Weight Loss #4 Week 1

was 225

now 221

-4lbs

So, I've had a pretty good week until now. Hubby JUST brought some Christmas chocolates home from work, and my self discipline is 0. Yup zero. Anyway, moving on....

I've meal prepped and eaten 5 x day. I've been satisfied, not left hungry at all. You can look at what I've been planning to eat HERE

 

 ((Freezer meals))

To the right, I have several freezer bags filled with taco mince (lean meat) ready to go. However even though the package read 'lean beef', I still strained the fried meat and this is how much fat dripped out. It's a LOT! The bowl was nearly half full...

I should maybe come up with some other foods, but I do love yams with taco mince! I can't get past it. Yeah, looks boring, and maybe unappetizing... but the taco spice makes the food go down, he he!!!

Darn those chocolates! Eating popcorn as I type,-ha ha!-  ready for a movie with hubby.

Grace and Peace

Weight Loss #4 Day 1

I know, I know, baby is only a month old and I've already embarked on weight loss #4. To some of you who do not know my history, I gain a lot of weight during each pregnancy and I have quite a challenge to lose my pregnancy weight afterwards, yet somehow I manage to do it,  even if it's a slow process. More on my previous weight losses, HERE.

So here I am once again. Over weight with a newborn. 

I am nursing, so I have to be extremely careful that I don't hinder milk production or stop it. My baby is my priority. I won't let myself go hungry. I won't limit my vegetable intake either. I'll make sure my calorie intake is sufficient.

During my final weeks of pregnancy, I refused to be weighed at my check ups so I don't actually know exactly how much I weighed before birth, but I'm guessing 250lb ,or even more. Currently I weigh 225lb and that is 2lb less than two days ago. So here I am at 225. What is my goal? Well it's of course my pre pregnancy weight, which is 145lb. Some say I am too hard on myself and should aim for a smaller goal..  Buuut I don't want to.  Call me stubborn. 

My weight day 1 = 225lb

My plan is to prep and precook my lunch and dinners for the next two weeks. If I have the $, I will consider doing it for the next four weeks. This will save me time and protect me from temptations.  

My menu for the next 4 weeks is

2 WEEKS FREEZER MEALS

100-150G MEAT, 100G CARBS, 200G++ VEGG MEAL PLAN

3L WATER, OMEGAS, VITAMINS, OILS

7.30 BREAKFAST OMELET, WW TORTILLA, SPINACH, CHEESE AND SALSA Or oats with cottage cheese and berries

11.00 LUNCH PREPARED MEAL

1.30/2  SNACK GREEK YOGHURT AND BERRIES

4/5 DINNER PREPARED MEAL

*post workout shake

8 ILTAPALA (evening snack) APPLE AND PEANUT BUTTER

4 X CHICKEN, BROCCOLI, QUINOA
4 X MINCE, BEANS, SWEET POTATO
4 X CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS, BROWN RICE
2 X MINCE, QUINOA, BEANS

SHOPPING LIST

·         8 CHICKEN BREASTS

·         1KG MINCE AND TACO SPICE

·         1KG BROCCOLI CROWNS/FROZEN

·         QUINOA (600G COOKED QUINOA)

·         4 SMALL SWEET POTATOES

·         1,2KG GREEN BEANS

·         1KG ASPARAGUS

·         BROWN RICE (400G COOKED BROWN RICE)

·         7 X 0%GREEK YOGHURT

·         PRECUT FROZEN BERRIES

·         2X TRAY EGGS

·         WW TORTILLAS

COTTAGE CHEESE 0% AND 14 X ZIPLOCK BAGS MEDIUM / CONTAINERS WITH LIDS, MICRO AND FREEZER SAFE

  

I will weigh myself weekly on Fridays starting December 19th. I will also post photos of  start and present. I won't be working out until I go to my 6 week check up,  and I will begin with only cardio, kegels and Stott pilates to strengthen my body before I hit the weights. 

So, any suggestions or advice you want to give me?

Until my next weigh in,  

Grace and Peace

There's Always a Reason to Eat

There's always a reason to celebrate eat. You're thinking at 8-10 p.m, as you're biting into the chocolate bar "ah, I/we shouldn't be eating at this time"... and you or your spouse lists one of these reasons below,

• It's Friday night, end of a long week!
• It's our anniversary
• Diet starts tomorrow
• It's Saturday, start of the weekend
• It's our cat's christening.... or another make up celebration
• It's Sunday, back to work tomorrow
• Ah, one bar won't kill us
• It's been a rough day, I/we totally deserve this

I wonder why we're always making up excuses to glutton? And you know, I am not just talking about a chocolate bar. I'm talking about that Starbucks run, left overs, late night munchies, popcorn, etc. It can be healthy stuff too, like nuts and seeds /butter on home made crackers, fruit, and cheese, etc. 

This week we spent 3 days away from home. We ate out everyday. It's quite hard to eat out healthily, unless you have access to a fridge. I tried choosing better restaurants but it dawned on me, even the best and healthiest restaurants, basically serve things like, -sugar, salt, fat and wheat, and all in the bad form. It wasn't til our last day that we found a Mexican fast food joint, which served clean food. Gluten free, freshly milled wheat, organic meats/fish, and produce. Yummy! Next time, we'll know. Those "pearls" are so few and far between, but they're becoming more popular and with a little extra investigation, they're available! Forget, ABC's, IHOP's, Denny's, WhiteSpot and any other common restaurant with "home cooking" -it's all frozen!

So during our trip, while feeling mentally and physically totally robbed nutrition wise, I started menu planning, again. I decided that we would be eating more fish from now on. I love the 'meatless Monday' idea, and I'm still keen on not spending too much time cooking, so instead just throw stuff together, and voila! Dinner is serrrrrved. Also, the only thing that I thought worked out with my crockpot, is Chilli, so I won't be using that too much either. My oven is pretty high tech, so will be utilizing the options on it more. Baked fish, here we come!

Here is what I've been brainstorming to do:

• Monday- vegetarian
• Tuesday-Beef
• Wednesday- Seafood
• Thursday- Vegetarian
• Friday-  Salmon
• Saturday- Chicken
• Sunday- Seafood 

I'm pretty excited about Chinese and Mexican influenced recipes, I like it how everything is fast and simple, and the greens are usually added at the very end of the recipes. 

I went to Costco today and bought, salmon and quinoa. I love quinoa! My kids are getting there, I'm not taking no for an answer. The salmon I get will be enough for two family servings. Some of you already know that we don't eat a lot of meat/fish when we do have them, meaning, we don't have a chicken breast each. I chop up 1-2 chicken breasts into a curry sauce/stir fry/meal and that feed us, a family of 5. That is enough protein for now. Here is a trick, if you thaw a chicken breast just a little before cutting it, it's easier to slice up a lot of thin slices.

What do our kids normally have for breakfast?

• cereal
• omelets
• oats, hemp hearts and yoghurt
• porridge
• toast with cheese and cold cuts
• breakfast burritos
• Chinese pancakes (spring onion) 

+ a smoothie

 Baked Salmon. The kids devoured it, didn't manage to take an after oven pic :)

 Fried Tofu Sticks

(junk food)

 Marinade: 

• shaoshang wine
• dark soy
• light soy
• garlic
• ginger
• chili flakes (optional)

 Gone in seconds, glad I managed to take a picture.

When we lived in Finland, we never had bread or butter in our home. These days, we have both. Even to this day, I feel uncomfortable about it, but I've just let it go. I am not a big fan of yeast, I don't think eating "yeasty" foods daily is a good thing to the body. It's like up keeping an inflammation in the body, to me. However, I make my kids sandwiches for dinner 1-2 a week. I would like to cut back, but we are not allergic to gluten, or sensitive to gluten. The only thing I would like to cut back on is the yeast, therefor the bread, and swap it to whole wheat, stone milled, rich grain and seed tortillas. I don't want to take away the bread, because bread is yummy and nothing beats a fresh baked bread with butter on top, -and my kids know it!

Moving on...

There you have it, a little sneak peak to some of our family foods and also an honest, not so direct, confession on being a snacker and finding excuses for it. I'm still motivated and moving towards healthy eating while at the same time dodging all the food and diet trends... a.k.a paleo etc. Nothing lasts, nothing. Like I've said before, and I will say it again -the Bible has a lot of answers to what we should be eating and how. Really! Start from Genesis 1:29 and 2:9 and go from there... 

(These verses, totally prove that seedless cucumber from Walmart is from the devil! he he!)

Please share with me, what you feed your kids! Leave a comment!

Menu Planning

I've tried several ways to menu plan and be frugal. I've only menu planned once I know what's on offer, I've menu planned according to our cravings, I've menu planned for boosting our immunity and now I am menu planning for the summer.

I don't write down every detail, some things are just a given in our diet, i.e vegetables, salads, super foods, hemp hearts etc. So when I write down a week or two week menu, I keep it simple.

First I plan out our weekly schedule. I need to know when we're home and out. Since I've booked a few evenings a week to hit the gym, and the kids in gym care, I plan out a "lunch box dinner" and iltapala (evening snack) for them to have there.

I will be using my crock pot a few times a week, just so that I can organize and de-itemize the house a bit more during the day. Since it's summer, the bbq will be used quite a bit as well. 

I guess this menu is more for my kids than it is for me. I am not a big fan of hot dogs or other stuff I have on the menu, so I will make a few dishes just for me (which the kids usually don't like) during the week.

After writing out our menu, I write out the shopping list to go with it. Besides fresh produce, I think one shopping trip will do.

In about two weeks, I'll throw in a few new dishes and take out a few.

How do you plan your menu, and how do you shop for your groceries?

More on 'Cooking on a Budget' HERE

Recipes HERE