100 Days of Eating at Home: Day 30 Update

Eating ALL my meals at home or making them at home has proven more difficult than I originally predicted!  So, I started sort of slow.  The first week, I tried to eat 2 out of 3 meals at home, and I've been scaling down from there.  So far, it's going well this week.  I did forget my lunch at home today (doh!), so I went to Crazy Bowls and Wraps for a chicken-veggie-rice wrap for lunch.

I think I have learned that meal planning and taking the time to prep food for my work week on the weekend to be the most important things.  I am trying to make myself stick to the plan instead of making an impulsive, emotional choice of food during the day.  This is getting better!  I am finding it comforting that I have already decided what I will eat each day, and it's lowering my stress a little bit. :)

I also just weighed myself last week.  Honestly, I hadn't weighed myself since mid-July last year!  So, I was surprised to see I had lost 20 pounds!  And, since then, I have lost 6 more pounds!  Am I exercising regularly?  Uh, no.  So I'm going to just continue what I'm doing until I plateau, then add more exercise into the routine.  I have a goal to lose a total of 50 pounds by the 1 year mark in July.  It's an ambitious goal, but I'm sure I can do it if I try!

How is your meal planning and eating at home going?  What is the hardest part?

Meal Planning: Week of 1-28-2012

100 Days of Eating at Home Challenge

 

As a single woman living alone, I find that it is really easy to fall into the habit of eating out - frequently.  I have fallen into this bad habit, and it's time to change this.  I think part of it was a time management issue with being a full time graduate student for the past three years, but since graduation I've had more time to be domestic.

Maybe it's because I need to consider my budget more closely.  Maybe it's because my fridge-freezer AND my deep freezer are stuffed so full I cannot get anything else in there (I'll have to take a picture...).  But I need to eat what is in the house and not run out to get something at my first inkling of a hungry rumbly tummy.

Here are the RULES:

1.  Every meal should be based on making it in my house.  I know I won't always be "eating" at home (hello, work), but the food should come from my own kitchen and not Fazoli's.

2.  I will be allowed to purchase beverages when out.  Let's face it, I like to drive through McDonald's to get an unsweetened ice tea.  Beverages outside the home are legal in order for me to keep my sanity.

3.  If someone invites me to a meal out, that is legal if I can afford it.  If I am not paying for the food, then I think that's okay. 

4.  I am going to start out with a $150 per month food budget.  This is harsh!  However, I need to use the meat, veggies, and stuff in my freezer.  If I eat down some of the stash at my home, I should be okay.

5.  I will need to meal plan and try to stick to it.  The sticking-to-it is the hard part.  I can meal plan until the cows come home, but actually eating what it says to eat is and inner struggle.

6.  Buying seeds and trying my hand at my container garden again this year will not be part of the food budget.

7.  For the most part, I will attempt to continue adding in "real food" for my ongoing transition to real food.  This is going to be difficult on the budget, but hopefully I will still be able to afford milk and eggs from the farm.

How often do you eat at home?  Is it a challenge to resist eating out?

Meal Planning Saturday

I've been away for a while, but I'm back for now!  Grad school can get crazy along with my regular full time job and blogging goes down the drain.  But here's my meal plan for the upcoming week!

Meal Plan for 3/26/2011

I'm hoping the chicken casserole will turn out okay...it's supposed to be with broccoli, but asparagus was on sale this week so I am going to attempt using it instead (crossing fingers).  I will be trying a new recipe tomorrow:  Persian Lentil Soup.  I'm not sure I've ever cooked with lentils before, but I definitely have some on the pantry shelf!  And, it's a frugal choice!  And, I'm going to try and soak them efficiently.  I'm off to Whole Foods to pick up a few groceries (in the SNOW!), then back home for a domestically packed Saturday!

What are you eating this week?

Meal Planning

My meal plan last week went differently than I planned...I had WAY more leftovers than I anticipated on having.  Therefore, I ate baked oatmeal and shepherd's pie all week with some variation at lunch.  It was definitely more economical, though, having one pound of ground beef stretch throughout my entire week of dinners.  This week, I'm trying to accommodate for the possibility of having a mega-leftover situation again.

Here is my meal plan for the week of 2/12/2011:

Meal Planning

Planning a week's worth of meals is one of my least favorite things to do, and therefore, I don't do it very often!  I'm really trying to change that bad habit.  So, I've decided to give myself a deadline and share my tentative meal plan for each week here.  It's a big undertaking!  I don't know about you, but I tend to make meal decisions based on how I feel, how stressed or busy I am, or what I'm "in the mood for."  But, I feel that some of my stress will be reduced if I don't have to worry about what I'm having every meal...it will be all laid out and pretty in a chart for me to reference.  So, without further ado, here is my meal plan:

I'm not sure how well you can see this lovely screen shot of my meal plan (click on it to enlarge), but it's all there, along with references to some new recipes I'm going to try out this week!  I'm still a bit of a loss on the "Snackies!" section, but I have an e-book on healthy snacky foods that I may need to break down and try out this weekend.

Now, I'm curious to see how well I stick to this plan.  I think if I can assemble the Shepherd's Pie this weekend so it's ready to go on Monday night, I should be in pretty good shape.  I may need to do some soup cooking this weekend, as I've been eating a LOT of soup out of my freezer recently, and it's getting a little sparse!  To this plan, I still need to add my prep activities and additional cooking in order to replenish my freezer supply. However, I am way too tired at the moment to get that accomplished!  Happy meal planning to all, and to all a good night! :)

Sugar Free Challenge: The Rest of the Week

Well, even with two snow days from work, I still didn't find the time to blog every day about the sugar free challenge this week.

I must admit, there were three days (less than half!) that I ate a few Hersey's kisses.  Bad, I know.  But I think being snowed in with 9+ inches of snow makes one want to snuggle up in flannel snowflake pajama pants, fuzzy pink slippers, Stargate SG-1 on DVD, and a little bit of chocolate.

Things I learned this week without refined sugars...

Once I got over the initial cravings, headaches, and fatigue, it wasn't so bad.  In fact, I had some major energy bursts and focused work time.

My appetite decreased.  I would guess that this is because I was eating more healthy fats that filled me up quicker and were overall more satisfying to my hunger.  Example:  Tonight, I made potato soup and polish sausage with cheddar on top (like my Mom makes).  It looked so good, but I could barely eat a few bites before feeling full.  Oh well, potato soup for lunch tomorrow at work!  Yum!  Plus, I've been craving liquids (no soda for me!).  The only caffeine I've been drinking is unsweetened iced tea.  Trying to modef keep it that way.  I think it has just enough caffeine to give me a little boost without all the crazy HFCS.  The other weird craving has been cheese!  I have been eating lots of cheese.  I hope to maybe decrease this a little, but for this week's challenge, I thought that cheese was a better choice than a large coke from McDonald's.  Yes?  Yes.

I saved a lot of money.  Yes, hard earned cash money.  Not only did I give up sugar, but this meant no eating out because, let's be honest, sugar is in most fast food and I don't have an ingredient list to look at when I go to the Olive Garden.  Looking at my bank account, I spent more money at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Greenwood Farms, US Wellness Meats, and Dierberg's, but I saved money in the long run from eating out.  I ate a lot out of my freezer and I need to stock up again on homemade soups and meals that I make ahead of time and freeze (beef barley soup, potato soup, spaghetti sauce, beef stew, chicken and quinoa soup).

I'm definitely going to stay conscious of what I'm eating and if refined sugar can be avoided.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for family birthdays and the cake dilemma or eating at my parent's house, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

An unexpected thing that happened this week was that I was also free of refined flour - without even really trying!  I have been eating sprouted bread for a while instead of regular whole wheat bread, but the eating out thing kept refined flour in my tummy.  Well, it was out this week.  I have some sprouted flour (wheat, spelt, and rye) and I'd like to start baking my own bread...mainly because buying the sprouted bread from the store is uber expensive, and the bread isn't very soft - more stiff and crunchy.  I'm still searching for a great sprouted flour homemade bread recipe to use with my new Pampered Chef loaf stone.

If I can go sugar free for a week, so can you!  Try it out!

Sugar Free Challenge Day 2

Day 2

Sugar Free Challenge, Day 2 is about done.  Not so bad today, except for the lingering chocolate craving.  I did, however, experience some shakiness around 2pm today, but it was short lived after downing some water.  I feel like I’m having a hard time staying hydrated which seems weird because I’m pretty sure I’m taking in less caffeine.  Maybe it’s just a transitionary thing.  Here’s what I ate today!

--Scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar cheese; 2 pieces of sprouted bread toast with pastured butter and –ehem—strawberry jam.  YES, AGAIN. 

--Unsweetened ice tea and water throughout the day.

--Homemade beef barley soup

--Mozzarella cheese (snack)

--skipped dinner (not feeling so great, so didn’t want dinner.  Feeling like a bug is coming on…pretty sure it’s unrelated to the sugar thing.)

I have to share my happy little bit of awesomeness today.  Last weekend, I bought a really great thermos to take with me to work.  I have really been wanting to eat homemade soup for my work lunches, but alas, I usually eat in my car (and am usually lucky to have 10 minutes to eat).  So, hot soup was a little elusive since I don’t have a microwave in my car.  However, this thermos from Target stated that it could keep things piping hot for up to 7 hours!  Honestly, I doubted it.  Boy, was I wrong!  This awesome thermos kept my beef barley soup steaming hot until lunchtime, even though it was left in the freezing car.  In fact, it was SO hot that I still had to blow on it so I wouldn’t burn my tongue.  Fantastic.  I’m super excited about taking soup and hot meals for lunch!  I may need to invest in another one for coffee or hot tea to keep with me in the car.  We’ll see…  Check it out:  Thermos at Target.com  

I still need some creative things to eat for snacks.  I’m going to try to make this avocado dip for veggies.  Looks like it might be good…might help with my snacky needs.

Sugar, Sugar

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1dqt4_the-archies-sugar-sugar_fun

This week I decided to participate in the Sugar Free Challenge over at “The Nourishing Gourmet” blogsite.  I’ve been reading labels for a while now, and I get very frustrated when nearly every product I pick up off of a grocery shelf has some derivative of sugar or corn syrup – most of the time as the first ingredient.  UGH!  Why does everything have sugar in it?  Probably because of it’s highly addictive properties.  Companies continue to sell high quantities of super unhealthy food because these products are crazy addictive.  I really think that if most Americans took an honest look at how sugar affected them, they would admit they are addicted. 

Today was DAY 1 of the Sugar Free Challenge for me.  I tried to follow the advice over at The Nourishing Gourmet to gradually decrease sugar intake over the weekend to lessen the blow.  Saturday:  check.  Sunday?  Wicked cravings for Coca-cola and a chocolate covered strawberry blizzard from Dairy Queen.  I know that I have some hormonal things that have been also affecting my cravings, but I went ahead and indulged.

Today, I have stuck to the rules:  No refined sugar (and trying to do no refined white flour as well).  Natural sugars are okay.  I did accidentally have a cheat at breakfast:  strawberry jam on my toast.  But I honestly didn’t even think about it.  Here is what I ate today:

1.     1. Scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar cheese; sprouted toast with pastured butter and –ehem—strawberry jam.  Apple juice (no added sugar).  Also a small swig of kombucha.

2.     2. Homemade beef barley soup.

3.     3. Frozen strawberries with vanilla whole milk organic yogurt (I love the Brown Cow brand for yogurt).

4.     4. Cheese and walnuts.

5.    5.  Iced tea.

6.     6. A bite of a fermented pickle (didn’t taste as awesome as I thought it would…)

7.    7.  Left over pork chop and quinoa.  ½ tablespoon of raw fermented sauerkraut.

8.     8. Mozzarella cheese snack.

I felt like I was eating ALL . THE . TIME .  And I drank a lot of filtered water.  But at this very moment, I have a wicked nasty chocolate craving.  I think the hardest thing for me when I’m trying to eat differently is my car.  I can go to the g-store and buy smart.  I can meal plan.  I can prepare.  But, I can also walk outside, get in my car, and go to any of the infinite fast food restaurants near my home that will sell me sugar filled and other crap food without me even getting out of my car.  I mean, honestly.  There is a McDonald’s directly across the street from my apartment complex, along with a Golden Corrale.  Additionally, within walking distance is a Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Mexican Place, Stephania’s to go, Hardees, Walgreen's, and two grocery stores.  Right now, I could WALK to Walgreen's and buy as much chocolate as my checking account could handle.

But I haven’t yet.  And honestly, I’m too tired at this moment to walk my butt to the car, let alone to Walgreen's!

Today I was lethargic.  I had crazy chocolate cravings.  I had trouble concentrating on anything but getting a piece (bag) of chocolate.  And I had a lingering headache all day.  I eventually took 2 Aleve this evening…but I’m just realizing that I didn’t check to see if the Aleve had sugar in it.  Wouldn’t that just be a kicker if the ALEVE had sugar in it?  ACK!

I’m a little worried about tomorrow (Tuesday) because of being at work all day.  I need to remember to take a bunch of snacky stuff with me that can survive being in the cold car all day and can be eaten while I drive.