Anyone have any ideas for me. I'm realizing that I've never been a planner. I like reading about stuff, resources, ideas but I can never seem to put a plan in motion. The last time I was on "plan", I had no plan I just watched what I ate and wrote everything done. If this comes done to planning I'll never get it. I've never been able to be a list maker, a scheduler maker.

But I guess it's time I learned a new skill. I haven' been on plan in about 7 months and I'm back up 20lbs or the 40lb I lost. I'm mostly doing good in my life now, moving forward.

We now have another child coming to visit us every Sunday and I'm find with that, I'm starting to really like her and I know eventually I'll love her. It's been tough and I have some really bad days but other days I'm good and my marriage is good, we are moving on in a healthier way.

So now it's time to really put myself first. I'd back slid into doing for everyone else again and not taking care of myself but I've been exercising for a week now and need to step up the good eating plan part.

I've started volunteering for our First Nation, we are having a gathering this summer so I got involved. But I find I"m hiding away too much in my books lately as well. I just read the Sookie Stackhouse books this week, yes all of them!

So how do you plan, what tools do you use? Thanks.

I'm glad you mentioned this, as I'm actually not a planner either. I do not have a highly structured approach to my life, at all. Even though I'm very busy, I really don't keep a calendar. I don't make a list when I go to the store. I often have to shop just to make dinner....

When I decided to lose weight, I knew I was going to need to work with my own strengths and weaknesses. Planning is not a strength in any area of my life, so it wasn't a strength to draw on for me. I totally admire the people who plan a weeks's worth of meals on the weekend, or who put their calories into fitday BEFORE they eat them-- I'm sure it works really well.... but realistically, I know I'm never going to do that.

So, here's what I do. I have a relatively short list of foods I eat frequently and I know how many calories more or less are in them and how much I can eat. Basically, I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, and then for lunch and dinner, I can eat "whatever I want" as long as its lean protein and veggies-- most of the time, I save a portion for dinner. I weigh the portions just to make sure I'm accurate. If I'm hungry for a snack I know that I can have a cheese stick, a 4 oz yogurt or cottage cheese, one time daily, and I can have an apple 2x daily. If I want anything else, I look it up first. I log my calories into fitday at the end of the day when I'm on the computer anyway.

I try to make sure that I have that stuff in the house all the time-- if I don't, I skip it.

It's easy, it doesn't take much decision-making (I'm bad at that). It doesn't take much planning. And over the course of almost a year, I've gotten used to it.

The planning tool I use the most, and which works the best for me, is habit. For example: I get up at the same time every morning (including weekends), and I eat the same thing for my first meal, and then I exercise. Every day.

My other meals during the day are not precisely identical from day-to-day, but they are largely similar.

Dinners have the most variation, because my husband plans them around whatever meat and produce are cheapest at the grocery store, of the things we typically eat. But, dinners pretty much always follow the "lean meat and veggies" template; there is not a lot of variation. (Just enough variety to keep me happy.)

So for me it all comes down to habit. I can easily live with unhealthy habits--and that is how I got to 289 pounds originally. Or I can choose to create new, healthy habits--and that is how I am losing weight and becoming healthy and fit.

What about picking one habit, this week, to change? Last week you began exercising again, and that's a great habit. How about if this week you decided on a new healthy breakfast for yourself, and worked to make that into a habit?

Habit by habit, even if you are not a "planner," you can make the changes you want to make.

I don't really plan either. I buy healthy foods that I can eat; at this point, I pretty much eat the same thing, every day. I eat pretty much one of four different breakfasts and then pack a lunch for school. Since I'm doing WW, I try to always leave myself a fair number of points for dinner/snack, but never a set amount. Dinner changes depending on what I want, who is home, and how many points I have left. The only time I plan is when I know something is coming up: dinner out, someone's birthday, etc. Then, I plan my meals backwards, decide what to eat and go from there.

Really, I'm just not organized enough to plan my meals for a week.

Here's a funny one.. I am a planner.. I LOVE to plan... I don't however like to follow through with ANYTHING.. no matter what it is, I just don't seem to follow my plans.

For my eating "plan", I just figure out how many calories I can have that day, divide it between meals/snacks. I don't plan my meals out, I just figure how many calories are in the meal before I eat it... if it fits in that meal/snacks allotment of calories, then I can eat it.. if not I see if I have been under on my other "eats" of the day.

(I homeschool my kids.. and have found the planning for that works best the same way for me.. I simply write in my "planner": "On Monday we need to cover Math, Reading, Science, Art and Spelling" "Tuesday, Math, Reading, Grammar, History, Geography, PE." It works for me, and that's all that counts )

I'm another one who "plans" by eating the same foods all the time. Breakfast is hardboiled egg whites and nutrigrain waffles. Lunch is a big salad with the same things every time, because that's what I like. So I buy the same salad makings a couple of times a week, and then prep up as much as I can all at once, so that making lunch consists of grabbing measured handfuls out of various containers and cutting a few items that can't be pre-cut. For supper, I generally make something that will provide a couple of days of leftovers, and when those are gone, I make something else that will last a few days. I fill in between with things like a pita pizza (so I keep pizza sauce, cheese and pitas around) or a frozen salmon burger.

For me, I feel like this gives me the benefit of planning in that I always have some healthy choice available but I'm not putting in too much time thinking about all of it. I just make sure to get to the market to refresh my supplies when I get low and when I go, I figure out something to cook for the next few days.

I am one of those people who puts all their food into Fitday before I eat it, but that's because at this point, it's just going into my list of recent foods and clicking the checkboxes, it's not something I'm thinking about or planning when I do it.

I plan by sitting down just after dinner, jotting in my notebook what I want to eat the next day (and I too generally rotate a few breakfasts and lunches) and quickly input it in fitday. It takes me... 5 minutes?

I'm not one to have any good advice (not been very successful, yet). But I am glad you asked the question, and I have learned from the answers.

I can give support, , and say that one of the important things I do is come here. The feeling of being part of a community is amazing. Good Luck!