Sparks People

Last night I did a search for menu planning tools. My favorite healthy menu planner - glucerna.com has changed their tool so you no longer can edit the menus. The original tool was adopted by another website, but I can't remember who that was, and I really didn't feel like digging through my emails. So I searched for a new menu planning tool. I found several that were blank that YOU could fill in with your menu plans - but I was looking for one that would tell ME what to eat. I ended up on SparksPeople.com. This, I know, is the rival tool to My Plate. It is a whole community, and it is free. It tracks your food and exercise, just like My Plate (although, I think My Plate is better for tracking what you have eaten or the exercise you have done - more precise, I guess) but Sparks People has a GREAT menu planning tool. I am still figuring it out. I haven't figured out a great way to plan menus for farther in advance than one week, but (as Katie said) it doesn't matter what the header says, we can use the days whenever we want.

I know I don't need to do menu planning in conjunction with Katie - but it sure makes it easier. She says it is too much work. It is nice having a kit packed for the day, but she doesn't want to spend an hour every day doing it. I said - however - that we got much faster at packing our lunches each night as long as we had a plan in place. She said it is a lot easier to just pull out a Let's Dish meal and prepare that. I said that we can still DO that, we just need to eat sides along with our entrees. 15 minutes later she said that she was having a "fat year." I said I am having a "fat decade." She has gained weight (says the pot about the kettle, I know) in the past year or so. I notice it most when she is up in front of the church cantoring. SHE needs to put more effort into this than I do because she is not yet a lost cause!

Well, I am off to take a walk. I hope Grace doesn't mind me leaving her alone for a little while.