If you want to be successful and stick to your eating goals the key is in MEAL PREPARATION and PLANNING. The challenge this week is to take one day whether it be tomorrow or Monday and write down your meal plan for at least 5 days. Then on that day do some prep to keep you prepared. Some ideas that have worked for me is on Monday I boil a bunch of eggs, make brown rice, grill some chicken, wash and cut up fresh veggies/fruit and separate into single serving bags. I also like to make single serving bags of granola, or craisins and almonds for snacks. In my recipe file there are cookie dough bites and I make a batch of those and have them on hand for sugar cravings. Whatever works best for you prepare ahead for success. If you have a lot of tupperware put together meals so you can just grab your tupperware and be set! Good luck and if you have anything particular that works best for you please share!
Okay, I don't have anything in particular that works best for me, but I did to comment about how hard/different the prepping part is for me. I love this picture with everything into tupperware containers and ready forthe ENTIREweek....even the water!! It's awesome! But when I think about doing this for all 6 people in my family it's kind of laughable (to me...I'm sure people do it for their entire families and no offense if you are one of them) I think it's nice to have your meals all ready to go, but here lies my other problem. I do not eat the same thing every day. In fact, we pretty much eat something different for every meal every single day, with the occasional leftovers for lunch or another dinner. Which is why it is hard to do even what you do, Tam, and grill up chicken and cook rice, etc. It just wouldn'tget eaten around here. I do like to pre-cut celery and carrots, but then I keep them in a big container of water in the fridge to keep them from going bad, rather than keep them in individual serving bags. I generally don't pre-cut a lot of other veggies because they do go bad faster once they've been cut. Since I use a lot of onions in my cooking, though, I did have Gary cut up a bunch on Monday for his prep. That's been helpful. I also try to make snacks (granola, protein bars, etc) to have for the week. And at the begining of the week I mix peanut butter and jam together to have ready for my daughters lunch all week. :) I also get as much of the meal done that I can during my baby's naps, which helps out a ton when it's actually dinner time and he's crying at my feet. I would love to hear what other people do that have big families and that don't eat the same things throughout the week, but for me just planning my meals is a huge help!
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