Week 1 – Meal Plan

Thanks to my my lovely obsession with Pinterest, I have found many creative and easy ideas to keep my meal plans simple and delicious.  One key idea that I picked up is the creation of “breakfast muffins.”  Essentially, these are just mini omelettes that are pre-made every week and in my freezer so that in my morning tornado rush, I can simply pop them into  the toaster oven, and wala, as I make my non-fat latte to go, both my husband and I have a filling, nutritious, warm breakfast ready to grab on the go straight from the mini oven!  In my ‘breakfast muffins’ I simply put some whisked up eggs, (about 7), a splash of non-fat milk, and then a variety of veggies depending on what I have, usually a combination of a few of the following: mushroom, onion, tomato, scallions, or zucchini.  I pour the mixture into a muffin tin (making 10, one for each of us for each work day) and done!

 

 

Meal Plan 1 – Week of November 12

 

Monday

Breakfast: 1 ‘breakfast muffin” & 1 slice of whole wheat toast with low-fat margarine + 1 non-fat latte

Snack: Raspberry non-fat yogurt

Lunch: 1 pita stuffed with 1/2 grilled chicken breast, tomato, lettuce, cucumber & 1/4 of 1 avocado

Dinner: Tuna melts & Tomato basil soup

Tuesday

Breakfast: 1 ‘breakfast muffin” & 1 slice of whole wheat toast with low-fat margarine + 1 non-fat latte

Snack: Strawberry non-fat yogurt

Lunch: 1 grilled chicken breast on a bun with lettuce, tomato and 1/4 of 1 avocado + 1 cup popcorn

Dinner: My version of Noodle-less lasagna (used zucchini and eggplant slices as ‘noodles’)

Wednesday

Breakfast: 1 ‘breakfast muffin” & 1 slice of whole wheat toast with low-fat margarine + 1 non-fat latte

Snack: Raspberry non-fat yogurt

Lunch: leftover Noodle-less lasagna 

Dinner: Asian Chicken lettuce wraps (chicken & veggie stir fry served with lettuce wraps)

Thursday 

Breakfast: 1 ‘breakfast muffin” & 1 slice of whole wheat toast with low-fat margarine + 1 non-fat latte

Snack :Peach non-fat yogurt

Lunch: leftover Noodle-less lasagna 

Dinner: Grilled chicken, quinoa taboulleh & mixed salad 

Friday

Breakfast: 1 ‘breakfast muffin” & 1 slice of whole wheat toast with low-fat margarine + 1 non-fat latte

Snack : Strawberry non-fat yogurt

Lunch: quinoa taboulleh & turkey sandwich on wheat bread

Dinner: SHABBOS DINNER 

As you can see, my week only goes from Monday to Friday.  This, I may find to be a problem in the very immediate future.  The truth is, Friday night and Saturday are shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath, so we are often out eating at friends or family, and I can not control what is made.  I can however control what I eat, and when we eat home, I can make a festive, yet still health conscious meal.  I will address this in a later post, and work with it as I see what works for me.  It is important to not let the two days of weekend sabotage your entire week, and I plan to use these first few weeks of my plan to create a suitable and follow-able plan of action for the weekend.  Sundays are our ‘eat out’ day.  Both my husband and I love to wine and dine, so a lot of time on Sundays we go out for a nice brunch or lunch, or to an afternoon BBQ/Braai, or out for supper.  These days will create new challenges for me as I find ways to dine out better and make better choices without creating a feeling that I am losing out on our Sunday treat.  

So that completes week 1’s menu.  The key is to stick to it exactly.  I can already say that on Monday I cheated, as last night after supper my dear husband got me all excited about dessert which led us to make a pot of popcorn.. but last night this wasn’t up for the world to see, and now it is.  I will be held accountable for that late night snacking, and hopefully the guilt I am feeling today will stop me from doing that again this week!

I have weighed in for the week, and I hope to report my first successful loss next week.

Re-Pinspired and ready to go!

Well, I am exactly 3 months and 1 day shy of letting this little blog lapse a full YEAR without doing anything to follow up on my seemingly pinspired soul.. and that is just simply pathetic.  Using my first blog post as a tool of measurement to see where I was then and where I am now, I can say that while internally I know I am in a better head space, and more at peace with myself and with life, externally, I have a lot to be held accountable for.  Just last month my beloved husband and I celebrated our second anniversary.  It was amazing.  We went away for a weekend to the mountains, it was heavenly.  All I can say, is that my love for him grows every single day, and I never thought even on that day I stood under the chuppah that it was possible to grow to love someone even more than I did, and appreciate him as much as I do.  I am so thankful, and I hope that we will continue to grow in wonderful ways for many, many, many more years.

Sometimes, when life is good, its a nice time to actually take a good look at what is lacking.  When things are bad, everything seems horrible, miserable and simply unattainable.  When things are good however, because your lens of life is a positive one, I think that it is especially easy to target those things that are troublesome to you.  I can honestly say, thank god, that I have a lot to be thankful for, but one thing that is externally, internally,emotionally and physically draining to me is my physical health.  I say physical health for one of the first times in my life, and not bodily appearance, weight, or size, because I actually feel it as a health issue for the first time.  Late nights freshman year of undergrad ordering in pizza, guzzling beer, and topping it off with a 3am burritos noches stop on the way home from the bars made me fat, but after losing over 60lbs during and after college, and putting it back on after only one year of marriage  I now don’t only feel fat, but also just really generally unhealthy.  I don’t want to be one of those unhealthy couples that people see three years down the line and think “shame.”  I don’t want to be one of those unhealthy wives who people see and think “shame. she let herself go.”  And one day, when we are blessed to have kids, I don’t want to be one of those moms who is tired and fat.  That’s not me, that’s not my future.

When I sat and contemplated all of the things above, what was crazy to come to terms with was that most of the things I can not personally control were good in life, and the one thing that was upsetting me so much was something that ONLY I could change.  What a crazy concept.  I have been given all of these blessings, all of this goodness yet I wasn’t doing anything to change the one thing I could.

Well, the time has come.  I am re-inspired and ready to go.  I am writing it here for the whole world to keep me accountable- to report back to someone (even if just my keyboard).  I am starting now, and I will document and share my journey in hopes that it will not only inspire someone else along the way, but so that I can look at it and remember that I am inspired, and I am thankful, and I can do this.

Big goal: Lose 23kg (roughly 50 lbs)

Starting Game Plan:

1.) Attend the gym at least 3 times a week – four would be great

2.) Create (and stick to) weekly meal plans for breakfast, lunch & dinner which I will post to this blog

3.) Set up a reward system for myself (not food) for each 5kg loss

4.) Stick to the above plan, and make sure to blog about it!

 

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” -Buddha 

“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”
-Thomas Edison

Today begins a new journey in my life, and I hope that I inspire you to begin one with me as well.  I think this may be my third attempt at starting up a blog, but today I come at it with purpose.  If you didn’t get the hint from my URL and name, I credit the push to creating this site to my enjoyment of the newest fun and craze, Pinterest.  Oh Pinterest, before you what would I do in the late afternoon sleepy hours of work where I sit browsing and loving every minute I spend with you?  Well, now I hope to put some of that pinteresting inspiration to the test.  I have already used numerous (and may I say delicious) recipes from pins I have on my boards, I have created art for my house with ideas i’ve pinned, pinterest has sparked a level of creativity in me, one I had almost forgot I had..that’s why I think it’s great, and so here I am.  I’ve seen the motivational quotes and pictures, I’ve followed links to other blogs, and each time I think to myself “meh, I don’t need that inspirational crap, I am inspired.. I do stuff.. I…? Uh?..” Well.. reality bites sometimes.  Indeed, I found I am not SO inspired, I wasn’t acting on my goals, my desires, I was thinking about them, fantasizing about them, pinning about them..  So here I am.  A new beginning, a new journey to embark on.  I plan to use this space to make myself accountable.  To discuss my goals and daily attempts (or lack there of) of following my inspiration.  I hope along the way I can inspire some of you to tell me what inspiring things you do to0…. 🙂

 

“When you waste a moment, you have killed it in a sense, squandering an irreplaceable opportunity. But when you use the moment properly, filling it with purpose and productivity, it lives on forever.”  – The Lubavitcher Rebbe

 

Hello World!