💊 Week #1: Meal Planning
📄 Overview
Experiment Name: Digital Diet
Week: #1
Time Spent: ~1 hours
Status: In-progress
AI Tools Used:
ChatGPT
📝 Context
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Weekly meal planning felt repetitive, time-consuming, and led to decision fatigue. I wanted to eliminate weekly meal/grocery decisions and shift to a monthly meal plan for me and my husband that aligned with our schedules, dietary goals, and practical constraints (e.g., cook’s time, storage, portioning).
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Weekly meal planning in Google Sheets, manually deciding each meal based on cravings, available groceries, and my workout schedule.
Grocery orders placed weekly, often missing items or needing midweek top-ups.
Some structure but not specifically articulated, leading to repeated meals , inconsistent prep and underutilisation of my cook.
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A detailed 4-week repeating meal plan covering lunch, dinner, breakfast, and snacks with ~100g protein/day for myself.
Grocery lists with quantities aligned to the plan.
A weekend prep checklist for me + my cook.
A Google Sheet template automating meal scheduling, grocery lists, and prep tasks.
🔧 Process
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I brain dumped all relevant details: meal patterns, husband’s eating habits, dietary goals, preferred cuisines, past recipes, cooking support available, and prep/storage limitations.
I clarified flexible vs. fixed meals (eating out, leftovers) and what automation I wanted from AI.
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I used multiple ChatGPT prompts to clarify preferences, align on carb/protein/veggie proportions, and finalize a rotating meal plan.
I refined details on portion sizes (uncooked vs. cooked), carb rotations, veggie combos, marinade options, and balanced meal plates.
I adjusted meal themes (e.g., Asian Mondays, Indian Wednesdays) to simplify planning.
I integrated feedback on grocery shopping frequency, batch prepping, salad/raita options, and practical weekend prep strategies.
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I collected and organized past lunch and dinner dishes as references to build the meal plan on top of.
How I have been planning weekly menus for my household
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I created a detailed Week 1 schedule for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I followed the plan during the week, observed ease of cooking, grocery sufficiency, timing of prep tasks, and satisfaction with meal variety.
I noted challenges like leftover portions, real-time cravings, and practical kitchen execution to inform adjustments.
The final menu output for Week 1
The AI output came with a grocery list also which I colour coded based on what I had at home and what I needed to order
🪞 Learnings
✅ What Worked
Starting with a detailed brain dump and clarifying expected outcomes helped frame the problem precisely.
Testing Week 1 before rolling out the monthly plan revealed practical adjustments needed for prep time and portioning.
ChatGPT’s iterative prompts were effective for co-designing meal structures, generating marinade ideas, and organizing carb/protein/veggie rotations.
Organizing meals into themed days reduced decision fatigue and made grocery planning more predictable.
Including existing favourite meals avoided overwhelming myself with too many new recipes.
❌ What Didn’t Work
Initial plan attempts were too generic, missing practical details like exact uncooked quantities for proteins/carbs, which required multiple rounds of refinement.
Overlooked batch-prep constraints at first (e.g., keeping raw veggies fresh), needing additional iterations.
🚀 Next Steps
Review what was followed and what was challenging during Week 1.
Stress test Week 2 by planning meals around existing groceries and leftovers.
Build the Google Sheet with meal calendar, grocery list, and prep checklist.
Create a PDF summary of the meal plan for easy reference.
Implement the system for a full month and adjust based on real-life experience.
