Good day ladies and gents! It's Monday... boooooo. Can anyone tell me how in the world Monday came around so fast? My weekend seemed to have gone by in a blur. Oh well, its here so we better make the most of it. Go hard or go home!
The best way for me to make sure I go hard is planning out my week. I try to plan out everything down to the finest detail, whether its doing laundry or writing a blog post. That way, hopefully, nothing gets missed and I ensure I give first place to the more important things.
I normally start my planning with determining what's on the menu for the week.
On Saturday night or Sunday morning, depending upon my schedule, I plan out all the meals and snacks for the week ahead. I used to use cookbooks and occasionally the internet for planning, but since
Pinterest has taken over my life I use it almost exclusively. However, I will pull out my cookbooks for recipes that I've already tried.
The overall process takes about an hour to an hour and half. The longest part of the process being coming up with the dinners for the week. Since I do the majority of the cooking and we have different eating habits I try to simplify our menus as much as possible. During the week we enjoy the same meal for breakfast and snacks. For instance I know that I have a smoothie every morning for breakfast and my first snack will be fruit with trail mix. When it comes to lunch time, I also repeat the same meal for my lunch.
You maybe wondering at this point, "Well Iesha, don't you get bored having the same thing everyday?" Here's how I combat boredom: 1. My smoothies don't not have the same fruits in them everyday. 2. The fruit I use for my snacks vary greatly. 3. I change the ingredients in my lunch salad and the dressings I use every few days. Also, personally having a simple menu helps me to stay on track, I never wonder what I'm going to eat. It helps me say no to outside temptations as well.
However, Mr. UC gets bored easily and will not eat his lunch if he repeated too often. So for him, I have a list of 10 meals to choose from and he will "enjoy" three of them twice during the week. Now dinner time is where we both get to have some fun and have our palates tantalized. I love cooking and I "cook" for one of us each night of the week. When Mr. UC is having leftovers I make a raw dinner for myself and when I am having leftovers I make dinner for him.
Now that the meal plan is complete, I can compile my shopping list. I shop every Sunday for most if not all of our food. Occasionally, I will make another trip for fresh veggies during the week.
After I complete our meal plan I move on to planning my workout for the week.
On a day to day basis, I keep track of my health in my smaller planner that I carry with me.
I have a copy of my workout plan.
I also keep a written record of what I eat each day. Its easy to snack and lose track of how many little bites you have. This way if I get tempted I hold myself accountable by writing each little bite down. It also serves as a way to track how food affects my body. If one day my joints are particularly sore I can go back in my food log and pinpoint what may be the cause. I created this page with a water tracker, I have the hardest time drinking enough water during the day now I can mark off each cup I have.
Next I use
my 2015 planner and fill in my appointments for the week and we're all set to go hard!
Here are the printables I use to organize my meals and workout for the week. Hopefully you'll find them useful as well.
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here to download 8.5x11}
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here to download 5.5x8.5}
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here to download 8.5x11}
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here to download 5.5x8.5}
Till next time...
