So...like most American's eating healthy has always been a challenge for my husband and I. We like most families live busy lives and didn't help that neither of us grew up in really healthy families. We had developed some pretty unhealthy habits with food the first couple years in our marriage. We knew something needed to change!
What I've learned-PLANNING IS THE KEY!!
So we started with planning our dinners out, at first it was just planning any old meals, then we switched to healthy meals. This post talks about my meal planning process: http://biasfamilyest2010.blogspot.com/2015/04/monthly-menu-planning-101.htm
--->If you want to overhaul your ENTIRE way of eating-meaning you want ALL meals to be healthy-take it from me-TAKE BABY STEPS! **DONT GO COLD TURKEY** Start with one meal/day.
Where did I get my healthy dinner ideas...Pinterest! (what did we do before Pinterest?) Now, I will share with you all my recipes that I've hunted for-but I encourage you to find recipes that work for you and your family. My healthy dinner board:http://pin.it/LGFSjim
Now, like I said take baby steps, why...If you want to eat healthier as a lifestyle and not just a s fad for 2 months...you need to break old habits and make new ones. With that being said we just did healthy dinners and "normal" eating for our other meals for about 6moths to a year. Then we moved on to breakfasts.
In our household Kevin is in charge of our breakfast because it allows me to get our kiddo ready and off to school-that may change later on but for now thats how we role. So both Kevin and I do CrossFit on a daily basis thus breakfast has become an important meal for us to keep us going after a hard workout. Our breakfasts include a lot of protein/fiber-eggs, turkey sausage/bacon, and potatoes. We don't have any recipes for breakfast-my hubby does a lot of making stuff up-ie: homemade hash browns, omelettes, potato skillet (potato, spices, bell peppers), a banana and peanut butter smoothie (using PB2 instead of peanut butter). So once again we mastered breakfast for 6 months-1 year....so at this point we now have healthy dinners and breakfasts habits going on.
Now for lunches...I HATE LUNCH! Scratch that-I USED TO HATE lunch time! We were horrible at lunches...Im not a fan of eating leftovers (they just dont taste the same), so we would do boring sandwiches or play the "what do you want...I don't know , what do you want" game 'til one of would say "you know what sounds good....a yummy_______(fill in the blank) from__________ (fill in the blank)." SOOOO the time came to mastering our lunches....this is the meal I dreaded the most mastering.
I started at first by doing what I do for dinners and wrote on a calendar what we were having for said day...but that plan failed. I would either forget to prep what we needed for lunches or our daily duties of parent/spouse/student/employee would get in the way-so I started thinking of a plan B to go about doing our lunches...AND I FOUND THE GOLDEN TICKET!
PRE-MAKING LUNCHES is amazing, and its already made so what other option do you have than to eat it!
SOOOO...every Sunday is our meal prepping day. I say OUR because my hubby and I do it TOGETHER! (I love spending time cooking with my hubby and doing this lifestyle change together is SOOOO nice) I made up a menu per-say of 7 balanced meals for lunches...
I looked around for some containers that I could put our lunches and found some AMAZING ones on Amazon that are perfect for meal planning/portion controlling. (https://www.amazon.com/Freshware-15-Piece-3-Compartments-Bento-Lunch/dp/B01GH5KQLO/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1486341465&sr=1-7&keywords=food+prep+containers)
So how long does this take...about a total of 2 hours. What we do is, first thing in the morning-is get out all our frozen meats to defrost-we do frozen bc its cheaper. Kevin then starts the brown rice that we have as a side for a lot of our meals- 1cup of brown rice is sufficient for us 2 for a week. If I need to cook the pork roast for our Mexican Pork Bowls- I'll start that in my crockpot (1 roast lasts for 3 weeks...I'll just put it in a zip lock and put it in my freezer and take it out when I need it for the next weeks meal prepping). The real fun doesn't happen till when we get home from church.
By the afternoon all our meat is defrosted and ready for the next step, we marinate chicken and salmon in teriyaki. Then its time to fire up our grill...While kevin is grilling Im working on the other sides. I do use frozen veggies for some of our sides-we live in Wyoming and fresh veggies in the winter is hard to come by. For our brown rice- I got a big bag of rice that we use , then theres frozen veggie mix, canned black beans, and a mexi-corn mix. By the time the grilling is done, any fresh veggies that Im using are done and its put together the meals time!
We've been doing this for 3 weeks now-and I must say I LOVE THIS!!! Its so nice to have healthy lunches already made AND its good quality food!!! There are several options that you can choose from- so its not like a boring sandwich everyday-WOO HOO! Both my hubby and I have seen a difference with changing the way we eat. Remember, this is how we do it-my way is not the only way type of a thing- this is just what works for us. I like knowing that with this we're getting all the needed fruits, veggies and protein in our day. Im not looking for a quick fix- diet pills (no offense to anyone on them) and all that junk that contains oober amounts of caffeine just so you can eat a slice of pizza....yuck, just eat a balanced diet and exercise-it still allows you to eat some good stuff without feeling bad about it-we still have a treat or unhealthy food and feel so much better about it because we KNOW we've planned ahead to make a cheat day or what not possible. MODERATION IN ALL THINGS-no one should deprive themselves, just be smart about it- you want ice cream-no big, just have a smaller bowl then the cereal bowl you're used to.I just wanted to mention something about eating habits- for a week, I challenge you to take a serious look at what you're eating and why...is it to fuel your body, is it because you're bored, stressed, emotional...Im a bored eater. I eat when Im bored. So to change that habit I needed to be aware of when I thought I was hungry and ask myself..."are you hungry or bored?" I also used to catch myself eating late at night...again..why am I eating...To change these habits I've done 2 things:
1. pre-made snacks:
-these are healthy snacks that I have also prepped on Sunday so when I reach for a snack its a healthy choice. These include: sliced apples, yogurt, celery/carrots, grapes, whole wheat crackers, HEALTHY beef jerky, PLAIN popcorn, yogurt covered raisins and almonds
-Also we keep a water pitcher full of water on our table at all times-drinking water instead of snacking helps when you're bored too
2. For the late night snacks:
-GO TO BED! Part of being healthy is not eating super late and getting good sleep. If you're catching yourself eating late at night its most likely because you're bored. Just like your kids (if you have them)-give yourself a bed time, those with iPhones did you know theres a bed time alarm? If you have any smart phone and you have issues with this-set an alarm...at such-such time you go to bed. If you HAVE to stay up late, put a sign on your fridge..."kitchen closes at such-such time" also turn off your lights in the kitchen- this helps you mentally know that its CLOSED! ALSO- one other thing, if you look at you're food as more of a fuel for your body instead of an indulgence you're meals should be full of more stuff that not only keeps you healthy BUT also keeps you full!
Any Questions?
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