Weekly Wrap-Up: Menu Planning

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Here I am at the end of week 3 of my renewed efforts to get myself back in shape post-baby (2 years post-baby)! I’m linking up with Wendy and Hoho to share my Weekly Wrap!

I’m not going to lie. This weekend was tough. I was at a family reunion in South Carolina and let’s just say that my family can cook. Fried chicken, potato salad, cakes, pies, bread, you name it and it was at the gathering on Saturday. Combine that with a pancake breakfast Friday morning, grilling burgers on Friday night, and an ice cream social on Saturday night and the challenge to keep up my healthy eating was on! I ended up treating myself a bit, but I made sure that at each meal about half of my plate consisted of salads (the kind made with actual vegetables) and/or fruit. That definitely helped me at least feel like I was treating my body right.

All that being said, this week I gained 0.6. I know my eating was off-track for three days and my exercise was off for two days and I’m okay with that. I have to keep living life. And the more I do this, the less impact those kinds of weekends will have.

Because here is the thing, when I don’t plan for my meals at home my eating can definitely turn into a family reunionesque affair. That’s why every week we take the time to sit down and figure out what we are going to eat for dinners during the week. We have a small magnetic dry-erase board on our fridge to record our plans for the week and unless something major comes up, we are pretty good at sticking with what we have planned. We base our grocery list off that menu and that’s the food we keep in the house.

This past week, we planned for four dinners because we knew we would be attending a show one night and away for two nights. We were even able to accommodate for our eating out meals because we planned ahead to eat out that night. It works out great, especially when we are trying to be really careful about our nutrition.

Here is how the exercise went this week:

Monday – 2.5 mile run & 0.6 mile walk

Tuesday – Strength workout & two 0.6 mile walks

Wednesday – 2.5 mile run, 0.6 mile walk, & 1.2 mile walk in the rain

Thursday – Strength workout & 0.6 mile walk

Friday – 30 minute run

Saturday and Sunday – rest and reunion

Working out was a challenge while I was away. We were staying on a tiny property with small cabins. A complete loop of the roads around the property is only 0.7 miles. Add in the sharp hills and South Carolina humidity and I just couldn’t see doing more than the one run while I was there.

I’ll be back on track for a few days this week before we head out of town again, so we will see how that goes!