how to prepare for ramadhan?

We always hear we need to start preparing for ramadhan, but the question is how do we prepare?

The most common answer you will get is we need to start making food e.g the samoses, pasteries e.t.c. Well this is the answer you will get from alot of ladies but the funny thinkg is ramadhan comes and you will see most ladies living even more in the kitchen then a usual day.

ANyways it would be nice if people can give ideas on how they prepare for it. A few that i could think of is:

1) start going over the quran you know

2)memorising more parts of the quran

3) Eating less ( if this counts)

Well this year I have decided to weigh myself a day or so before ramadhan, preferabley in the morning and see what my weight is. And then weigh myself after eid and see if my time was spent in eating when it should have been in worship. The window for eating for those that read fajr according to 15 degrees will be about 5-6 hours and for those who read fajr at 18 degrees will only have a window of under 5 hours. Unless a person is just eating they should not really gain weight because after iftari one should prepare themselves for tarawih and then maybe some will stay for talks that take place after tarawih. Personally I do not want to eat too much at iftari and at night as I do not want to feel lethargic for the tarawih prayers. I also hope that aiming to eat moderaately in ramadhan and not overeating will inshaallah give me the ability and strength to do more ibadah and more tilawat of the quran this ramadhan.

Please pray that I utilise my time well this ramadhan and Allah accepts my niyah and ibaadah.

Brother Abu Mohammed, jazakallah for your support. Everybody is entitled to an opinion so I am not offended or put off by the the thumbs down. it's true what you said about intention as it is mentioned in a hadith كم من صائم ليس له من صيامه إلا الجوع والعطش 

There are some who fast whose fast is nothing but hunger and thirst (Apologies if it is not the best of transalation).  As I mentioned in my previous post my objective is to do more ibadah this ramadhan and humbly request all to do dua that Allah gives me the ability to do so and that it is all done solely for the pleasure of Allah.

I received a video clip last ramadhan about those stick men where one over eats and one eats a moderate amount http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSSmpYGqz0k and realised I was a bit like the red figure. Alhamdolillah I was not as bad as him as I would go to the masjid for my salah but at tarawih time I would feel lazy. So this time I want to be a bit like the yellow figure eat according to the sunnah where 1/3 of the stomach is for food, 1/3 for water and 1/3 for air.

P.S. Sheikh Yasin jazakallah for posting this link to the Arabic keyboard a while back http://www.yamli.com/arabic-keyboard/ it is so easy to type in Arabic with it.