A new plan

It seems like I'm always coming up with plans and then not following through on them. I think I make my plans too difficult, or too restrictive, or too demanding of time to organize. I like to be spontaneous, and I like to spend my free time doing things other than charting what I've eaten or developing menus or whatnot, which kind of defeats any plan I have that requires those things.

So I'm thinking of using a plan with more wiggle room. Instead of deciding that I will always know what I'm having for dinner every night of the week, I'll make a deal with myself about what I can and can't do for food each day.

During the week, I've decided that I must always have a Slim-Fast breakfast (this is the most convenient anyway) and a Healthy Choice lunch. I may also have up to three snacks, one of which should be a fruit. Once a week I will allow myself to eat out for lunch if I really want to.

Dinner can be a little looser--what I get to eat will depend on what kind of workout (if any) I had that day. So if I don't work out at all, I need to be more careful: chicken or fish, veggies, not many carbs. If I walk during lunch, I can add in a starch like noodles. If I have even more of a workout, I can do a more filling, chunky dinner, like those dinners in a box, or I can eat out/order in.

On the weekend, I'm going to be less stringent: I can eat whatever I want as long as I do some form of exercise.

I'm also going to try to create a recipe organizational system so that I can plan ahead if I want to (for example, create a menu for Sean to cook on a day I don't have much time).

I think this will be easier for me to stick to than trying to do up crazy exercise and meal menus every week. The Slim-Fast and Healthy Choice dinners are very convenient because I can just grab them and go, which gives me more time in the morning to piddle around before work (or go to the gym, or do some contract work). Having a general plan will help me make smarter decisions, too.

I haven't decided if I'm going to try to use DietPower for this or not. Right now I'm thinking I don't want to micromanage yet. I just want to start building some new, good habits. Once I have those in place, we'll see if I need to push it further.