A Master Shopping List That Works
I was listening to a recent episode of Back to Work where Dan went into great detail about his master shopping list. He got me thinking about our master shopping list we’ve been using for groceries for years. We eat differently now than we did 8 years ago. No more chicken nuggets or Goldfish crackers. And with our recent move to Austin, our grocery store is laid out differently too.
So I made it my mission to revamp the list with items we buy most frequently, and organized by our path in the store. I’ve shopped from the new list once now and can tell it’s going to make grocery shopping faster, and less annoying. No more searching for an item like tahini or back tracking because I missed something on the list.
If you’ve been looking for a way to simplify your grocery shopping, download our Master Shopping List 2013 Word doc and make it your own. We print out several copies and post them in the kitchen. As we find items we need to buy we highlight them on the list. Add other items for meals at the end of the week, and there’s your list, ready to shop from.
New York Marathon Plan
Only four more sleeps until I’ll be running the New York Marathon. And it’s really sinking in now. I’m feeling an uneasy combination of fear and excitement. And that’s probably a good thing. Just the size of this race is hard for me to wrap my head around. There will be more than double the number of runners than there were at the Walt Disney Half, my largest race to date.
My last marathon was quite the disaster. I had high expectations of getting a big PR. And it couldn’t have been farther from that. I wanted to quit at 8 miles, but managed to finish, eventually. Now I know how it really feels to fall apart during a race. Not such a big deal when it’s just a 10K. But a marathon feels like it will go on forever when you hit the wall at 8 miles.
Sure, when I look back on my training log leading up to that race, I see all the evidence why I would have a bad race. Dealing with multiple injuries, too many long and hard runs too close to the marathon, and just not that much weekly running volume.
It’s been almost a year since that race. And I’ve been determined this time around to learn from my mistakes. I’m doing the same higher volume training plan that I used when training for The Goofy Challenge. (My last marathon PR happened that weekend). But when things didn’t feel right during a run, I would slow it down or cut it short. I skipped workouts when life got too crazy, and didn’t beat myself up about it.
And this new way for me of following a plan has been working. I’m not injured. Things are feeling good. And I’m getting faster, with new PRs for the 5K and 10K this fall. This is really encouraging.
But I’m still anxious about the race. Anything could happen. I’d be disappointed if I didn’t get a new PR, previously 4:22:09 at the Walt Disney Marathon in 2012. Four more days and I’ll know more.
