Preparing for Heatlhy Eating + Recent Randomness

I actually plan on writing about weight loss type stuff this time around! Don't expect those DIY project posts to stop though. I still have more projects to do and write about.

I plan on going big this week when it comes to eating right. I'm going to try to follow a more aggressive than usual plan and just try it for a week. At the end of the week I'll evaluate if I would like to continue or go to a slightly less aggressive plan.

I started out by making a shopping list and shopping. I had some of the items around the house already like brown rice, frozen vegetables that I can steam in the microwave, and some fruit. I was able to get the rest of what I needed at Aldi, so that was a great way to save some money. I've become enough of an Aldi shopper to keep a spare quarter in my car that I never use except for the carts at Aldi. Here is my grocery haul:

The following is my plan for the week. Since I tend to be a bit hypoglycemic, I will add in complex carbs such as a potato or rice when I feel that I need it (such as with snacks).

• Breakfast: 3 egg whites and 1/2 cup berries
• Snack: 3 oz. turkey breast and 1 cup greens
• Lunch: 2 oz. chicken breast, 1/2 cup rice, and 1 cup veggies
• Snack: 3 oz. turkey breast and 1 cup greens
• Dinner: 2 oz. chicken breast, 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup veggies
• Snack: 1 cup berries

This morning I took some time to cook up chicken, rice, and veggies to have ready for meals. The snacks don't really need prepping since I'm at home most of the time now. I can just grab from the fridge and measure out what I need when I need it.
 

 

As with any big effort, I've decided to weigh in to see what happens by the end of this week. My weight is 207 which is down two or three pounds from the heaviest I've been this month. Not a great loss, but at least a little bit down.
 
Here are some other random pictures and things that have been going on recently...

While I was cooking my healthful food that you see above, I took the time to clean the fridge. I threw out some old food, wiped down all the shelves and bins, and reorganized. Here is what my fridge looks like prepped for some healthy eating this week:

 

 

Don't judge me by the cookies. Those are my husband's along with the milk. The rest is mine.

 

 

 

This weekend I found some Boca Chicken patties while shopping at Aldi. I had them this weekend with some baked Lay's chips. They were good.

 

 

 

We've been having lots of thunderstorms recently and one of my dogs, Sebastion, is afraid of them. When they happen he either follows you like he's your shadow or hides under things. I got a good pic of him hiding under a bed.

 

 

I finally got my orthodics which are supposed to help my Achilles tendon situation. I keep injuring it due to how I walk on my left foot. These are supposed to help keep my foot in the correct position. They don't fit in my Sketchers go-walks well, but they can be trimmed down later after I break them in if needed. They are a pretty penny, but it is better to have them to prevent a major injury and surgery.

 

 

 

The last piece of randomness is the TV situation. My husband has a newer TV in his "room" in the front of the house. It is not hooked up to cable. We have my father-in-law's old TV in the great room hooked up to cable. The picture and color went weird on it. It looks 3-Dish and the blue color can't be aligned. It might need a new board, but that may end up being too much for what the TV is worth. While we are waiting to figure this out, I put my old college TV in there. It is 12 inches. The other TV is 55 inches. Although the TV is tiny, at least I have a back up one.

 

 



May Grocery Shopping Trip

Since going back to school and saving up for new gutters for the house, I have to be more careful and try to spend a lot less money than I used to spend. I've been trying some new strategies for a couple of months which seems to help. Here are the strategies in no particular order:

• I meal plan for three to four weeks (or the rest of the credit card cycle) at a time. Then I make one big shopping trip and get everything I can that will not spoil and can be frozen if needed.
• I've also started shopping at Aldi again. I'm an Aldi kid, so I never had anything against Aldi. I have memories of shopping with my mom and the cart overflowing with a large haul to last us a month or so.
• When I see items I know I use on a regular basis on sale at other stores, I will stock up on them. I hit a great sale at Meijer a while back and stocked up on things like baggies and frozen veggies. I've even found fresh Perdue chicken breasts on sale and bought a bunch of them to freeze.
• I've worked really hard on not impulse shopping or shopping because I'm upset or bored. This gave me more time to do things such as read textbooks, write papers, and other grad school related stuff. 
• Even though I gained some weight back, I haven't been out buying as many sale items as I can to have a variety of clothes. I deal with the fact that I have three pairs of dress pants and three pairs of jeans that fit. I just do laundry more often. I'm not planning on staying a size 16 forever, so I'm not going to give myself any slack to do so.

Here is most of my grocery shopping for May. I might run out of something or need a fresh ingredient once a in a while, but I've gotten pretty good at estimating what I go through in three to four weeks.

My fresh, refrigerated, and frozen foods from Aldi.

The rest of the food from Aldi.

I found these at the Dollar Tree.

This is the stuff I had to get a regular store (Meijer, Wal-Mart, Strack's).


Although this has nothing to do with the rest of my post, here are some cute pictures I got of the doggies today. Since it was nice, they were able to run outside and play at grandpa's house (he has a fenced in yard, we don't). Needless to say, they are tired tonight!