I don't have two hours for dinner if I have children and they have activities. Yeah, and I was not the person with a lot of mental energy in the morning to get stuff in the slow cooker. Right. That was not me, but I could make during there in 30 to 45 minutes easily. That's insightful to say what's my energy really like one of my very first coaching clients, that was her big aha. They don't have good energy after the kids get home from school. Right. You're like, I don't have great energy first thing in the morning, so I need to keep the plan to match my energy, which is generally in the afternoon. You would think about dinner in the afternoon. You could prepare it in the afternoon, so you kept it small enough. Those are really insightful ahas for women to have. If you can't do morning crockpot make a different plan. It's not the only way. Many ways, many ways, many ways. There are many, many ways. 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 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 tibbits life coach, or visit my website kelly tibbits.com. I look forward to connecting again soon.