Hello again! How is everyone's week? I'm so happy that Spring is officially here! Yay, yay, yay!!!
So to continue on my path to being healthy I know that I need to focus on my diet-90% success lies with the diet. Eating healthy is hard, especially when you have a sweet tooth the size of China! Damn you tasty deliciousness!
I keep telling myself that this is the last time I'll grab a bag of these delicious chocolate candies that melt in mouth but not in your hand, and then I fail. My weak self control can only be helped by bringing my own snacks so I'm not starving! I, like many other people, have thought that starving myself equals weight loss. It isn't true! So I'm breaking that thought process now. Hear that? That's the sound of my light bulb going off!
Realizing that starvation doesn't equal skinny is hard for me to to grasp, from years of seeing/hearing that if you want to loose weight you can only consume 1200 calories a day; that's nothing! But I've been doing a lot of research into how people have lost a lot of weight, kept it off and stayed healthy doing it has helped me figure it out. Eating clean and eating enough is the key, not counting calories.
Meal planning and easing myself out of all of the processed and artificial foods starts now. Since I'm on a budget though, I think making the same breakfast, lunch, snack and dinners will help me stay in budget. The recipes I chose go a long way, if you measure them out the way you need to.
My budget is $100 a week, that's to feed me for the whole week and my boyfriend for a few days. I really want to come under budget as much as I can, who can complain about extra money? I selected the following meals because I have a lot of the ingredients in my cupboard already. The following recipes can be found in Tosca Reno's book, the Start Here Diet, but I found similar recipes for you!
Here's the meal plan:
Snack: Yogurt and granola-1/2 cup of yogurt and 1/4 cup granola.
Dinner:
Sweet and sour chicken-2 cup of finished product. I used a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies to cut down on the prep time.
As I said, I have a lot of the ingredients for these recipes already so it only cost me $51.48 to get everything I needed, plus some bananas and extra apples! What's the secret? Farmers markets, they sell amazing produce at a fraction of the price! I can't tell you how much I love my local farmer's market and how much green they save me!
If you need to find a local farmer's market or co-op try Local Harvest, it's a great site that can help you find one in your area.
Since these recipes are so easy to make and make so much, it's great for the busy work week when you don't want to be in the kitchen all the time. Something that I find helps me out during the week is to measure out all the meals for the week on Sunday, that way i can just grab and go!
I started eating this way on Monday and I'm already down 3 pounds! Needless to say I'm more than thrilled with the results so far.
Until next time guys!
Cheers to being healthy and happy everybody!
