Welcome back for part 2 everyone!
If you're just now finding this series I encourage you to go read Part 1 HERE.
First off I just want to thank everyone for the amazing response from part 1. Your comments, support and just plain awesomeness is so motivating to me! There are quite a few other bloggers sharing some really great heath and fitness posts right now, so make sure you are following me on fb because I often share great articles from my other bloggy pals on there for you to enjoy.
So in this post I'm going to be talking about what to do with all the delicious food you just brought home from the grocery store. One excuse that I've often used is that "I just don't have time" or "I'm too tired" to cook a healthy meal each night. So then fast food or something processed and microwaveable it is. But really if you prepare ahead of time you should have NO EXCUSE. Now I'm not saying that once you decide to start eating healthy you should never go out to eat again or that you have to say bye bye to your favorite treats...HA! just take a look at my recipes tab and you'll see that I LOVE desserts and would rather cut off a limb than say goodbye to them forever. So I'll also talk about what I like to call "cheat days."
Note: This is NOT a "diet." I hate the word diet. To me it means temporary, restrictions, going hungry, and just plain torture. I look at this as my new way of eating...forever. When I eat this way I actually eat MORE than I would if I was eating bad...the difference is I'm putting good stuff in mouth and I'm not skipping meals in order to try to starve myself thin. So get the word diet out of your head and start thinking long term.
Part 2
Meal Prep & What I Ate Today
***Meal Prep. Like I mentioned in part 1, I use Sundays as my day to prepare for the week ahead. Once I'm home from the store I unpack everything and start to prepare my food for the week. If my food is already prepared I can't really make excuses. So the first thing I do is wash and prepare all my veggies this way I don't have to spend extra time during the week doing so. I chop, slice and cut everything up and put it into individual baggies.
When I want a snack, I can reach in the fridge and grab a baggie! I also prep as much as I can for dinners too. For instance, this week we were having chicken stir fry, so on Sunday I cut everything up, put it in baggies and when it came time to make it on Wednesday all I had to do was throw it in a pan!
It doesn't get much easier than that now does it!? I even do the same thing for smoothies, one of Carter's favorite after school snacks and a great in-between meals snack option for me as well. You'll need a bag of frozen fruit, a large container of yogurt, a mini muffin tin and some baggies.
Start by filling the holes of the mini muffin tin with yogurt then pop it in the freezer for about an hour.
Once frozen, pop them out with a knife and put two in a baggie along with about a cup of frozen fruit. You should get 12 smoothies out of one pan!
Store the bags in the freezer and then when you want a smoothie throw a bag in the blender and add a cup of orange juice or diet cranberry juice! You could even throw in a scoop of protein powder too. EASY!
Remember: Preparation makes it easier to make better choices!
***What I ate today. All my food is prepared and I even have a menu planned out with everything I'm going to eat...It's a no brainer! I don't have to think...YES! So here's what a typical day of eating would look like for me...
Breakfast:
Multi grain cheerios topped with fruit {usually a banana}, skim milk, coffee
OR
A bowl of oatmeal topped with fruit {usually berries}, coffee
These both keep me full until lunch time.
Lunch: I actually timed how long it took me to make my lunch today. Since everything was prepared it only took 3 minutes, THREE minutes peeps! Now you can't tell me that you don't have 3 minutes everyday to make your lunch...NO EXCUSES.
Instead of bread I use Multi Grain Wasa Crackers. I get them from Target in the cracker aisle. They are about half the calories of a slice of bread and I love the crunch!
I top each cracker with a little mayo made with olive oil, some fresh deli sliced turkey, tomatoes or avocados and a few basil leaves. SO delicious and flavorful! Then I pile up the rest of my plate with veggies and a little low-fat ranch for dipping :)
For a little boost of caffeine I add one of these green tea packets to my water and I'm good to go!
Somedays I may also have leftover dinner from the night before for lunch...if there is any.
Snack: If I'm hungry for an afternoon snack I'll usually make the smoothie that I talked about above. It's perfect because that is the time Carter get's home from school and that is usually what he wants. Another choice for me is some greek yogurt {I heart Chobani} topped with some granola. Both these will hold me over until dinner time.
Dinner: Usually one of the following. All of these can be prepared in 30 minutes or less and some can be prepped ahead of time.
Chicken Stir Fry, with brown rice {Click HERE for the recipe}
Bleu Cheese Turkey Burgers with fruit salad {Click HERE for the recipe}
Garlic Roast Chicken with Rosemary and veggies {Click HERE for the recipe}
Turkey Tacos with low carb tortillas, fresh homemade guacamole and black beans
Breakfast for dinner which usually consists of a 2 egg omelet with 1 yolk, some cheese and maybe some ham, peppers or onions thrown in, a side of fruit or yogurt with granola.
***Cheat days: Like I mentioned above, I have cheat days. I do not believe in becoming a food Nazi and not allowing yourself to indulge every now and then. If I eat good and healthy all week long and have stuck to my workout routine then I allow myself to indulge a little on the weekends. If I want to have pizza and a beer, then I do. If a slice of chocolate cake sounds good, then I eat it. If I want to go out to dinner and have chips and salsa, then I will. BUT I will make sure to get back on track come Monday!! Just remember all things in moderation. Don't eat like it's going to be the last meal of your life.
Also, don't beat yourself up over a moment of weakness during the week. So you ate half a bag of puffy cheetos and drank a cherry coke on Wednesday...get over it, move on, and do better tomorrow. But don't throw in the towel just because you made one mistake.
Alright, so that's it for part 2! I hope you found this helpful and as always if you have any questions feel free to ask. In part 3 I plan on discussing exercise so make sure you check back next week for that!
Do you have any healthy meals/snacks or tips for healthy eating that you'd like to share? Please leave any links or advice in the comment section below so we can all check them out!
xoxo,
Lacee
