Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The importancne of Meal planning

Well, I've made it to day 6.  I'm actually very surprised that I have made it this far.  I've been floundering so much lately that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to come back to healthy eating.  I was just too depressed, too much in the clutches of sugar and being very impulsive and giving in.  My will power practically gone.  This past week has been miserable.  I have a knack for timing these things just perfectly.  Last time I did the Whole 30 I still had a cold, so the first week was especially miserable because I already felt awful from my head cold (it was the worst sickness I have had in a very long time.  It was also coupled with a sinus infection) so the symptoms were coupled with the withdrawal effects from getting off sugar and a high carb diet and also getting off caffeine.  This time around I started and my cramps and emotions and hormones were raging wildly all week, culminating in the events of Sunday, which were awful enough, but I had severe headaches and massive cravings.  It's been a tough week... And I still have two days to get through before the end of week one. 

Week one is always the hardest.  Week one is the week where my cravings are running wild.  It's also the week where all these thoughts tend to run through my head "why am I doing this again?  Am I sure I really want to do this?  I just started so it is okay if I go off track now because I can just start again tomorrow."  Not the best thoughts to be having but that is what goes through my mind every time. 

Last night I pulled some fish out of the freezer for dinner since I had forgotten to defrost the chicken for the meal I had planned.  Speaking of meal planning, I need to do that today.  I can't even stress how important meal planning and being prepared is.  If I don't know what to make, then odds are I won't be cooking or if I do cook it won't be nearly as heathy.  It's usually something involving pasta.  And I have backups for those days when my planned meal just doesn't work out.  I always keep fish in the freezer, because it thaws fast and is easy and fast to cook.  I also like to keep frozen vegetables on hand for those times I don't have time to actually make a vegetable side dish.  I can just put some oil, and seasoning on those vegetables and put them in my Pampered Chef micro cooker, and nuke them in the microwave and they come out great.   I also have Whole 30 approved chicken sausage on hand as a backup too.  I love chicken sausage and for lunch or even dinner I can microwave them (the fastest method) and serve them with vegetables and avocado, or when it's warmer outside I can grill them, or sometimes I will make a potato hash with them if I'm feeling particularly creative.  You don't need a lot of backups, just a few.  I have a friend who makes freezer meals and uses those as a backup.  Those are excellent and I keep telling myself that I should do it, but since I cook three meals a day I can't bring myself to spend a whole day cooking, although it might pay off in the end on future days..... I really should do that.  Then depending on what your freezer meal is, you can put it frozen in the crock pot, or thaw it in the fridge the day before and have it ready to go.  I like the crock pot better.  If I'm going to spend a long time prepping these things, then it had better go wickedly fast on the day I'm actually making them.  I'll take a look into it and maybe write a series on it.  As an ex-pampered chef consultant, I've had a lot of exposure to freezer meals.  Anyway, that's all my ramblings for today. 

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