How to Learn from My Major Meal Planning Fail: Pt. 1

Some of our best laid plans are destined to hit roadblocks. That’s where I’m at right now.

I had a plan! I was going to meal prep for one week. I’d document it with mouth watering pics and let y’all know how great I did. I would write out my plan for a week on Monday, get food shopping and prep on Tuesday, follow the plan, and take photos of everything as I went along. Then, I would spend about two days compiling my thoughts and pictures, and write up an excellently informative post. The whole process would take about ten days. Easy-peasy. Or, so I thought.

But, life. (Spoiler alert- I never even took a single picture of food)

Before my Tuesday shopping trip, I realized I was going to be needing to make a quick visit back to NJ (we’ve recently relocated to Vermont). I decided that I would put the meal planning on hold until after the trip because meal planning and rest stops on the New York State Thruway just don’t mix.

So I adjusted my plan. I would food shop and prep the following Tuesday, stick to my plan for three days and then do a mid-week write up and review. I’d still get some nice photos; it would be fine. I’d still make it work! Or, so I thought.

Day one went well. Day two, I got a migraine mid-afternoon. I spent most of the afternoon and all night alternating between lying in bed and hugging the toilet. I ate crackers for dinner. On day three, my mom offered to babysit so my husband and I could have a date night. We DO NOT turn down date night. We live about 400 miles from just about every single human we know. So when someone is in town and offers… we accept! Needless to say, I did not stick to the plan.

So here I am, at the end of day 3 of my weeklong meal plan and prep experiment and suddenly my blog post has turned into something more like a comedy of errors than an inspirational, motivational experience. But, I have faith that you may still be able to learn a bit from my mistakes. I hope so anyway.

Meal planning is pretty new to me… not the concept; I’ve seen everyone doing it… but the actual doing it part. Yeah, that hasn’t really been my thing. Before I had kids, I never really dieted. Occasionally, I would decide to “get in better shape” or “eat healthy,” but I didn’t really need to and never really stuck with it. I never bought a single item of clothing over a size 6 (typically wore a 2 or 4). I didn’t even diet for my wedding. I actually weighed the most I ever had, up until that point, on my wedding day.

Of course, I gained a few pounds (about five) after our wedding. We went out to a lot of restaurants. I drank a bit of wine. I made pasta often. But, we were happy. THEN, I got pregnant.

Pregnancy and I don’t mix. I hate being pregnant so much that this is the only picture I have of myself through 2 pregnancies.

Let’s see if you can follow this math. If you can, you get an A+ in crazy. During my first pregnancy, I gained an incredibly unhealthy 72lbs. Yes, you are seeing that correctly. 72lbs. Now, when my oldest son was just 4 months old, I got pregnant again. In those 4 months, I had lost 35lbs. During my second pregnancy, I gained 46lbs. Since having my second child (3.5 years ago), I’ve lost 50lbs. So, if you’ve done your math correctly, you’d see that I am still about 33lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight.

A little meal planning and prepping ain’t gonna hurt anyone over here. Heck, I’m due for it. Maybe it’s about time to drop 30lbs? Maybe. We’ll see.

Keep your eye out for Part 2, where I’ll share my secret meal planning weapon (my mom!), my doomed week’s plan, and the lessons I learned (and so can you) from this whole fiasco.