Systemizing Your Health
For the Domestic Divas in the audience, your reaction to this blog might be, “And…?” But if you are like me, very busy and unskilled at some of the basic everyday tasks, dietician Diane Greenleaf’s suggestions on how to create a smooth system to deliver healthy meals to your family day in and day out will deliver just those— healthy, good tasting foods to please your crew with minimal time investment.
Like basically everything else in life, it’s about systematizing: creating efficient systems with clear, steps and repeating those with increasing speed and practice. Good systems deliver high quality while leaving you with more time to be with your friends and family.
Dianne suggested I designate a certain kind of meal for each day of the week. For the Weber’s we have soups and salads on Sundays, an easy 30-minute-or-less meal on Mondays, a fish or beef dish on Tuesdays, International night on Wednesdays, chicken or pork on Thursdays, a casserole on Fridays, and a Crock Pot dish for Saturdays. Dianne’s suggestion that I prepare my items for the Crock Pot the night before and put the entire Crock Pot in the refrigerator at night proved to be a huge time saver, particularly when Saturday is my long, all-day work day.
Dianne suggested that I collect five recipes for each category. I am in the process of creating a notebook with all of my preferred recipes. Recipes that make it to the notebook are family approved, minimizing the typical dinner-table revolt. Familiar recipes facilitate easier preparation without boredom. Diane pointed out we could rotate having one of the five soups each week.
Sprinkling other ideas on what snack and breakfast items to provide for the kids continues to be a work in progress to implement. But the peace of mind that comes from having a structure that fits my life and knowing what’s for dinner beforehand, frees me up to be more present for my family.
God gives us body and soul intentionally. Learning the proper way to maintain them often requires that we learn from each other.
The Catholic Women’s Guide to Healthy Relationships Tip: Systematize something that is taking time away from your relationships and impeding satisfying the wants and needs of your loved ones.
