Today is a glorious Sunday here. Being in the sub-tropics, our winters are mild and tend to be dry and clear. I'm spending the morning getting organised for the week by making a couple of salad bases, a pot of vegetable soup and spending some time doing up a menu plan for the week. I felt a bit lost for options last week as I've been sticking to meals that I know the points values of. That means we've been recycling the same meals for a few weeks now and need a change. I think being organised is going to be essential for losing and maintaining weight. For me, being organised means having good, fresh and healthy food options available; having a menu plan to work from; having prepared or semi-prepared meals available for those rushed or can't be bothered times; and minimising the effect of getting caught out by always having my water bottle and a piece of fruit with me when I go out. My organisation also includes my schedule where I plan the time to do the menu, shopping, exercise etc.
I've scheduled in time next weekend to make up a heap of freezer meals as per the ones found at Saving Dinner. Essentially, you spend about 2 hours preparing meals to the cooking stage and then freezing them. In that time you make between 20 and 30 meals depending on how quick you are and how many people you are feeding. I started doing this on my better days when I was really ill and it was a Godsend. I used the food processor to speed up things like the dicing of onions. I found the concept of freezer meals saved me time in so many ways. Each night I'd look at the list of meals that I'd placed on the fridge and select a meal for the following evening. It would defrost in the fridge and the next night I'd simply have to cook it and throw together a side dish such as steamed veggies or salad. I found that I had very little washing up to do as all the cutting boards, knives and the like had been used and washed on the initial preparation day. Easy peasy. Initially I used the freezer menus from Saving Dinner but now I use a combination of our favourites from there plus recipes from other sources. If I was really clever and so inclined I could simply make up meals with all the same points values so I always know how many to set aside for dinner. Don't think I'll go there though!
This has been an odd week for me weight wise. I've spent most of it feeling full, bloated and just off. At first I tried to eat my points values for the day but then decided I wasn't doing myself any favours as I just felt gross. So I focussed on eating good healthy foods and increased my intake of probiotics both from food and in supplement form. I still kept an eye on my points but have only reached my points one day this week, some days I've had to struggle to eat half of them. I feel like I've gained weight but if that is the case I'm not worried as I know I've had something weird going on with my body. I've eaten good foods and balanced out the foods that I had. Life happens and I'm sure it won't be the last time that it puts a bump in my journey to health and weight loss. I feel quite chuffed with myself for having this attitude. In the past I always felt rushed to get from a to b. To achieve goals NOW, if not yesterday. Putting unnecessary pressure on myself and no doubt piling up the negative self talk as I didn't achieve as quickly as I falsely expected. Crazy. Here I find myself this week, quite relaxed, listening to my body and knowing that if I don't lose this week it's ok as I've still been moving in the right direction with my habits and thinking.
How are you all going? All well and good I hope. I'll pop out later today and get some photos for you to pretty up my blog.
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