Make sure you read the introduction prior to reading this post.
I had heard once that it takes 21 days to develop a habit. This certainly applies to my new and improved grocery shopping habits, menu planning included. Although it was a habit I had once had, I gradually moved away from it. But now it’s back. With a vengeance.
I really cannot express enough how comforting and stress relieving it is to have a menu plan and a grocery shopping list. It’s nice to know that I can go shopping and get everything I need for the week, with no extra trips to the grocery store. It’s nice to know that when I select a meal from my menu plan I have all of the ingredients to make it exactly the way the recipe says. It’s also nice to know that when my husband asks what we’re having for dinner, I can tell him and it’s not a surprise (because if he wants to know what’s on tap for the week, he just has to look at the list). I now don’t have to spend the day wondering what on earth I’m going to make for dinner and it has alleviated a tremendous amount of stress (I don’t know why dinnertime creates so much stress for me–I probably need to work on that).
This week did bring about something I wasn’t expecting–grocery store envy. While Aldi does provide a pretty good selection of foods, I get so jealous when I’m in a grocery store and I can’t buy lots of the things I want to (not need to but want to). I see people with grocery carts full of items and I want that! I miss the variety and choices that are available at the grocery store. I miss the vast selection of vegetarian products and exotic fruits and vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, Aldi certainly has enough of these items available to have a healthy, well-balanced vegetarian diet but sometimes having lots of choices makes it so much easier.
Getting through that grocery store envy is still a work in progress. I know that switching to Aldi is, for now, a temporary situation. It’s an experiment and we get to go back to our previous shopping habits once the experiment concludes, if we choose. But we still have 3, maybe 4, more weeks of this experiment and I have got to get over my jealousy. I think I’ll make that a goal for week 4!
