My Sunday afternoon routine

I love routine. Simple ones like stopping at my favourite coffee place on my way to work in the morning, family cuddles on weekend mornings while we figure out what we want to do for the day and having usual days that I washing and other bits around the house so the chores don’t get on top of me. My Sunday afternoon routine is the biggest one of the week, it takes me a few hours but when I’m done I really feel like I am prepared and ready to tackle the week ahead.

This routine usually begins in the kitchen. I get lunches ready for the coming week, or as much of them is reasonable, I prep anything I know I’m going to need for the coming week and chop and prepare as much as I can think of that I’ll need. Then I prep dinner and if I’m not having something fresh like salads for lunch I’ll make a much bigger amount of dinner than usual so I can portion lunches for myself or my hubby with the leftovers. I will do things like grate cheese, fill up containers, reorganise my fridge and pantry as needed and it saves me so much time during the week.

I get any little housekeeping jobs out of the way like putting away any washing that I haven’t had time to yet, feed the cat and make sure he’s all sorted and a quick tidy of my kitchen bench which is basically just putting toys away (why do I end up with so many of my kids toys on the bench?) Once our little guy has gone to bed I do a better than usual tidy up of his toys too because he doesn’t make anywhere near as much mess with them during the week than he does on the weekends.

I also go upstairs and pick out my work outfits for the week. I have a look in my calendar and check if I have any meetings I want to dress well for (this includes coffee dates too!) and I order them with Monday at the front so that I don’t even need to think in the mornings, I just grab whatever is at the front. After I’ve done that I go and pick out lipstick colours for the week, corresponding to my outfits of course, and wash my makeup brushes so they are fresh for the coming week.

I then get my wellbeing journal and have a look over my last week, fill in any gaps and have a look at the week ahead to see where I am going to fit in exercise and any appointments I have coming up. I really love this part of my Sunday routine. It helps me focus on the good parts of the week and gives me space to be mindful and think about where I’m at heading into a new week. I love the different things my Kikki.k wellbeing journal has to fill in each week and it helps to inspire me to make sure I’m looking after myself.

Usually after all that it’s time to cook the dinner I prepared earlier and that can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on what I’m making. I try to encourage my little guy to help me if he wants to because it’s never too early to start teaching kids about food and skills in the kitchen. He’s surprisingly good with a small knife and he loves chopping stuff up for me which is awesome. When dinner is ready we all sit down together and talk about our week and weekend and relax a bit.

Some of you are going to read this and think I’m mad! I haven’t always been this organised and would never have gone to this degree to prepare stuff like this before. The food prep is a new thing since my bypass surgery and I think being prepared helps me so much to make the right decisions. If the decision on what to have for lunch has already been made there’s no need to think about it, I just eat whatever is ready. On the occasions I don’t have time to prep my lunches for the following week I don’t eat as well and on plan as I usually do.

The other part of picking out my clothes and lipsticks is because, as any mum knows, trying to get a small person out of the house as well as yourself seems almost impossible some days. I get to work late far less often not mucking around deciding what to wear each morning. I go to the degree of getting my little guys outfit picked out and ready for the next morning too!

I won’t make any bones about the fact that this routine takes me ages, literally a few hours a week, and I know some people will say they just don’t have the time to do this every week. For me though it makes such a difference and if I don’t have a chance to get it done on Sunday afternoon I feel like I’m on the back foot for the rest of the week.

Do you have routines that you’ve put in place after weight loss surgery? Are they around food, food prep or just life in general? Comment below and let me know, I’d love to get your ideas too!