I've decided that the first step to any type of lasting lifestyle change or weight loss is to get to know me, what helps me succeed and what my triggers are to sabotage my efforts. Once I have examined these areas of my life and developed a plan to maximize the positives and minimize the challenges we can move onto step two - implementation.
The first part of Step 1 is an examination of stress. Today I began to examine the most stressful part of my day. While many mom's both working and those at home will agree that mornings are no picnic, I do believe that the most stressful part of my day is the time between getting home from work, getting everyone fed and settling down into an evening routine.
The two biggest barriers to a successful evening are: figuring out what to cook for dinner (and getting on the table fast) and not destroying the house in the process.
A few weeks ago I started to take some steps to minimize my meal prep stress. I started to use Sunday afternoons as an opportunity to cook a variety of meals and snacks to keep in the fridge and freezer. For 2 weeks now "what's for dinner" may be a question my kids ask, but not one that I'm worried about. Last night was a roast that I cooked the night before. Tonight is chicken fajitas with a roasted chicken also prepared in advance.
The second challenge is keeping my house in a condition where my door bell ringing does not through me into a full blown panic attack. Luckily my meal prep has helped to keep my kitchen clean this week and I've realized that having the dishes clean and my prep bowls and utensils available also helps to relieve stress. Its much more pleasant to cook and clean dinner when there is not already a sink full of dishes.
The unexpected bonus, driving home tonight from work my husband called and said that there was an unexpected issue at work and that he needed to work late. Now when my stress is high, this would also send me into a panic attack trying to figure out how to feed the kids and get through the evening routine, but I knew that the kitchen was clean and dinner was 2 minutes in the microwave away from ready so my dear husband was pleasantly surprised when I said sure honey, see you when you get home.
My Clean kitchen, ready to make dinner
It's wonderful that you are setting yourself up for success and pinpointing the areas that are making it difficult.
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