Day 14

WEIGH-IN DAY!  I weighed-in at 236.8 this morning!  I have added a new Weigh-In page.

Oh, the adventures of meal planning.  I am trying something that I have never done before.  Something I would consider a habit of health.  I am sitting down and planning the entire menu for the week.  At this point, it is more of an experiment than anything else.  However, I have practiced something similar in the past that relieved a small amount of stress during the work week, laying my outfits out for the week.  I think the meal planning will be very similar.  Of course, instead of visiting my closet in preparation I will have to make a short trip to the grocery store.

I am starting this process by creating a checklist that I can make changes and additions to as I see fit as time passes.  I like steps, or as us pilot's call them, checklists.  I will be utilizing a spreadsheet as the placeholder for my menu.

1. Sit down. The best time to do this is with minimum distraction, when the kid is taking a nap.
2. Fill out the entire week of meals in a broad Sense. ie, Fish something for meal 5.
3. Look for potential recipe worthy meals, usually Meal 5 (dinner) eg, Fish something for Meal 5 becomes Tilapia Wraps with Salsa and Refried beans.  This is not necessary at first.  Once my recipe database expands, this step will become easier.
4. Find a healthy recipe that contains the staple food.  This week I am referring to the Insanity Elite Nutrition Guide for recipes.
5. Update the grocery list.  I prefer to use Evernote and categorize the items based on their location in the store. (Produce | Meat | Cans, Boxes, Bottles and Bags | Dairy & Frozen | Breakfast & Grains | Other) 
6. Find coupons.
7. Go shopping.
8. Prepare what I can before hand. This is key, having as many meals as possible prepared before hand, in containers, ready to go, will save a lot of stress and time.

Base Principles (so far):

• Every Meal 3 and Meal 5 will contain a serving or two of veggies.
• If Meal 1 is Carb heavy, Meal 2 will focus on Protein.
• If Meal 1 is Protein heavy, meal 2 will focus on Carbs.
• Meal 4 is very experimental, as it is to bridge the gap for my commute home.
• Meals will be consumed with no more than 3 hours after the previous meal.

I would ultimately like to have small variety of things for each meal that I eat.  I foresee the spreadsheet eventually having drop down lists for each meal making the process that much more efficient.  With a quick Google search I found all sorts of elaborate meal planning spreadsheets.  I do not want to overwhelm myself with this process, so I will be keeping it simple until I am a little more comfortable.

Here is my first attempt at the meal plan:

The 30 Day Challenge | Week Two Recap

Take it one habit at a time, and soon your life will be a model of well-being. - Dr A.

In today's email the Doc goes over the following:

• I should be working on eliminating grazing habits.
• I should be conscious of external environmental triggers that inhibit habits of disease.
• I should be aware of the chain of events that can potentially lead to habits of disease.
• I am urged to stay on top of my bad habits and to continue finding healthier alternatives.

FOOD | Sunday = Weigh-In = Recalculation

When I submitted my new weight on MyFitnessPal, I must have hit a predetermined number interval in their system, it suggested I recalculate my daily intake goals.  So I did.  My new recommended calorie intake amount is 1,650 a day, a drop of 60 calories from my previous daily goal.

I have been a little concerned about my daily intake levels. For starters, in the past 2 weeks I have rarely ever hit my goal, I am usually anywhere from 50-300 calories below.  That may explain how I have dropped over 10 pounds in the past 14 days.  However, by the end of the day, I feel satisfied.  I am not overly full, or stark raving hungry at anytime during the day.  I feel full of energy. So, I am really taking this one day at a time, I trust that my body will let me know if I need to change something, I will be listening.

Here are my results for the day:

Food Log Entries:

8:20 - Slept in a little later than normal, went to bed a little later than normal.  Breakfast was quick and good, greek yogurt and peaches.

11:10 - 15Tbsp of egg beaters and half an onion with some frank's red hot, very good.

1:30 - Chicken, dijon mustard, almonds, green beans, and cottage cheese.  Very good lunch!

4:00 - 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and peaches.

7:00 - Spaghetti, turkey bacon, fresh garlic and parm.  Small portion, very good.

8:15 - A 1/4 cup of greek yogurt, prepping food for the week, throwing the baby around got me hungry.

The entire family slept in this morning, it was nice.  This set my first meal of the day back 1-2 hours later than normal, which moves all of my meals back.  I had a small dinner at 7:00 and spent the next hour playing rough with the little one and cleaning the kitchen.  I decided to have a 1/4 cup of greek yogurt.

As I write this blog (around 9:05) I can feel the 1/4 cup sitting in my stomach.  Not sure if this was a wise choice.  We will see how I sleep tonight and if this has any effect on my morning.

Tomorrow morning will be the first day of the rest of my life.  My alarm is set for 5:15, I will be getting out of bed shortly after that to jump into my new morning routine!

EXERCISE | Focus

No recorded exercise today.

I am really enjoying the times that I do work out, but it does not feel like enough at this point.  The majority of my focus in the initial stages of this transition have been on my food and diet.  With 14 days in, I am feeling pretty confident in my decision making in regards to food.  So, this coming week, I will be brainstorming ways to get more out of my workouts, both in duration and intensity.