Thursday, December 26, 2013

Holiday Update

I hope everyone had a good holiday, and now it's time to start acting on the amount of self-loathing we've built up over the course of family feasts and gift giving events. Of course, I'm talking about the I-just-ate-3-plates-food and/or oops-that-bag-of-chocolate-is-gone kind of self-loathing. Besides that, Dan and I have been slacking off a little, and we've decided we should start eating a little better, exercise more and la-dee-da it's almost New Year's resolution time. But this year.. it's different (aren't they all?). This year I have made strides BEFORE January 1st. What's that? I've started my resolution (albeit 5 days) early?

It's gonna be awesome this year though, because last year we did this and got a gym membership. We used it for a couple months and I managed to almost run a 5k after only a couple determined weeks. Well then things flatlined, but if you know Dan and I you know we are lazy folk. We never canceled the membership so we still have it. But that's not all!

Today I spent the whole day working on a meal plan. I was inspired by a post on Reddit ages ago that I don't have the patience to find. Essentially, a couple organized their grocery lists and recipes making a menu for each week. They did this for 6 months worth of food. After 6 months, they started over with the same lists. You won't get sick of things if you only eat them twice a year, right? I thought this was clever. They picked recipes from the list for each week, designating certain days of the week soup night, casserole night, etc. Then the associated recipes had a grocery list they could use. 

I decided to follow in their foot steps and come up with something similar. It's difficult though, so I only did about 5 weeks worth of meals. I also put all the recipes into myfitnesspal and tallied up the calories based on the ingredients I use (some brands differ, and some basic spices/ingredients don't add calories). Most of the recipes are from online sources. The servings vary based on the source, but I found most of them were somewhere between 4 and 8 servings. Fortunately, most were also veggie based with small servings of meat so Dan and I could eat 2-3 servings and still be on track. It also helps when you don't add unnecessary carbs into the mix :) I could eat it over rice, but then I'm at risk of adding a lot of calories and more than I want to eat in the first place. 

The home cooking aspect will still be in place as well! I'm going to be making cheese from scratch at some point, and Saturdays/Sundays give me a lot of leeway for home cooked meals :) Prepare for handmade pasta in the near future!

So we're incorporating a healthy diet and exercising. But what about the fun? We'll be skiing a lot (season pass to Stratton!) so that will give us a nice calorie deficit on Saturdays. I think I will gain quit a bit of muscle as I pizza down the mountain too. I've never been the "need for speed" type. I find it slightly terrifying actually but enjoy slowly skiing and watching other people enjoy tempting Death. Other kinds of fun may include alcohol. Beer, wine, drinks. I will put up some recipes with calorie data. It's hard to justify it as just one drink when it has the same amount of calories as my breakfast... :-P 

Anyways, here is the stuff I've been working on. I will update later with calorie counts included. In general, all dinners are between 500 and 800 calories. Happy New Year!


Goal = 1500 Calories a Day

Breakfast – 100-200 calories, coffee or tea

Lunch – Soup and Salad, 300-400 calories

Dinner – 700-800 calories

Snacks – 100-400 calories, based on excess for the day, will mainly be veggies or nuts

Sunday – Soup
Monday – Stir Fry
Tuesday – Roasted Vegetables with sweet potato
Wednesday – Indian or Thai night
Thursday – Fish dish
Friday – Snack Night
Saturday – Eat out or pasta night (within reason...)

Breakfast, Lunch – figure out before shopping that week. Plan on buying a carton of soup from Trader Joe's, one each for Dan and I. Salads will include nuts, cheese and/or berries. Lots of good low cal dressings out now. I am no longer a 10 yr old obsessed with ranch dressing.

Soups
Lonestar Chili – crockpot cook book
French Onion Soup – Joy of Cooking

Stir Fry

Bok Choy with any meat or over brown rice

Roasted Vegetables – Combine 3 or more. Try choosing veggies that might be left over from stir fry.

Chick Peas
Garlic
Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Peppers
Onion
Chiles
Tomatoes
Green Beans
Peas
Corn on the Cob (seasonal)
Squash
Eggplant

Thai/Indian
Chick Pea Curry (can add diced tomatoes) - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chickpea-curry/

Snacks

Jalapeno Poppers – own recipe, fill halves with 1 tbsp cream cheese then wrap with half a slice of bacon
Buffalo Chicken Wings – using Franks Red Hot wing sauce
Chicken Wings – other sauce
Tabbouleh – Joy of Cooking


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