Food
I'm not even going to do a rundown or pics of my meals this week because they basically went like this: the usual for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and then ridiculous dinners because I was out at happy hours and either ate there or was starving when I got home. Plus there were definitely a few beers in there too. Overall, this was a majorly lazy week with too many exceptions. Not happy with it, but I can always do better next week.
Workouts
I've been really tired this week (allergies plus little sleep due to said happy hours), so my workouts have been awful. I ran 6 miles on Monday, did a pathetic excuse for a strength training workout on Tuesday, and then Wednesday/Thursday did nothing (again, see said happy hours). I'm going to try for 4 miles after work today, hopefully some kind of strength training workout tomorrow, and 7 miles on Sunday. But... I have a bachelorette party to go to on Saturday, so we'll see what happens.
The one decent workout I did this week - 6 miles.
I figured today would be a good day to talk about
(1) I am terrible at dinner. It's my least favorite meal of the day, and I usually end up scrambling to put something together after I'm already starving, which sometimes leads to bad decisions. I like to cook when I have a lot of time available, but I find myself thinking of it as a chore during the week when time is tight. I have about 3 go-to meals (turkey meatloaf, grilled chicken, and spaghetti), but it gets really boring when that's all we eat. We end up doing fast meals instead, like Boca Chicken or hot dogs. Not good. What do you guys do for dinner? I'm going to try a weekly meal planner for dinners so I already know what to make (and hopefully have planned ahead to have the ingredients available). I'm going to print out one of these awesome printables below, put it in a cheapie frame from IKEA, and use a dry erase marker on it to make dinner plans each week - I'll definitely include a photo of my version in next week's Fitness Friday post! I'm also planning on going through the amazing recipes I've pinned and pulling out a few to make this week so I can get out of the rut we've been in for months now.
(2) I struggle to enjoy (and therefore be consistent with) strength training I have plenty of workouts saved, but I'm trying to find a way to do more than go through the motions. I end up skipping these workouts more often than not, and when I do them, I feel like I'm half-assing it and not being productive. I know I need to make more of an effort in this area because it's so important (and it really does help with running/daily activities), but I just can't seem to be motivated to do it. What are your tricks or tips for this one? What kind of strength training or workouts do you do?
(3) I typically work out after work, so if events come up (happy hour, dinners, etc.), I have a hard time fitting in workouts at other times. This one is tough. The solutions I can think of are (a) work out in the morning before work, (b) work out in the evening after the event, or (c) take that day off and try to limit events to 1-2 times a week. Working out in the evening would be tough, since sometimes you can't control when the event lasts until, and even if I could, I'm typically more tired when I get home from these things than usual. I think what I need to do is be a little more organized and use a combination of (a) and (c) - take 1 day off max and plan other workouts around that, and then work out in the morning if necessary if other events come up. How do you handle weekday events with workout schedules?
And last but not least, a few of you mentioned that you would link up a Fitness Friday post here, so I'm officially announcing that we'll do the first Fitness Friday link up on Friday, September 21 - that gives us a full month (and gives me some time to figure out how link ups work, haha). I can't wait to hear what you guys are up to!
Rough week - but awesome that you're admitting it on here! I feel like a lot of people would try to just highlight the positives, and I love that you're pointing out where you need to keep working on things and asking for advice. I'm not the right person to ask about 2 and 3, but dinners are the one thing I am good at - and I've learned to do a few things each week to always make it easier since I work and travel so much. Without writing you a book of a comment, here are my 3 main suggestions:
ReplyDelete1. Make something on Sunday that can be added to any meal during the week as a side/quick bite before/after happy hours. Some suggestions would be a quinoa salad, a bean salad, or a pasta salad
2. Meal plan, for sure, but try to find something that can be repurposed for at least one day. For example, make lemon garlic chicken breasts one night (making a little extra) and then use the leftover chicken on a big salad or in a pasta on another night or for lunch one day at work.
3. Make your kitchen fun - I like to put on some great music, pull a stool in so the bf can hang out with me while I cook, or vice versa, and pour a glass of wine to cook. Or I'll make a little appetizer (some veggies and hummus, usually) to snack on while I prepare the rest of the food.
My mom sent me this a while back and I think it has a few helpful hints that you can integrate into your schedule, depending on your style of cooking and living in the evenings :) Good luck!!
Gosh, and I still wrote you a book. Sorry!
DeleteNo this is completely awesome, thank you so much for the tips Bri - I love these suggestions! I'm definitely going to try these this week, I will let you know how it goes! Thank you so much!!! :)
Deletewow, you give me so much inspo and motivation to work out! you rock! xO!
ReplyDeletewww.thehautecookie.com
Thanks Sooae!
DeleteKeep at it! At least you recognizxe your weakness so that you can deal with them. It's much easier to live in denial, and things will never get solved that way!!
ReplyDelete1) For easy dinners: I struggle with this same dilemna. Luckily I am single and just cook for myself so I have a bit for flexibility, but recently I have done well by buying prepapred side dishes, and cooking a protein. For example, I love the SteamFresh bags of brown rice, and rice and veggie mix. It takes 3-5 min in the microwave to cook and I can add my own sauce/seasoning/mix-ins. I have even used it to make homemade stir-fry. Then I throw an easy protein on top, like fried eggs (with no oil). To speed up protein prepping I use the broiler. you can broil any meat, and it's fairly healthy and takes alot less time than baking. To round it off I usually add a fresh veggie or fruit on the side. Not a bad meal, and takes about 10 min total.
For balencing weekday workouts with social obligations: I limit myself to one after-work event a week, and I will use that as my rest day, or try to squeeze a short workout in in the morning. Not only do events keep me from workouts, but they add unhealthy eating/drinking into it; a double whammy! So limiting them to once per week, max, makes me the most sense for me.
Thanks so much for sharing your tips Kendra, these are great ideas! Those quick meal ideas are great, I'm definitely putting some of those on my grocery list this week. And you're totally right that 1 after work event per week is probably a good limit - the unhealthy eating and drinking is even worse than the scheduling conflicts, I agree!
DeleteI feel your pain! Getting exercise and eating right in is so hard when life gets busy! What I found helped is that I made it a priority no matter what. I also made myself accountable to someone. When I was on a strict diet I somehow found the will power to say "no" to events where I knew I would be tempted or when necessary go to the event, but not drink or eat crap! I found that being proactive on dinner planning helped. For instance, I would cook a bunch of chicken breasts on Monday and have it available for dinner. That way at least the nightly work for a protein was out. Then I had no excuse to not eat it!
ReplyDeleteLisa B
lifeandstylebylisab.blogspot.com
Great idea Lisa, I think doing some prep on Sundays would really help me (although it's hard because sometimes I'm not at home on Sunday, but I could always use Monday to do that if I needed to). Making it a priority is definitely a necessity - I used to be really good at that, but for some reason I've been so lax with it lately! Thanks for sharing your tips! :)
DeleteI heart your blog! I'm a new GFC follower :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Domestic Sweetheart! :)
Deleteawwww, you got me a link up for my birthday? too kind :D
ReplyDeletefor quickish dinners, we made stir fry/curries a bit. you just have to cook the chicken, throw in some frozen veggies and then add the curry paste and coconut milk. We usually use like 2 lbs chicken and 2 bags of frozen vegetables and it makes 6 meals, so 2 more dinners that week each.
Haha, yay - what a wonderful birthday gift I came up with for you! :) Good call on stir-fry, I always forget about how easy and quick that is - great idea!
DeleteI enjoy cooking sometimes, and sometimes there just isn't time or I'm not in the mood. We grill (or broil if it's cold) some kind of meat and fix some veggies for an easy meal. Another really fast and easy meal is bagel or french bread pizzas with whatever toppings you like. I keep a jar of pizza sauce in the fridge and the pizzas with a green salad are a fast and easy meal. If you aren't on Pinterest, check it out, there are tons of great options. Here is my food board Food I haven't tried everything, but the ones I have are pretty good! ;) Another thing I've done is prepped a crock pot meal the night before and put it in the fridge. Then I turn the crock pot in the morning and let it cook all day. Easy. ;) As for working out - eh I'm so bad at that it isn't even funny! There just isn't enough time!
ReplyDeleteUgh I feel the same way about cooking, CC - sometimes it's great, and sometimes I just hate it. Great tips though, thank you for sharing! I do have a ton of delicious looking stuff pinned on my food board too, I just never get motivated enough to make it - I think planning ahead will really help with that though. And great idea to prep crockpot stuff ahead of time and keep it in the fridge overnight - I never thought of that! Thanks for sharing your ideas! :)
DeleteI'm excited for the link up! I feel like it will help me analyze what I'm doing that's working for me, but more importantly it'll make me examine what parts of my work outs and meals I could change for the better. Like CC mentioned, I use the crock pot too! I lose interest in the summer, but once cooler weather hits, I use it at least once a week to prepare dinner.
ReplyDeleteJess - J's Style
fancypants514.blogspot.com
Yay, I'm so glad you'll be doing the link up too! I'm so interested in seeing what everyone else is doing too, and I definitely think forcing myself to write this out once a week forces me to examine what I'm doing that's working or not, just like you said. I'm definitely looking forward to cooler weather for the crock pot too - it's so easy to just throw stuff in there, but I hardly ever use it in the summer because I'm just not in the mood for hot dinner foods.
Deletedang girl. you are motivating me to get motivated. i have been SLACKING lately!!
ReplyDeleteUghh, me too as you can see in this post, haha! No time like the present to get back on track though, eh?
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