Feeding your family seasonal, locally grown, nutritious food sounds amazing. That is, until you realize you are the one that has to make it actually happen, right? 

Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could just magically find, afford and prepare the fall family meals of our dreams? 

But what if I told you that it IS easy? What if I told you there was only ONE THING you had to do? Sound too good to be true? Keep reading. 

When trying to reach goals we tend to use the all or nothing approach, we try to do all the things, but get overwhelmed and never actually get started. Let me explain. 

When you have a dream (goal) of feeding your family seasonal, locally grown, nutritious food you think of ALL the GREAT things. You know how much healthier your family will be, how beautiful your mealtimes will be, how great you will feel supporting local farms… but then you realize you have to find the local food, figure out how to budget for it, go shopping for it in multiple places, learn to cook it, and the list keeps going. So, you default back to your old shopping habits and eating habits… I know, because I’ve been there so many times. You know, because you’ve been there too!

But the key is just doing one thing. ONE THING. It’s that simple. 

Here’s the step-by-step of what to do:

1. Make a list. Write out a list of all the things you want to do to feed your family healthy fall meals. This might include things like shop at the local farmers market, cook with more whole food, clean off the table and have sit down meal times, make soups for packed lunches, replace processed sugar with honey, etc. Just list all the things in your mind on feeding your family healthy food. I usually do this list writing while enjoying a cup of coffee 😉 

2. Review the list. It might be half a page, or two pages. That doesn’t matter. 

3. Choose one thing. This is the hardest part. Choose ONE thing from your list. Just one. 

4. How do you choose? Think about which one your are most excited about, or sounds the best, but don’t overthink it. Just pick one.

5. Transfer that one thing to a new piece of paper. (You’ve already made more progress on this goal than most people ever make!)

6. Now write down the steps you need to take to do that one thing. Be specific.  

7. Let’s say I want to add more whole food to our meals. This is actually very broad, so on the paper, narrow it down. Something like this: 

I want to add more whole food to our meals. Winter squash is in season and I see so many yummy recipes. 

I’m going to add winter squash to our meals once per week. 

Do you see how that seems much more doable? 

Next I will write down the steps to make that happen: 

Find a place to buy local winter squash 
Find the first recipe I want to try 
Go purchase the winter squash 
Add it to my meal plan
Prepare the meal 
Since winter squash stores well, I will buy all the squash in one trip 
Find more recipes and add one to my meal plan each week using the squash I’ve already purchased 

8. Now you have created small, doable steps. It’s simple, just do the first thing on the list of steps. That’s it.
9. Once you’ve found the squash, you move on to the next step. But since you’ve written it down, you don’t even need to think about next step until after you complete the first step of finding a place to buy the squash. So all you have to think about and do is that one thing. 
10. Complete the list of steps and add winter squash to meals once per week. You reached your goal!
11. Next thing you know cooking with squash will be an easy habit!
12. Now go back to your original master list and choose one thing. Repeat the steps until that one thing becomes a habit. 
13. By doing that one single thing, you will eventually reach your goal of doing ALL the cozy fall meal things! 
14. It’s that simple. I know, because it worked for me. It will work for you too.
15. Choose just one thing. 

Just for fun, reply to this email and let me know what one thing you are going to do to feed your family locally grown meals. I can’t wait to hear about it and to see your success! Blessings!! 

                                                                                                                     

                                Abbie, The Heirloom Farmer 

P.s. are you still overwhelmed? That’s okay. Let me help! Your one thing can be visiting our farm market to see the local, seasonal food we offer!! It’s that simple! Here’s your list: 

1. Visit The Heirloom Farmer to see and purchase locally grown food for my family meals

2. They are open daily, dawn to dusk

3. Schedule a day to go this week 

4. They are located at 7447 S. Eagle Valley Road, Port Matilda, PA, so I need to schedule _____ amount of time to visit.                                  

5. Go visit! 

Is something stopping you from visiting? Not sure when we are open? How to find us? What we offer? How self serve shopping and check out works? Payment? Please reply to this email and let us know, we are happy to help!!