The Summer Challenge is Over | Heather's Unmeasured

Back to school week is now behind us, and I think that officially ends the Heather’s Unmeasured Summer Meal Planning Challenge.

I originally framed the challenge around not being able to rely on my son eating lunch from school the majority of weekdays, and reducing the amount of time I spend on planning and preparing ingredients. The three (3) objectives on the challenge were: 

• Maintain a weekly food budget (under $160), while increasing the number of meals I am planning and buying for. 

• Reduce the amount of time I spend on planning and preparing ingredients for meals. 

• Clean up my diet and eat less processed food. 

Overall, I am pretty stoked with how it went; not only am I pleased with meeting my objectives, but also with the lessons and growth opportunities I gained from doing the challenge itself. 

My food bill stayed within budget most weeks, and I simplified meals so that I wasn’t spending as much time preparing meals or ingredients for future meals. I also focused on whole and satiating foods which inherently led to a cleaner diet, and I discovered what I call “Brekki Juice” – a sprouted chia seed, cucumber, frozen fruit, citrus juice and water blend that tastes amazing and is packed with vitamins and nutrients. Instead of meal planning based on what’s in my food store’s weekly ad, I kept my shopping list similar, focusing on finding ways to use the same foods in different meals week after week. 

Enjoying the summer and balance starting Weekly Eats was a great opportunity to reflect on how I spend my time and what I am feeding myself, physically and mentally. I developed my concept of a Capsule Meal Plan inspired by all of the packing and travel content I consumed preparing for an international surf trip in July, and I identified work/life patterns that I want to develop new systems for. 

“Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly” – James Clear

In the coming weeks, I’m working on more detailed recap of my challenge and sharing some of our new favorite meals for the Dirty Dishes blog. I’m also working on my YouTube channel where you can watch how I use the Weekly Eats systems. 

I hope you follow along…I’m just getting started…

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