An Update, A Fitness Buddy, and Meal Planning

Yoga: still loving it. I'm not pretending I'm good at it, because I'm not. But I love it.

My husband bought a really kickass (and manly) spin bike with his Christmas money. He wakes up early every morning to work out. Because of this, I end up waking up early to work out. So my workout, shower, and breakfast is now completed by 5:30am. NICE. Now I have time to do the dishes/laundry/vacuuming before the little one wakes up for the day. Or I can sit and sip my coffee and watch Desperate Housewives on Netflix. Either way, it's fulfilling. And either way, the earlier the workout, the easier my day goes.

And meal planning. Friends, if you have not jumped on this bandwagon yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. We have managed to save money and eat healthier because of this. I've managed to save hours of time that would have usually been spent in a grocery store buying odds and ends. In a totally surprising twist, we've managed to eat classier meals as well. Not just "Boom, here's your meatloaf!" but also, "Hey, here's this baby spinach and goat cheese frittata with a sweet potato hash!" We still eat meatloaf, just not as frequently.

So meal planning. What a pain, huh? I've finally come up with a formula that makes it more simple. Share? Well of course!

Breakfasts: Pick out three or four healthy breakfasts that you like. Choose a breakfast for each day, never let the same breakfast be eaten two days in a row. To me, monotony leads to eating bad-for-me stuff. To the left is a picture of this week's breakfast meal plan for myself. (Saturdays we always eat something bad-pancakes, cinnamon rolls, etc. and Sundays we eat light because we go to church and eat donuts.)

Here is a link to some really yummy (and healthy) ways to prepare oatmeal.

Here is my link to my low-cal breakfast burritos.

And if you want a healthy, satisfying breakfast to take with you, here is a link to overnight oats.

Lunches: I hate coming up with lunch ideas. My current rotation: smoothie and hummus with veggies one day, black bean burger on one of those thin, 100-calorie buns and sweet potato fries the next, and a big, healthy salad the third day. Then I start the rotation over again.

Dinners: Here is where I go to Pinterest and find healthy, easy, seemingly-fancy recipes. Every Saturday, I sit down, write out the entire week's meal plan and a grocery list. I'm trying to teach myself to remember about the food we already have. I try to use leftovers accordingly so we don't throw much away and have to spend more money. Yuck. Who wants to spend more? Here's a picture of this week's dinner plan.

A link for the OUTRAGEOUSLY good spinach, goat cheese, and sweet potato frittata.

The curried butternut squash recipe.

And the peach, feta, and chicken pizza recipe.


So yes. Meal planning is kind of like watching paint dry. To me it is at least... But it has a huge payoff. I highly recommend you give it a shot.

Have a lovely three-day weekend, friends!