BONUS 1.THE 6 KEYS TO MEAL PLANNING SUCCESS
6 Keys to Meal Planning Success VIDEO
6 Keys to Meal Planning Success AUDIO
Click here to download the MP3 version to listen to on your ipod.
(you may need to ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’ then add the saved file to your itunes library) [/tab] [tab]
The 6 Keys to Meal Planning Success WRITTEN
You’re about to embark on learning a completely NEW way to plan and shop for your meals. Which means there’s going to be a lot of change in this part of your life.
For most of us change can be exciting but at the same time it can bring up some fear and resistance. So to help get you ready to revolutionize YOUR meal planning system, I’ve created this Quick Start training to get you ready and raring to go. AND most importantly make sure that the change sticks and you get the results you’re after.
Key 1. Start small. This is one of the best concepts I’ve come across. It was taught to me by the lovely Leo Babauta from Zen Habits when I took a class in meditation with him last year. Leo’s story is amazing. Over the last 6 years he’s completely changed his life from being and overweight smoker stuck in a job he hated with loads of debt. To a clean, healthy debt-free, marathon-running machine who loves his work. And how has Leo achieved all this? One habit at a time. AND by starting small.
Leo’s reasoning is that changing our lives is hard work. So the secret to his success has been to start as small as possible. This way he sets himself up for success and actually following through with the change. A much smarter approach than what we so often do, get all excited and start making heaps of massive changes all at once. Which of course we can’t sustain so we get burnt out and give up all together.
Small steps are really where it’s at.
Key 2. Fully commit to making a change. As I mentioned earlier, change is scary for all of us in some way or other. One of the best ways to give yourself momentum so that you’ll make the change in spite of the fear is to make a public commitment. So put it out there. Tell at least one person. It could be your family, friends or your social media network. Just as long as it’s someone whose opinion you care about. Someone you won’t want to let down by not keeping your commitment.
Key 3. Adopt an attitude of positive expectancy. I’ve only recently come across the concept of ‘positive expectancy’. Basically it’s all about Henry Ford’s great quote
“If you think you can or think you can’t, you’ll be right either way”
Regardless of your situation or confidence level, there’s no reason why YOU won’t be able to get the 2-Minute Meal Planning system to work for you. So I want you to start believing that you can do it right now.
When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts like, ‘this won’t work for me’ you need to stop the thought. And then turn it into a question… ‘HOW can this work for me?’ And focus your attention on looking for solutions. And if you find you’re struggling to find solutions for your situation, just leave a comment and let me know what you’re struggling with so we can try and find a solution together.
Key 4. Start before you’re ready. We’re going to have 5 weeks together while I introduce you to new concepts and new ways of cooking. But no matter how much attention you pay to each lesson or how many times you watch each video, you’re NOT going to see any results until you actually get started and make some changes.
One of the characteristics that differentiates successful people from not-so-successful people is that successful people know they’re never going to feel completely safe and ‘ready’. They don’t let this hold them back from taking the first step. They take action.
I want you to be successful in your meal planning efforts which means you’re going to need to ‘start before you’re ready’. It might be a little scary, but it’s the only way to get results.
Key 5. Know where you’re at now. One of the most important steps to making lasting changes is to know exactly where you’re starting from. To do this you need to observe your current meal planning system. Identify what’s working and your areas for improvement. Make a list so you’ll know where to focus your time and energy over the next 5 weeks.
This will also help you be on the lookout for the ideas that are going to have the biggest positive impact on your particular situation.
Key 6. Know where you want to get to. They say you ‘can’t hit a target you can’t see’ for a good reason. You need to know where you want to get to in order to get there!
Set yourself just one goal for this class. It might be that you want to learn to ‘wing it’ for cooking dinner 1 night per week. Or maybe you’re ready to go the ‘whole hog’ and say goodbye to your old meal planning ways forever. Be realistic but also aim high enough that your goal excited you when you think about it. [/tab] [tab]
Your Actions
STEP 1. Commit to making a change.
STEP 2. Observe where your meal planning is now. What’s working and what you’d like to improve.
STEP 3. Set AT LEAST one goal.
STEP 4. Leave a comment. [/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]
Bonus 2 Quick Start Guide
Bonus 3. Class eBook
Click on the cover above to download your complimentary VIDEO eCookbook
Note: You may need to ‘Right Click’ and ‘Save Link As’ to download.
Bonus 4. Template Recipe eBook
Click here to download the Template Recipe-only eCookbook.
This is the same as the class ebook except it doesn’t contain any of the module information – only the recipes and images.
Note: You may need to ‘Right Click’ and ‘Save Link As’ to download.
Bonus 5. Ingredient Thesaurus
Click on the cover above to download your FREE BONUS Ingredient Thesaurus.
You may need to ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’.
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I am a person of intentions. I always have the best intentions but then tend to not follow through. I love the idea of planning and being organised but often seem to fail.
My goal is to commit to this program because I believe it is achievable and therefore not throw away wasted food because it seems too hard or I’ve not considered quantities.
Great Bronwyn!
Do you think you could break down your goal into something smaller and more concrete? Like maybe cooking one meal in the next week using the program… or whatever will be super easy for you to stick to and get a ‘win’. We want to make it as easy as possible.
Jx
Okay, two main goals:
1. Cook 5 meals without using a recipe.’
2. Reduce the amount of food thrown away because I did not cook it before it began to die.
If I am successful with these goals, I will be one happy cooker in my kitchen!!
Sondra Lucht
Wonderful Sondra!
You might want to break down your goals so they are a little smaller (make it easier to achieve). So maybe try cooking 1 meal without a recipe in the next week (and then go from there)
The other thing with goal setting is to make them more specific so your number 2. goal might be to not throw any food away in the next 3 days and make sure you use what needs eating up.
Of course if you’re happy with the way you’ve already written your goals that’s no problem!
Look forward to hearing how you get on
Jx
I always seem to get everything in place to do something, but then don’t really follow through, so this time, I am committing to complete the course and start getting results.
GREAT Michelle!
This is the key to making changes.
There’s an activity with each module so you might want to try setting the intention to do all the activities as well.
Look forward to hearing how you get on
Jx
I have been meal planning this year but find myself getting in to a rut and relying on the same dishes. I’d like to try new flavours and ingredients so that I can encourage my children to eat a variety of food.
Great Nicola! I find adding a new ingredient or side to a favourite dish works well with my children – I alway make sure they have something familiar (usually carb based) on their plates helps 🙂
Hi Jules
I am reading many of the comments posted on this page and I can relate to many of them.
I love cooking and I love trolling through cookbooks and at recipes on the net and going, oooooh, I’ll make that one day but somehow one day doesn’t always happen due to time commitments. My number one goal for this course is to be able to have some beautiful healthy ingredients and turn it into a delicious meal without having to spend time searching the internet or my recipe books for a suitable recipe which is going to use up the wonderful ingredients I have on hand and be able to be ready for serving in around 30mins or less. You hit the spot when you say reverse your meal plan.
Anyway, here is to getting some time back and eating wonderful, fresh meals.
Great Kathryn!
Hi Jules,
I am so excited to be participating! I was one of the contest winners and am so happy about having won. Thank you so much! Learning to cook without recipes is a desire I’ve had for a long time, and one which I have observed my husband’s family in France doing. I have been perplexed, though, about how to actually put this into practice. My goals in taking this class are:to be able to shop without recipes and also to be able to spontaneously put together a great meal with ingredients I have on hand.
Hello!
I’m excited about making changes to the very basics in my life: food, sleep, exercise, etc. Basically I would like to relate to these things in healthier ways so that I can have a solid foundation on which to build other interesting pursuits. I currently have a love/hate relationship with cooking and food in general. I alternate between inflexible and impossible expectations and embarrassingly poor food choices. Leo’s idea of starting small seems like the way to go but I know I need support and accountability.
Thank you Jules!
Good for you Travis!
and thanks for your honesty. Starting small really is the key to making changes that stick. It’s all about making it almost impossible to fail so you can get some momentum to keep going. Change is hard but you can do it.
Keep me posted on how you’re getting on
Jx
I can’t remember how I found Jules, but I’m so glad I did.
I live on the other side of the world form most of you in the Los Angeles area. I have tried different methods of meal planning, but none of them seemed to stick. I need something with flexibility in it and I think that is what I have found here. My goal for this course is to be able to make 2 meals a week with the ingredients I have on hand.
Thais
Love it Thais!
I’m glad you found me too 🙂
Hi
I get a seasonal box of organic vegetables each fortnight and I need help with creating recipes for them. I work so find it difficult to throw a meal together when I am tired. My husband is vegetarian and I’m not. All of our children have left home and I need inspiration to make something quick and tasty when I get home from work.
I have downloaded some of jules cookbooks but have not stuck to them. So I am looking forward to having the support to keep motivated. Ultimate goal is weight loss and to keep it off with a healthy eating plan.
Some great goals there Denise!
Just make sure you take baby steps so you don’t get overwhelmed and quit!
Look forward to hearing how you get on as the class progresses 🙂
Jx
Hello everyone! I do eat and enjoy healthy foods but struggle to to make a meal nutritionally balanced most of the time. I’m a new vegetarian (lacto-ovo) who’ll also eat sustainable fish species. It’s a bit of a challenge to keep my diet interesting at times.
Help with making a complete meal that doesn’t take an eternity would be great.
Cooking simple, balanced, tasty meals without a recipe would be fun and such a RELIEF!
Looking at fresh produce and going yeah that looks yummy and knowing what to do with it in a few easy steps? Awesome.
I loathe being a slave to a recipe and my attitude of ‘positive expectancy’ is more often than not crushed after what seems like hours of hard work and money wasted!
I’m diving right in Jules…with small steps 😉
Wonderful Melinda!
Jx
Hello! I love to cook and don’t mind spending a lot of time in the kitchen preparing holiday meals and dinner parties. I have a large collection of cookbooks that I love to refer to for these meals. This system, as you may guess, does not work well for everyday. I have a few easy recipes that I can make off the top of my head, but I would love the tools and confidence to improvise a bit and not be so dependent on complicated recipes. Jules, I’ve had a glimpse of your magic with a couple of ebooks of yours that I’ve purchased, and I realize that your system is the way to go for me. I’m ready to take the plunge.
Awesome Adelaida!
You’re in the right place 🙂
Jx
I want to eat healthier. That’s the biggest part of this for me. I like healthy food, and I buy my meat and eggs from farmers. I also shop the farmers markets when they are in season, however, I often find myself just throwing a frozen pizza in the oven or something silly like that. Lunches are particularly challenging, I’m so tired of sandwiches, and I know they aren’t the best choice health wise. By the way, love zen habits, the whole idea you mention about starting small, just doing something, get in action in some way, that’s been helpful to me. I finally started exercising, and eating healthier, planning meals that are healthy for the whole family will be great. I feel like there are so many things that need changing, and I just keep thinking, okay, add one thing, eventually you’ll be in the place you’d like to be. I started with the exercising, now I can really use some help with the whole food planning,cooking,eating healthy thing.
Yay for Zen Habits Christine!
So happy to hear you’re taking it one step at a time… it’s so important for setting yourself up for success. Sounds like you’re totally on the right path. You might like to check out my ‘Beyond the Sandwich’ class after MYMP is over to give you some sandwich-free lunch ideas
Jx
I’m looking forward to learning how to cook without using recipes. Sometimes I have left over food which sometimes goes to waste. I don’t like buying new ingredients to use-up the leftovers, I think this course will help me to create meals with what I’ve got.
Hi everyone,
My current “system” is to start with what I get in my veggie box each week – at least it’s seasonal! For a while I tortured myself with browsing through my food porn recipe books and choosing stuff that looked nice to cook but now I have a pantry bursting with ingredients I rarely use.
A couple of goals – one is to use up the excess in the pantry so I’m left with mainly stuff I use often so it’s always fresh.
The other main goal is to always know what I’m going to cook for dinner each night – this is the most stressful part of cooking for me and a daily brain drain I could do without. Happy to meal plan, don’t want it to take more than 15 minutes a week!
Cheerse,
Robyn
Greetings …
I have just started the course.
I have realised already that I have never had a plan or a system or anything. No wonder I feel confused and in a mess all the time.
I’m hoping that this course will help my life to be easier and simple.
This is my aim.
And of course, I want to eat healthy foods but not have to spend all my time in the kitchen.
welcome wendy!
if you’ve never had a plan you’re starting from a great place!
Jx
Hello, I’ve been traveling for work and am just starting the Meal Planning modules. I don’t currently have any meal planning methodology … I just purchase what looks good at the store/farmer’s market to cook at home. However, my work schedule can get rather hectic and I often find myself tired and uninspired after a long day so I often end up grabbing a quick bite at a local restaurant and food at home goes to waste.
My 1st goal is to reduce food wastage to zero. My 2nd goal is to start cooking healthy meals with whole foods at home so that I can control the ingredients and avoid any food intolerance (dairy/gluten/nightshades). Starting small, I would like to cook only 2 dinners per week, increasing as I become more comfortable with my new meal planning system.
Cheers,
Meg
Wonderful Meg!
Great goal to be focusing on reducing food waste 🙂
Jx
Although I am retired, life remains hectic and the temptation to eat a pre-packaged diet is strong. I want to get me and my family into eating “real” food and you have helped me do that already. But, to use a couple of hackneyed phrases, there is always room for improvement and practice makes perfect. So, my goal is to continue down the road of efficient and healthy eating.
My goal is to cook simple meals consistently and be able to maintain it when I go back to work from maternity leave. I also really want to simplify grocery shopping. I don’t have much time for the grocery store but go to my local farmers market every single Saturday.
My big obstacle is that I get burned out. I’m a big “all or nothing” person. I will decide I’m going to eat really good for a while, buy lots of stuff, make like 1-2 recipes, start juicing, etc… Then I get tired or busy or bored with what I’m making and loose a lot of momentum. The approach isn’t working. What’s working now is that I’ve really been gradually shifting to a more whole foods, cooked by me lifestyle. A lot of it is actually sticking and I’m learning so much. I’d like to keep that momentum when I go back to work. My other obstacle is that my husband eats meat, my baby just started solids and my toddler is fussy. That’s a lot of dietary preferences for one household! Today I tried to get my toddler to eat the “maple baked beans” that she helped me make, it was less than successful. So I’m looking forward to learning new things and taking a gradual approach. I’ve also been reading zen habits forever and love Leo’s approach. It’s actually how I found this site!
I’m at home with a 15 week old baby and find meal planning and cooking difficult and stressful – I’d love to be able to cook tasty, healthy meals for my family based on what is good/seasonal and enjoy the process!
My goal is to spend less time shopping. When trying to stick to a traditional meal plan, I end up running around different stores (and goung back for things I forgot the first time). When going planless I end up shopping every day (some times more than once!). My second goal is to get my creative mojo in the kitchen back. I used to enjoy cooking, but lost it after becoming a mother, probably I felt pressured to “get organized” and do traditional meal planning. It was such a relief when Jules explained why traditional meal planning doesn’t work for everybody. Up until then I thought I was the one not working 😉
I totally love the time spent at grocery or food stores and have great enthusiasm for “what it could be” …. but then at the end of each day that energy I had disappears, and Im overwhelmed with all the options… I seriously just want to stop wasting food, take delight in a simple tasty meal, and know that Im making a healthy choice for all of us. Time to make it real…excited… Hi Jules!
I have a few goals for this course.
The first one is to gain confidence in being able to cook more intuitively more often rather than rely on recipes or repeating the few dishes that I do feel comfortable throwing together and playing around with.
The second is to gain a bit of balance in terms time and effort spent on meal planning. We used to live very close to the shops so shopped everyday (sometimes multiple times a day) for ingredients that looked good or we felt like that day, deciding what to cook pretty much just before preparing it. We’ve moved and with two young children it’s just not practical anymore, and was also a pretty expensive way to shop. So I’ve gone totally the other way trying to do a traditional “weekly meal plan” system, shopping online for deliveries from the supermarket and fruit & veg market… the idea of being able to shop “for the week” but still have the flexibility of choosing what we feel like on the day without having wasted ingredients or missing ingredients sounds ideal.
Finally, I would just like to gain more confidence in the kitchen in general and rely less on my partner to cook when we have guests over etc.
Starting small is really important. The first time I did this class, I started big — I switched our entire meal plan over, right away, to the new method. That fell apart as soon as we hit budget and produce availability/seasonality issues, and I retreated right back to the safety of what I knew: totally preplanned menus.
This time, I want it to stick. So I’m going to start with using this meal planning method for ONE meal per week. I’m also getting my husband to be totally responsible for one meal a week, too. This takes planning for two meals off my plate but still keeps my “safety net” of familiarity intact. This way, if I mess up my meal, it’s only that one meal and not the entire week that goes awry.
I would like to stop using recipes so much except maybe with baking a cake.Id like to throw out less and even with a cupboard of ingredients I still don’t know what to do with them to “wing it” and I buy one or more things only for the 1 recipe that I never make again.I would like far less wastage of food .I tried Jamie Olivers 30 minute meals then his 15 minute meals but the recipes all had ingredient lists as long as your arm and it was Sooo expensive to buy them all and I never cooked anything in less than an hour!
We’ll get you there Bebaki!
One tip to get you started is to choose one or two main ingredients to focus on and then choose a template recipe that can use those ingredients..,
The key is to back yourself and just try it!
Jx
My goal is to get back into the habit of cooking fresh, unprocessed foods from scratch and not reaching straight for the pre-packaged meals. Something I used to hardly ever do, but with my work life so busy now, it’s the ‘easiest’ option… but definitely not the healthiest!
Love it Amanda!
you know you might be surprised that cooking healthy meals isn’t really much more work than pre-packaged.
J
My goal is to use all I learn from this course to plan my weekday dinners. This post is my public accountability, as I tend towards the type of person who takes zero action if I tell too many people! I’ve had great success (thanks to stonesoup!) with making regular non-sandwich healthy low carb lunches for several months now, so I feel encouraged that my dinner plans will follow suit. This will guide what I buy during my weekly shop and what items I’ll stockpile in the pantry, so there’s less wastage and improved money management too!
ps. I’ve been reading zenhabits material for years. Great stuff!
Wonderful Sonna!
And that’s good that you know what’s going to work for you in terms of public accountability.
Yay for Zen Habits!
J
I have no “meal planning”. It’s always “off the cuff” when I go to the market. I’d like to become a bit more structured so I don’t have wasted food but still retain the creative part of cooking.
Great Cristine!
For you I’d say you just need to focus on adapting the planning ‘formula’ to work for you so you buy the right amount… and then the rest will be easy for you!
J
My goal is to commit to learning and making more nutritional meals for myself. I live alone and have not been a very enthusiastic chef when there’s just me, myself and I! A recent health scare has made me super aware of my nutrition intake, cook nutritional meals for myself and avoid waste. Thanks Jules, I am really looking forward to this class.
Hi Toni!
Sorry to hear about your health scare… but am glad it’s making you realise the importance of cooking healthy meals for yourself!
J
I’ve never been a fan of cooking and avoid it if I can as I find it very time consuming and well, tedious. I find the idea of being able to plan quickly and cook healthy meals enticing, so here I am! This is going to certainly be an adventure for me!! My goal is to use whats in my kitchen & fridge first this week and plan 2 dinners without going shopping.
Great first goal Chelle!
Let us know how you get on… and remember it doesn’t necessarily have to take loads of time 🙂
J
Lunches for my work are a big challenge for me. I’m not a sandwich fan, so variety is an issue. Planning and making lunch the night before, when I am tired after a long and busy day and evening, will be the biggest part of the challenge. I often use frozen prepared foods for lunches for this reason. My goal is to plan and prepare 2 of my lunches for next week.
Great Jeanne!
Love your goal… you might also like to checkout the ‘Beyond the Sandwich’ class to get specific ideas for lunches that you don’t have to make in advance…
J
I never cook, I don’t know how. The only thing I can do without making a mess is boiling water so my home meals are basically hard boiled eggs and pasta. I survive on sandwiches for lunch and takeouts for dinner. I recently made a commitment to move towards a plant based food so I got excited and bought a lot of vegetables that ended up in the garbage because I didn’t have a clue of what to do with them.
My goal is to be able to put together a wide variety of salads that I can take to work. To eat a fresh, home made salad-like meal for lunch, from Monday to Friday. And to never ever have to throw that much food away.
Maria!
You’re totally in the right place… And if you can cook pasta and hard boil and egg… you can definitely cook.. we just need to get you branching out…
Remember to keep your goals small at first and then once you’ve had some success, start expanding… we don’t want you burnt out in the first week…
J
wow, cool to find your connection to zenhabits – i belong to the monthly Sea Change challenge and I am totally on the same page as Leo – read his book The Power of Less and had one of those aha moments like why hadn’t i thought of that! anyway, seems your cooking m.o. feels the same to me – i NEVER cook because recipes just seem so…well…overwhelming to me (a little A.D.D here)…to be able to just cook something because you saw an ingredient you liked at the store and know what basic “part” of a recipe it is and to be able to throw the parts together how you see fit…well that sounds like heaven to me (and probably to my poor husband) – am beyond positive it would be just the ticket to better health as well (physically & mentally). i am so on board with this!! i do have to laugh, tho…this will actually be complicating my life slightly right now, as i am completely ignoring cooking altogether, and so i am “adding” some “to-do” to my life, but i know in the true sense, if i learn to do better at this in general, that it will be a way to simplify in the big picture/long run. looking forward to it!!
Jody!
Yay for Leo.. and great to hear you’re in the Sea Change program!
And I’m so glad that although it might seem like you’re adding another ‘todo’ right now.. you’ll have a simpler life in the long term… especially when you start thinking about the benefits of eating home made meals to your health!
J
I’ve never learned how to meal plan, but I really want to feed my family well in a healthy, efficient way. We all will benefit from a rhythm and routine to our food system. Thank you for offering this course online. My start small goal is to cook 1 new meal a week based on what I’m learning here.
Julie!
Love that you’ve set your goal to make one new meal per week…. yay for starting small!
Jx
I just wanted to say thanks, Jules, for bonus #1. I had known about Zen Habits previously but hadn’t been a regular reader for some years…and now, thanks to your video, I’ve rediscovered a treasure trove of very helpful advice for life in general.
My husband actually came up with our food goal/habit for this month: eating supper at the table together. (This is something we do more often than not, but it’s far from an automatic habit.) I know this goal technically has nothing specifically to do with this course (we could buy McDonald’s and as long as we ate it at the table together it’d technically fulfill the goal), however everyone starts from their own place, and this helps involve him in the process of making better choices.
My goal for the course itself is to get very comfortable with the 2 minute planning method and practice it lots, so I can maximize its effectiveness when local produce starts really coming into season in the next month or two.
So glad we got you back into Zen Habits Katrina!
Leo is the best 🙂
And love your food goal of eating at the table together… it makes such a difference!