60 Days of Meal Planning

Now, let’s get into the good stuff.. taking action to improve our lives.

Why We Even Started

If I don’t write something down, it doesn’t exist. Lists, planners, and sticky notes are my jam. But between Pinterest boards, saved Instagram reels, and a handwritten recipe book, our meal situation was chaos.

We were spending way too much time grocery shopping and “planning” each week. And by planning, I mean standing in the kitchen saying “what do you want to eat” until someone breaks.

So we built a system. One that gives us structure, variety, and zero overthinking.

The Setup

We started using the free version of Asana. Most people use it for team projects or workflow.. we use it to survive dinner.

We plan mostly dinners for the week, assign meals to each other based on our schedules, and already pasted the full recipes in the description. We mark it as complete, and it automatically repeats every two months. Need to change a night? Drag and drop. Easy.

Most meals make 4+ servings so we can eat leftovers for lunch the next day or freeze extras.

What’s on the Menu

We keep a flexible rotation, and it usually looks something like this:

• A pasta (cottage cheese sauce is key)

• A chipotle taco night

• A rice bowl

• A veggie-based or salad meal

• A burrito/wrap night

That’s 5 dinners planned, 2 open nights for going out or winging it.

We’re also tracking calories and macros so each meal in Asana includes a rough macro breakdown. We’ve added them into our tracking apps so they’re ready to go.

What’s Working (and What’s Not)

The hardest part? Inputting all of the go-to meals and macros at the start. But now that they’re in, it’s just tweaking or adding new recipes we find.

The best part? Grocery shopping is fast, stress-free, and cheaper. We both know who’s cooking and when, which makes the rest of our lives smoother—whether that’s working late, going out with friends, or sneaking in post-work workout.

When things fall off (usually after traveling), we both feel it. Grocery shopping is chaos, the fridge is empty, and our stress spikes. That’s when we regroup and restart the system.

Meal Prep ≠ Cooking All Day

You don’t have to be a full-time prepper to eat better. In fact, we don’t “prep” most meals — we just plan them.

When you meal plan based on your actual life, your work, your events, your energy, you start to notice which nights need something quick, which days you’ll want leftovers, and which moments you need to build in a DoorDash meal.

It’s not about being perfect. It’s about making the default easier.

Because let’s be real: when we’re not prepared, we spiral.

So Why 60 Days?

We’ve actually been doing this for 6–9 months, so this “60 days” isn’t a challenge. It’s about staying consistent, tightening up our routine, and pre-logging our meals more often.

We're not trying to be perfect—we’re trying to be sustainable. To make life easier and our goals more doable.

It’s a work in progress. But we’re in it.

– Nicole 🖤