Being OCD Can Really Work Against You!

So I get a little OCD about things (as I am sure many of you do). In my case one of those things is my weekly plan. I like to do it, have it all nice, neat, tidy, and posted (preferably in a sheet protector).

But sometimes I feel the OCD-ish-ness gets in the way and not in a good way. For example if I have to write it out I usually use pencil so I can erase & not scribble as I would have to with a pen (believe me you don't want to get me started with pen and white out). But as a carry over from elementary school days my printed work has to be perfect - if not it's a "do over".

I generally prefer to use the computer but that causes problems too. I've been a paralegal for a very long time and I trained on Word Perfect. It's keyboard driven and my fingers can fly & pop out stuff without too much effort. My husband, on the other hand, has Word on everything which is difficult for me to use & requires me to use the mouse too much. I don't know the commands via keyboard, I get indentations where I don't want them & I can't get them undone, etc. Basically for me Word just does not cooperate. After 23 years some things are just easier for me to keep the same. Simply said it's Word Perfect or nothin'.

So I'm trying to find a happy medium because I am determined to stay on track & need to make the "weekly plan" a habit & not so much of a chore.

I think I have a solution - I may come up with a template that I can use(from Word Perfect of course!) which I can fill out instead of drafting up weekly things on blank paper (combination of computer & printing).

I'm thinking of starting with the days of the week (what's easier? Sunday thru Saturday or Monday thru Sunday?) with slots for Breakfast / Snack / Lunch / Snack / Dinner & Instant Reminders/Notes(i.e. dentist appointment, return library books, take chicken out of freezer to defrost). This also makes it easier for grocery shopping. Plus when I used to use this more detailed system instead of the generic one I put out last week, the kids were less likely for random grazing or the famous "mom, what's for dinner" syndrome. I merely point to the menu on the fridge.

But with me being home we will be relying less on dining out or processed foods (my husband does absolutely no cooking - grilling (if he is so inclined) & microwave popcorn are his max although he recently got into using the toaster oven) so how do you work recipes into this schedule? I have cookbooks, printouts, magazine cutouts, etc. I can easily reference a cookbook (Tuesday/Dinner - see Balsamic Chicken / 3Ds Cookbook, Page 24) but what about the others? Or what if it's a recipe I saved from an online search? I hate to waste paper & print it out & then attach a packet to the fridge (Page 1 = Weekly Plan, Pages 2-10 are web/printed/magazine recipes) plus still have to reference cookbooks.

Seemingly this problem does not rival things of greater concern (world peace, homelessness, war etc.) but still, it bugs.

To that end I am going to bed to rest up for the 5k tomorrow which has me kind of worried. What if I don't beat my original time? Ugh!

Debbie Elias

PS - my kids watched a small video that was part of a film project where they saw an Asian man take food waste from fast food restaurants, put it in a trash can & pedal it back to his village and home for consumption. FYI it was a name brand kinda fried chicken place. My kids were horrified to see small children (what appeared to be under the age of 7-8 give or take) dig into a trash bucket, get out partially eaten food & be so excited you would have thought it was Christmas.