Failing to Plan is Planning to Stuff My Face....

     I'm a planner, tried and true...it's not something that I do, it's who I am. I plan lessons, outings, outfits, playdates, vacations, events, summers, winters, weekends, and most importantly (for our purposes here anyway) meals and workouts. This integral part of my Sunday night "ritual" began when I went back to work after having Rory. I was having difficulty managing my time and would get overwhelmed, it was hard for me to get up so early and I would sometimes have to choose between cooking a good dinner or getting a workout in.  I could tell that Kevin was getting sick of "Boil in a Bag" rice and chicken with the cream of mushroom soup. The problem was I would just haphazardly go to the grocery store every week, buying a few things, and then getting frustrated when lo and behold, there was no semblance of dinner because I hadn't even thought about what the heck we were going to eat for dinner. I knew I wasn't going to lose the rest of the baby weight eating peanut butter and jelly every night.....that was part of the reason my butt got so wide in the first place...it was time to get my butt in gear and get serious about life.

     Every week, before I go to the grocery store, I write out a dinner list for the upcoming week. I usually shop on Saturday morning.

I usually don't cook on Saturdays, we order out. Kev's late night means leftovers, egg whites, or oatmeal, whatever we have laying around.  I find that by planning healthy dinners in advance, I have no excuse but to stay on track. It is also helpful when tracking my calories in My Fitness Pal. Once the master dinner list is complete, I can make sure that we get the things we need to make the stuff we are going to eat...simple concept...but I'm slow sometimes. During the school year, breakfast is either Greek Yogurt with half a cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch or Old Fashioned Oats with Natty (all natural) Peanut Butter, it has to be simple since I eat at school. In the summer, I have time for Ezekiel bread and egg whites, total treat every day...sometimes I eat it for lunch too! I also make all my lunch and snack foods on Sunday afternoons. During the school year, I boil a dozen eggs, since I don't get egg whites at breakfast. In the summer, I grill up a few chicken breasts. I always have cut veggies in the fridge for snacks and lemons and limes for my water. I really really hate drinking water, but the lemons and limes help...I had to get off the Crystal Light, there were days when I was drinking over a gallon of chemicals. I can't kick the Splenda, I've tried and I just can't,
 so I had to give up the Crystal Light! Kev says I have a way of finding the laziest way to do the easiest thing...one thing I am most lazy about is making myself snacks...probably because I'm always cleaning up somebody's mess or wiping somebody's butt, or chastising one of my furtarded dogs and by the time I decide to "reward myself" with a snack (yeah cause that's what I do, I can't have a snack till the stupid stuff's done) I'm about to gnaw off my arm...

      Once the food is planned, I can decide how I am going to workout for the coming week. I plan for six days, but I'm happy if I get five. Before I got really serious about fitness, I would just say, "Uh, I guess I'll uh run on the treadmill"...or I would spend 20 minutes at 5 o'clock in the morning looking through DVD's because I couldn't decide which one would make me want to make me kill myself the least....Please don't get me wrong, if you are a runner and you can run on the treadmill every day and not get bored, God bless you, I wish I could. The fact is that my knees are so bad now I can barely run 3 miles, the last time I ran was last summer on the boardwalk in Wildwood, the right knee gave out after about 2 miles and the left one lasted about two more blocks....and I didn't have my phone....and Rory was with me in the jogging stroller....I had to leave the boards and walk home through the crest....and if you know Wildwood, you know that that can be dicey. In a way, I'm glad I started having knee problems, it forced me to be more creative with my cardio. I like to do similar routines for about 4 weeks and then change it up. You can read more about muscle confusion here. As with anything, there are solid arguments on both sides, but I'll choose the side that I like because this is my blog....so there! I like to fill up my calendar with my workouts and weigh in's (only because I am in weight loss mode, I normally don't even use a scale)

I have recently began to incorporate kettle bells into my lifting routine. KB 40 means I did a 40 minute kettle bell DVD, E45 means 45 minute hill intervals on the elliptical, HIIT means I did 20 minutes of high intensity interval training, CI means I did an Insanity workout, NROL means I did a full body heavy lifting routine from the men's version of The New Rules of Lifting. It might sound a bit crazy, but it keeps me on track....the last things I need are more excuses. As the fourth of July approaches, stay tuned for staying on track at parties and holidays...here's to hoping I get around to it before the barbecues begin...

     And that's pretty much how I spend my Sundays after church and Tees' Family Nap Time.....don't be jealous!!!! How do you like to spend your Sunday afternoons?