PS: I have no idea why some of this text is outlined in white. Have tried for 20 minutes to fix. Just all gonna have to deal with the ugliness...
Few people have any next, they live
from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
Setting a goal is not the main
thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that
plan.
Tom Landry
American Football Player Coach
Tom Landry
American Football Player Coach
As we enter week 6, I am certain of
one thing -- without planning, your program will fail. Planning
encompasses so many different components each day. If you are a morning
work out person, laying out your clothes every night is an essential part of
the plan to make that early morning commitment. It's easy to use the
excuse that your clothes are in the laundry basket in the basement, and it's
absurdly early to be stumbling about trying to find them... and decide you'll
do it the next day. If you are an evening work out person, you have to
plan to bring your gear with you to work, so you'll head right for the gym.
A stop at home generally spells the end to your good intentions.
As I write, the scent of oven-fried
chicken and sirloin tip roast is making my home redolent with amazing,
mouth-watering scent. Six chicken legs and a 3-pound roast. And I'm
cooking for one. Why do I do this on a Sunday night? It's the only
way I can be sure that I'll have healthy, delicious dinners every night this
week. I can leave work at 8 pm, and not have to drive through somewhere
cause I'm too tired to think about cooking. This is so do-able! It
doesn't even take much more time than just cooking one dinner! In fact,
it makes my life so much easier.
Workout clothes laid out. Dinner
prepared for several nights a week. This relieves a lot of pressure each
day. And, there's another thing I do to prepare, a trick that I only
recently started, but it is one of my best. I make an egg scramble on
Sunday morning that creates at least 3-4 breakfasts for the week. Talk
about easy! It's difficult for me (and maybe for some of you) to figure
out how to get a good breakfast in when I'm rushing about trying to get to
work.
Here's what I've been doing:
Cut
up a bunch of veggies (onion, yellow bell pepper, broccoli, spinach) and saute
(I love coconut oil or bacon grease for this part)
Saute
some meat and chop up (chicken sausage, bacon, ham; use your imagination)
Scramble
10 eggs (I use coconut milk; but water, almond milk will be good too)
Add
eggs to the veggies and meat. Scramble. Enjoy deliciousness.
Separate the left overs in easy to carry containers (I can get 4
breakfasts from this recipe). Microwave every morning after gym time.
Or, just to get your day kick-started.
The
bonus of establishing a good plan is that there is no guess work left each day.
Take the stress out of your nutrition and your exercise by creating and
executing a good plan that works for you.
Would
love to hear your tips for planning that works for you!
Welcome
to Week 6!!
Love these tips, Maddy! I do a ton of pre-cooking on Sundays, too. I also made egg scramble for this week - great minds, right? :-) I make mine in a Texas muffin pan, because it makes me smile when they look like mini-quiches. :-)
ReplyDeleteI also HAVE to pre-plan my food. I have absolutely no willpower, but if I have planned out meals, I'll stick to them like glue. It's when I wing it that I run into trouble.
I grocery shop on Sunday. I cook up shredded chicken and sometimes a roast on Sundays also so we have protein ready all week. We also wash and cut up are fruits and veggies as soon as we buy them. I try to pack up my lunch and snacks the night before work. A couple of my favorite quotes are " if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". "if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got" and one more that I just read today is "if you are tired of re-starting, don't stop".
ReplyDeleteNicole-what's a Texas muffin pan?
It became clear to me this morning as I woke naturally at 5 am that the right and logical thing to do would be to go to the gym. What I did instead was worry that I had not laid my clothes out....(honey badger got me there)...then I worried that I didn't have a work out plan....then I worried that the roads might be slippery and then I worried that my kids would not wake up in time to start their day...one who needed to head back to Columbia,MO. So all this worrying makes a girl sleepy and that is exactly what I did, I rolled over and went back to sleep. DARN IT...opportunity lost...AGAIN. I need a plan and I need it NOW. Who else struggles with what to do at the gym? Let's combine forces and make a plan. Any takers?
ReplyDelete@Tammy - A Texas muffin pan is just a big muffin pan - makes 6 instead of 12.
ReplyDelete@Jenny - I always plan my workouts ahead for the week, and build it around my schedule. Sometimes I get rotations from Oxygen Magazine, sometimes from training blogs, and right now I'm doing a 4-week rotation of Cathe Friedrich DVDs. Having a plan gets me out of bed in the morning (have you figured out yet that I'm inflexible, LOL?!) Having scheduled rest days and recovery weeks helps me get through really tough workouts. Good luck!
@Nichole: Great suggestions -- and I think it's great you schedule in rest days and recovery weeks. I don't always schedule mine -- my body often lets me know when I need to rest (I'm just a bit more fluid in my choices :).
ReplyDelete@Jenny: let's make the time to sit and structure a plan for you. Plus, we need to quickly get the weight training 101 on the calendar!
Earlier in our journey, questions were raised about the expense of healthy eating -- for individuals and for families. Please review the link I've included for a great way to get healthy food into your home, at the most reasonable cost. Warning, it is a Paleo link, but I am not promoting that plan, just offering information about best choices to make for best cost and healthy eating.
ReplyDeletehttp://whole9life.com/2011/01/paleo-poor-your-guide-to-the-grocery-store/
Let me know what you think!!
Team, team, team...
ReplyDeleteWhere did all my workout people go?
Kudos to Sharon, Rick, Andrea and Lisa for showing up and putting in the extra effort. It is a pleasure to see you grow strong.
Sure, I get the fact that everyone is busy. When you tell me you're too busy, do you mean to imply that I am not? Do you believe that I can walk away from my work at 5:15 pm on Wednesdays because I don't have anything else to do? Please reflect more deeply on your commitment to yourself. The theme this week is about planning. I want you to give serious consideration to working out with the team. I understand that this will not work for everyone, but seriously, when only 4 people out of the 23 on our team can make it to a group workout, I worry about our long term success. For one night a week, your wife, your boyfriend, your business partner, your "insert reason for not coming to workout here" will be able to cope with one less hour of your time. They certainly will if they want you to live a long, healthy life. Oh, and please don't tell me you're already working out in the morning. That's great. But this is a TEAM workout and meant to drive more than just time for you to sweat. Please re-commit to yourself, and the team, because that is where your success lies.
Hope the workout was productive last night. Sorry I couldn't be there. When my fiance and I scheduled an appointment a few weeks ago I didn't think about the workout. I will surely be there next week and going forward.
ReplyDeletePlanning is defintely something I do not do enough of. I think just about everyday I'm staring at my fridge or cabinets wondering what to eat or what I can eat. Without having something pre-made a spoonful of peanut butter is a typical go-to for me. I do however have a George Foreman grill and pre packaged chicken breasts but most of the time I am too lazy to make something like that. But going forward I do have the time on Saturday afternoon or Sunday to plan out meals for the week. It just comes down to making that commitment.
I am getting tired of continually making lemon-pepper chicken or some sort of garlic chicken. Any thoughts on good spice packs or seasons I can pick up to add a different flavor to my chicken or tilapia? Also what type of sauce, glaze, seasoning would you use for stir fry? I really like stir fry but don't want to continue using the highly sugary teriyaki sauce. Thanks for your input. Keep up the great work team!!
@Tom - I'm addicted to Penzey's spices. Their store is in Maplewood, but be warned - it is incredibly addictive! But it would be an awesome place to register. :-) I also hear good things about Mrs. Dash seasonings. I eat a ton of chicken breast and grass-fed ground beef. But I've come to think in terms of "what kind of salad/soup/veggie will I have?" then add my protein to that veggie, if that makes sense. My veggie soups can be made in infinite flavors, so I don't get bored having chicken breast 3 lunches a week.
ReplyDeleteLOVE PENZEY'S. It is a Wisconin based company and I have been using their spices for 15+ years. In the beginning it was all mail order. To give you an idea of the quality....once you use their cinnamon the stuff you buy in the store tastes like dirt. Best of all their prices are cheaper than grocery stores and you can buy in a variety of sizes so there is no waste. Their catalog has amazing recipes also.
DeletePS - Whole Foods has organic whole chickens on sale for $1.99/pound tomorrow. I'm planning to stock up for the year.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed this week's workout. I was working until 6:30 at my desk taking care of some new business that needed to be submitted and returning phone calls. I was actually intending to go to the workout and lost track of time. I noticed the time at 6 PM and figured it was too late to get down there...see you next time!
ReplyDeleteNichole and Jenny,
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of spices do you guys get from Penzeys? I looked them up online and it really looks like a place I need to go!
Doing a Zumba heart fundraiser tonight for two hours! Hope I can walk tomorrow!
tammy, I get everything there. You need to go to the store. They have apothacary (sp?) of their spices so you can smell the goodness. Whole pepper corns, basil,spearmint, garlic poweder, onion powder, cinnamon, vanilla and almond extract, thyme, poultry seasoning, lemon pepper, cumin, parsley, curry powder, dutch cocoa, mustard, sage, rosemary,prime rib rub, just to name a few of my favorites. :)
DeleteSounds great. I will definitely check out Penzey spices. Thank you all for the input.
ReplyDelete