~ Meal Planning - Not always easy, but Always necessary ~

~Failing to plan is planning to fail~ 

The most successful way to succeed at changing your nutrition lifestyle is to have a plan!  Meal planning can be overwhelming *see picture above*, but once you get the hang of it, it's rewarding and becomes easy.  It can even get to be a little fun when you start incorporating new meals you've never tried before.

For starters though, let's take it one step at a time:

1. Know your calorie bracket!  This is a very important part of meal planning.  If you don't know HOW MUCH you should eat, then you can't start picking out your menu.  Portion Fix & the Fixate Cookbook are great resources to help you dial in your nutrition!
• I personally like to count colors instead of calories using the above tools!
• Calorie Brackets can range from 1200-1499 to 2500-2800.  
• Take a look at the bottom of this log for a sample of how to calculate your calories/colors needed!
2. Keep in mind the food you already eat!  Love burgers and fries?  Go for some Lean Turkey meat for your burger with Fixate Ketchup, tomato and onion on a Romaine Lettuce "bun."  Go old school and cut up some sweet potatoes and bake homemade fries!  There are clean recipes all over Pinterest for you favorite foods.  The resources are endless.
3. Plug in meals to your menu!  Once you have a handful of meals you're ready to plug into your menu, it's time to plan out your week.  I like to go day by day, with repeating days!

• Here's and example of my upcoming week.  Day 1 & 2 will be repeated throughout the week (M-F and 1 weekend day), with Day 3 to be used on a weekend day for various weeks.
• When you are first starting out, planning like this can be helpful since there's not a whole 7 days that need different meals.  Left overs won't go to waste!
4. Watch the serving sizes!  I'm notorious for making an amazing dish that ends up feeding a small Army... when I'm only cooking for 1 - in my head!  Also, if you mess up the servings size and end up eating 2 servings, it will count against your calories/colors twice!  
5. GO SHOPPING!  Once your menu is plugged in, write out your shopping list, and go shopping.  It's best to shop maybe 2 or 3 times a week, especially if you are getting a lot of produce products.
• If you have Beachbody on Demand, check out the Fixate cooking show.  Not only is there a demonstration on how to cook the meal, but there's a downloadable recipe & shopping list!
6. Meal Prep!  Now that we've meal planned it's time to meal prep!  Take the pieces of your meals that you can cook/bake/prepare in advance and get this done in 1 day!  For example: Tomato sauce can be made in large batches and stored, even frozen!

Remember, meal planning take time to master.  But mastering it is TOTALLY doable!  If you need more resources to make the journey easier, check out my Pinterest Board just for meal planning!  You can always head over to my Facebook Page and send me a quick message with any questions you may have - if I don't know the answer, I can sure help you find it 😊 

Do you suffer from depression too?

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on my FB page ...

I felt really good that day!  I feel really good today too!

Depression is a sneaky bitch.  She comes up on ya all slow, may even say a quick "Sup Girl" and walk away... but she's always behind your back just out of view. 

My post mentioned a job position that I thought I had landed - the company legit offered me the job and NEVER called back!  I didn't realize it then, but it sent me into a fit of depression. 

When I saw this job ad, I thought that doing something for me and for the betterment of puppies would be a feel good addition to my day... Yes!  My job would have been to take care of, play with, groom, and clean up puppies! 

Do you see why I was so upset about not getting a call back?

It still urks me that I don't know WHY they didn't call.  Part of me wants to go into their store and ask, but I spoke to so many different people that I'm not sure who to even ask for!

The depression had me good this time... I wasn't even aware that she had me hostage!  I started falling back into old patterns... JUNK FOOD! Games on my phone, binge watching SO MUCH tv, and even ignoring my Little One 😢.  

Thankfully, Lily's competition season was coming up - FAST!  I needed to refocus my energy to her, getting her things prepared, and getting her to the venue ready to dance...

Did I mention Lily's never danced in a Competition before?  This was her first ever, so our nerves were on overdrive!

She did AMAZING!!

If you know anything about dance, you know the scoring is a little hard to keep up with at first...

Photo Credit: Addison Makenzie Photography

~Lily's small group won 1st Place, High Gold & 5th Overall!

~Photogenic age 3-5 also got Lily a 1st Place Gold

I couldn't be more proud of my babygirl!

And so thankful to her love for dance!  If Lily didn't have a competition last weekend, who knows if I would have been jolted out of my depression or not. 

It's hard, but I have to be more self-aware of when the sneaky depression bitch pops up again.  Wearing a mask of past comforts to lure me into her trap.  I'm also back at therapy, so that is always a plus!

It's tough this thing we suffer with.  It's tough when we get stuck, sometimes not knowing how to get out.  It's tough going through the process sometimes.

But, you know what else is tough?!

WE ARE!

We are Badasses!  (Check out this book!). We how the power inside of us to overcome... and I believe in you 😉

Negative Self-Talk...why won't it stop?

As I was looking through my email today I noticed something interesting... I subscribe to almost every motivational, inspiring, positive mailing list I come across!

For real, my inbox is filled with them.  But my brain still attacks itself.  My thoughts shoot to the negative aspect before the positive.  I have no issues with telling other that a positive life is the best life.  Yet, practicing what I preach is like pulling teeth... from a lion!  I just can't get the negative talk to go away.

Don't get me wrong... I've been able to purposely include positivity in my thoughts; it's the unconscious nagging of that little devil on my shoulder that won't shut it's mouth. 

There is a fix, and trust, I have an abundance of belief that this fix WORKS!  Not because I have felt it, or seen it, but because every successful person (Mailing list/FB "friend) I've welcomed into my life this past year or so says the same thing...

AFFIRMATIONS!

I've even seen young girls in their bathroom mirrors telling themselves how f'n fantastic they are!  So why, if a 4 year old can do it, is it so damn hard for me to look in a mirror and say, "I believe in you."

Because the self-doubt and low self-esteem run deep, and the negative talk has gone on for a LONG time.  Change is not easy.  I hate the idea of changing my car, let alone changing my BRAIN!  When I look back at my life, I can see where these negative thoughts came from.  I can feel the feelings I felt then - the pain, the disappointment, the struggle to stay "me."  I truly, honestly, do not remember being who I am today, or wanting to become who I am today.

I'm not a horrible person.  I love life and am blessed everyday to wake up, I love my daughter and the fact that she always makes me laugh, but there's little else that I feel.  It all gets aimed back inside, wrestles around for a while and shoots out as anger.  Along the line, I lost who I wanted to be.  I forgot that MY life was about me and my dreams, and that I am the scribe!

That's where the negative talk sneaks in.  When you're vulnerable, when you are looking, and when you feel off but your brain THINKS everything is okay.  This is why AFFIRMATIONS are so important!  Affirmations keep us thinking positive.  I give you permission to be selfish.  Start with affirmations about you.  I will too!  Now think.  What is a negative thing you tell yourself everyday.

Me?  Just one?

"God damn, these scars are ugly."

Can you even see my acne issue?  It's along my jawline.  I see this every time I look in the mirror, obviously.  But what does me NO good is thinking "I'm ugly."  All that does is tell my subconscious that "I am ugly - Truth."  That's so not true!  I've a beautiful woman.  I have beautiful blue eyes and a killer smile... but all I see is are the handful of acne spots/scars that I happen to have.

So, I've decided!  From now on, I will see MY EYES first.  I love my eyes, always have.  From now on when I look in the mirror, I will look at my eyes, compliment myself and refuse to focus on my acne.

Do you believe in the power of attraction?  This could be a whole other blog, but for now, it basically works like this.  I would tell myself, "I have the clearest and smoothest skin!"  I would have to believe this, feel this, and it doesn't hurt to turn it into a daily affirmation!  After repeating this over and over, and coming to truly believe I have the clearest and smoothest skin, it would come to pass!

It's just as easy for me to tell myself I am BEAUTIFUL as it is to tell myself that I am ugly.  It's a matter of picking the one you want to believe in.  It's hard work to change, but I believe that at the end of it all, the work is well worth it!