Weekly Prep

I am big on routines- especially ones that promote efficiency. I have the same routine every morning and if I miss a step or something happens out of order I am all out of whack. Sticking with my routine makes sure I do everything I need to, and in the proper order so that I am not back tracking or wasting time (efficiency!).

Not only do I have a daily routine, but a weekly one. (Almost) Every Sunday I have a series of things that I do to make the whole week so more smoothly. I’ve found that setting myself up on Sunday makes the whole week a better one. Nothing that I do takes that long, and even with all of the different things combined I still have plenty of time to nap/watch football/watch hockey/go to a family party.

Menu Plan, Shop

The biggest thing I do is menu plan. I figure out what is for supper each night based on our schedule. Typically I try to plan meals so that if I am buying something “special” at the store I can use it in multiple meals that week and the rest of the item won’t be wasted. (Stupid example- this week I got chives on sale for $1 – usually $2 or 3- I made a lunch salad that included chives in the dressing and we will have the rest of the chives over baked potatoes on Wednesday, last week it was similar with basil, sometimes it is a certain more expensive cheese, etc.) I convert the menu plan into a grocery list and we do all of our shopping for the week on Sunday. Menu planning keeps us from the every night question of what to eat, I can make sure food is defrosted the night before if needed, and confirms that we get all of the groceries we need in one swoop- we aren't stuck without an ingredient because we decided last minute to make something. (We do occasionally go off of the plan if we just don't feel like something- we typically have 2-4 meals frozen that we can pull out, or we can grab  hot dogs, burgers, spaghetti, or other pantry items.)

Weight Watchers Points

Once I know what our suppers are for the week I will put ALL of my food for the week into my Weight Watchers Points tracker online. All.of.it. Seeing my breakfast and supper in there cues me to how many points I have available for lunch and then I come up with a game plan for lunches. I add in any snacks (plan for popcorn on Monday nights for the Bachelor!- sad to see you go Sean…) and think about what our plan will be for the weekend. I also add in all of my planned workouts at this time. Once everything is in there I can see where I have wiggle room, where I need to cut back, etc. It makes eating for the week so easy- I am never caught off guard about what to eat, if I have “room” to eat something or whatever. If I miss a workout, I take it out of the tracker and know if I need to cut out a snack or something. I’ve lost 15 pounds since January by religiously tracking. We were away in Florida for a week at the end of February and I didn’t track there- I didn’t lose anything that week and I know I ate so much worse since I didn’t plan ahead.

Lunches/Breakfast

May look full, but is much less than the fridge I grew up with. These are our lunches for the week and any other meal items. I like the fridge to be basically empty at the end of the week.

Once I know what I am going to eat for lunch all week I actually make ALL my lunches for the week. I don’t have to scramble in the morning- which inevitably leads to me not making lunch and then buying at least once a week. Buying lunch out=not planning ahead=bad food choices (plus a waste of money!). In the morning I just grab my lunches and stick ‘em in the lunch bag. John actually makes his lunches ahead too- he eats sandwiches and I guess they stay pretty fresh. I typically have a salad, or make soup or something.

Laundry

One of the two-three loads we do each weekend.

Sunday is also our laundry day (usually- sometimes it drags into Monday). I have a pretty limited wardrobe and I just like starting the week knowing that I can wear whatever I want to because it isn’t stuck in the dirty clothes pile.

Work Out Clothes

Sunday night after the laundry is done I select all of my workout outfits for the week and lay them out on the dresser. I get up at 4:45 for my morning workout (well coffee first, THEN workout) and if I had to think about what to wear, find it, and change, I just wouldn’t get out of bed. The night before I put the morning’s clothes in the bathroom so I can get dressed with a light on and not disturb John (and Lucy). I also pack my gym bag for the evening work out on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. If I don’t do it the night before I can be sure that I would forget something in the morning. Laying out my clothes at the beginning of the week also makes sure that I have appropriate clothing for each activity and I don't use up all of the "good" clothes at the beginning of the week.
(Also? Each night I set up the coffee pot so that when the alarm goes off in the morning I just have to push start- I could probably set the timer, but our power goes out too frequently, I would always be resetting the clock and timer.)

Floors

This is not as religious as the other things, but I like to sweep, Swiffer and mop the floors on Sundays. Lucy sheds SO MUCH and we always have dust bunnies in the corners and fur under the tables, etc. We are usually pretty busy during the week (I leave at 7:15ish AM and don’t get home until 6:40 on Monday/Friday and 8:15 on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday), so the floors get ignored. It is nice to start the week off fresh.

So, now you know how anal I am about some things… do you have anything else that you do to plan for your week?