Meal Planning & Preparation

How many times in the past week have you come home from a hectic day at work and your husband (or wife, or kids) ask you "WHAT IS FOR DINNER?" You sigh and say you haven't thought about it and had nothing really planned for the day, so you decide to order pizza, Chinese, go through the drive thru. Next thing you know, you feel gross, sick, and you're 20 pounds heavier.

"There's got to be a way to avoid this chaos," you think. 

Guess what? There is. It's called meal preparation. To people that can mean different things - but here is what it doesn't mean.... drive thru because you failed to think of the age old question. Meal preparation basically means, you plan everything out in one fell swoop and voila ~ breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are all ready for the week. Meal planning not only helps you save time, but also money. I cannot tell you how many times I have been digging through my pantry or freezer to find something I didn't know I had an has expired or gone bad. Meal planning allows you to buy only the items you need for the current week so that you avoid this problem in the future. This also helps you save money, especially if you are on a tight budget. You won't be wasting any food because you're only buying what (perishable) ingredients you need that week.

If you aren't currently meal planning in some way, the best idea is to take this a step at a time. Here are some tips to get you started with your meal planning and prep.

1. Start out by planning only your dinners. Planning out a full week of meals, including snacks, can be overwhelming for a new meal planner. There are tons and tons of printables online to help you with meal planning from weekly calendars to shopping lists to figure out what you need to buy for what you are making. There are also a bunch of inventory trackers so you can keep a look at what you have in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Once you are comfortable planning, shopping, and prepping dinners then move to your next step. Snacks should always be last because they are the easiest to grab and go!
2. Stock up on pantry staples. (i.e. food that won't necessarily go bad too quick and that you know you'll use). I be doing a post on some of the things I always have in my pantry.
3. Grocery shop once a week. This goes hand-in-hand with what I mentioned before about not knowing what you have. When I grocery shop weekly, I buy all of my meats fresh, and any other ingredients that I may not have on hand regularly. 
4. Do all of your prep in one day. This will help you cut back on the time component during the week. Even stay at home mom's have time constraints with little ones running around. Prep may mean something different to everyone... Prep can simply mean when you get back from the grocery store you clean and cut/dice your veggies and fruits and divide any snacks in to single serve packages. To others, prep means you do the whole shebang from start to finish, including cooking your meals. If you're cooking your meals ahead of time, they will usually last in the fridge 2-3 days (depending on the ingredients) or you can freeze them for up to 6 months, if stored properly. Prep to me depends on my mood and what I'm planning to cook. Sometimes I will get my chicken in the crock pot so that it's already cooked when I'm ready to use it. Some people prepare their vegetables and fruit and store them in mason jars in the fridge for when they're cooking - they're ready to grab and use. IT IS UP TO YOU! There is no right or wrong way to meal prep. 
5. Have a list of "approved" snacks on hand. If you're not planning every detail of your weekly menu, at least do yourself a favor and have a list of snacks you want to buy at the store to have on hand. This will help alleviate your urge to buy a candy bar at the convenience store when you go. Again, if you're buying bulk, divide up servings in Ziploc baggies or small containers so they are ready to grab and go ~ even in your living room

 Meal prep and planning is all what you make it. Even the tiniest little improvement can help you save time and money. And don't just think because you're meal prepping you have to be on a "diet", it is a time and money saver no matter how or what you eat, or how many people you are feeding in your family.

Best of luck on your new endeavor! It may be tedious at first, but it will be worth it in the long run!!

On the healthy train

So, after last year's adventure to move to a healthier lifestyle with Trim Healthy Mama, my husband did wonderfully and I did, not so wonderfully. I wound up falling off the wagon, in a major way - though I didn't really gain any weight, I wasn't losing either. I wound up giving up and eating whatever I wanted. In late fall 2014, I was looking at my Instagram and saw that YouTuber Olga Kay was making amazing progress with this new fitness program by Tony Horton (Beachbody) called P90. I did some research on the program, which hadn't been released to the public yet, and it was being marketed as the program for EVERYONE. I had a bad knee - patellar tracking disorder, subluxation, and arthritis - I'm on my way to a partial knee replacement in the near future - so any workout program I have ever tried I failed miserably at. P90 looked so different though, it looked like something I could do and with the modifier option, definitely could do. So I waited and waited for it to be released in November and bought it the day that it went on sale. With my purchase, I received a 7 day sample of Shakeology.

I CAN'T DO SHAKES.

Any protein shake, or nutritional supplement I have ever tried made me nearly vomit. I can't do the taste of protein shakes. But hey, it was a free sample so I figured what the heck? I did research on Shakeology in the mean time to learn about it and I found out that it is so much more than just a protein shake. It's loaded with superfoods and nutrients that most of us would likely never eat in our lives.

I was perusing my Instagram again, and was in the "Explore" section where it shows you photos of people that are common to what you like, people you follow, etc. and I stumbled across this girl ~ Katie who, upon looking at her page, was a BeachBody Coach. At this point, I didn't have a coach. So I commented on her post and we connected on Facebook. Funny enough, she actually lived in the same area as me and was even at my best friend's wedding that I was in in October. Such a small world. She invited me to her December support group, and subsequently the January one.

Katie is AMAZING.

She also invited me in late December to a "Learn About Coaching" group, like an Internship, into the world of being a Beachbody Coach. Let me tell you, I am in!! I am going to be signing up to be a coach in the next day or two and I am SO EXCITED to take this journey. I will be creating a Facebook page and will be posting my stories, success, tips, etc on here.

If you want to join me, please do! I look forward to working with you.