Meal Planning

How do you meal plan? Everyone who does it has their own way.  For me it is easiest to plan one week at a time…3 main reasons for this. One, because any more than a week and I get a bit overwhelmed. Two because we live in an apartment with very little pantry space so I don’t like to have too much food that we arent using. and Three our fridge is wack (lol) and if you put anything too close to the back it freezes and  it’s just kind of crazy so i only get what we need for the week.  This is how i go about meal planning for the following week.

I usually start about Wednesday, I ask everyone what they want to eat the following week…. I already know what they are going to say most of the time. Husband : crispy tacos Kids: conchitas, enchiladas, ramon noodles, quesadillas.  I think i do this so they feel like they help but really and truly I only sometimes add these things to the menu haha dont tell.   

Next I usually go through pinterest and pick whatever i think i want to try.. my husband doesn't like new things so I try to only make one “new thing” per week or less..  I plan out all my main dishes. The kids are school age and we both work so I really only have to cook once a day and maybe 2 times on weekends.  After I have my list of meals I make a list of groceries I will need for the week. I make sure to get fruit, cereal, waffles, bread, milk← that type of stuff for snacks, breakfast, and lazy weekend meals :).  

That’s really about it. I look at our week and what we have going on as far as after school activities and what not. I get out of work early Mon-Wed so I make more complicated meals on those days. Weekends are usually quick meals, and days that we have lots going on I LOVE to use my crock pot!  My menu is not set in stone. Sometimes I forget to get the meat out of the freezer in the morning to defrost, so I  have no other choice but to change the menu.  Other days my husband will call and say his friend will be joining us.  I have some meals figured out to where I make just the right amount with no left overs. and other meal.I don’t have it quite figured out so I make a crapload and we have leftovers.

I really like my little routine for planning our meals. When I get super busy and don’t make time to plan ahead my whole week i feel rushed and unprepared and usually end up going to the grocery store like every day!

The struggle is real!

So I have been really struggling lately with just staying organized and on top of things and staying focused in many areas of my life.  I feel like I just can’t get things together, like I clean up one room and the next is messy then I get to that one and I’m back where I started! sometimes I wish I had a whole day off just to completely organize, really clean, and catch up on project that I’ve been slacking off on. I always have these big plans for Saturday, then Saturday rolls around and we get a late start, I do breakfast and clean up then before you know it these bottomless pits I call my kids are ready for lunch!! I have fallen way behind on reading my bible and that makes me super sad.

That being said, there are smaller struggles that  should be like oh whatever let me wake up tomorrow and totally change this! But it’s not that easy.. some days are better than others.. One big one is waking up early. I work out in the morning so this means I must be OUT OF MY BED by 5:00am ideally dressed and ready to work out by 5:10am!! this is soo hard for me as I am a night owl. I have to MAKE myself go to bed early so I can get up early. This week i started putting my workout clothes in a little pile on the bathroom counter.  Since my hubby is still asleep when I get up I change in the bathroom as not to bother him. This has helped, but I still spend a good 5 min talking to myself telling ME that I will regret it if I miss this workout. And that I have come so far I can’t give up now, and how can I be a role  model to others if I can’t even do it. (sometimes this process takes more than 5 min :) ) I set my alarm for 4:45 to give myself plenty of time.

My next biggest everyday struggle is FOOD!!!! I love food! The thing is even when I am good and I pack lunch and snacks for work, things happen….. I cover the back desk or the front desk and don’t get a chance to eat.  Thats bad because you NEED to eat!!!! OR my wonderful amazing co-workers bring yummy deliciousness and I am still working on saying NO!  OR being in the medical field, we have reps bringing in lunch ALL THE TIME!!! and how can I say no to fajitas, rice, and beans?!?! or those AMAZING buttery burger buns!!! ugh its soooo hard!! I think  or better yet I know that this is where I need to focus. I know I can just say no. I can go back there and make my yummy lunch that’s packed all nice and neat in my awesome lunch box! It’s not that my packed lunch is not yummy, cause it really is, it’s just that it’s so much easier to go back there and serve a wonderful hot plate of whatever is back there.  OH the struggle is real!  But I know that if i set my mind to it i can do anything! So starting tomorrow I WILL say no to food that is not good for my mind and body.  I WILL pack my lunch box and EAT. I WILL eat my snacks AND my lunch.  I WILL make time to plan my meals AND eat them!

What do you struggle with? How do you handle your struggles? How would you handle MY struggles?!

Projects and Challenges...

So I know I’m new to the whole blogging world so  I can’t start off “if you know me” cause you most likely don’t haha.. But if you did you would know that I’m always starting new projects and challenging myself.. Some projects are more challenging while others are things I already do its just a matter of tracking or logging what I’m doing.. So here are a couple that I’m doing/starting/ thinking about doing.

The first one is project 365- the idea is you take at least 1 pic a day for 365 days.. I ALWAYS have my camera with me, even more now with my phone camera! you can change the rules on these however you want, you can do 1 photo a week or every other day or give yourself challenges like black and white photos or photos of kids only or whatever you want! I did this a couple of years ago I think 2012-2013 i started in June or July. When I did this I posted all my pictures to my Shutterfly Sharesite. www.ourlittlemaldonadofamily.shutterfly.com I created a tab just for this. Right now I’m about a month or 2 in.. I just realized the other day that I’m pretty sure I have at least 1 pic a day since February. I personally try to only use my camera and improve my photography in the process.. Most of my pics are of my kids, but some are just of toys, or our dog, or the trees outside. Just whatever catches my eye. If you google project 365, there are different websites and apps for this. There are FB groups or you can post them to your fb and #hashtag them I plan to eventually print all mine out and make a little photo album.  My son is getting a “good” camera for his bday and my daughter has my old camera so I think I’m going to encourage them to start a challenge of their own!

The next one is an ongoing project.. its called project life… you can check out the formal website here…http://beckyhiggins.com/project-life/.   And this one again you can really do whatever you want with it its like scrapbooking but better! haha At least I think its better I am able to get more done with less tools and embellishments. You can put as much extra stuff as you would like, but its just so easy and still looks good doing minimal extras. “stuff”. I’m usually able to knock out  good 3 months worth of pictures in one sitting of just a couple of hours while I watch tv. Back in the day when I tried to scrapbook I would sit for hours to just see i had like 2 pages done and thats it..My scrapbook covers about 9 months of my pregnancy and my daughters 1 day in the world then I gave up :(. I tried my hand at making photobooks on shutterfly, but I take soooo many pictures they end up super thick  This is good cause I am ALWAYS behind!! I’m still working on 2013 BUT I’m almost done I just have to finish up December then I can start on 2014. My goal one day is to be just one month behind and do each month as I go.

a random day from my 2013 Project life book :)

Closet Capsel  aka Project 333 is a more recent project I have not officially started… I heard about this on Facebook (I think someone posted about it) so I liked the article and went to my trusty Pinterest to learn more. and I love the idea.. its to just own (or use) 33 prices of wardrobe for 3 months. Its all about mixing and matching and making your wardrobe work together.  So far I made a list of what I have that I would like to keep as some of the 33 pieces.. Then I went through my closet to the dark depths of despair where clothes go to die and to my excitement I found some cute stuff back there that I had...um…. outgrown. But it fits again and I’m super excited!!! I found a couple of tops back there too that made me think “eesh what was i thinking?!”. I realized there are some basic wardrobe pieces that I NEED and some that I WANT, but I think I can work with what I have for a pretty good starting point. check out this website( http://theproject333.com/about/ ) for more info on this project.  

this is my "before" closet photo.. I'm actually gonna go work on this project after I post this.

AND lastly, but probably most importantly my 2015 resolutions.. This year I decided i wanted to focus on ME! As a mom the focus is usually on family and kids, but how can I help them if I don’t help me? So first I decided I am going to get healthy, not just diet or just workout but truly try to live a healthier life that includes a healthier diet AND working out.  So I joined BeachBody as a COACH!  I am definitely NOT the most in shape person and i DO NOT know everything or nearly everything about nutrition but its a learning experience and I’m loving it!! I started with the 21 Day Fix that helps you learn how to eat and gives you daily workouts.  And now I’m doing TurboFire that is high intensity cardio and OMG I’m LOVING it!!! I love getting soooo sweaty and really feeling like I’ve accomplished something just finishing my workout.  Its not as focused on meal planning and eating and I think i personally NEED that structure so I’m using the 21 Day Fix nutrition/diet part to help me get back on track in the kitchen. I started my fitness journey at the beginning of February and have lost about 10 lbs. It doesn’t seem like a lot but it is! I feel better and more confident. I’m also SURE I have gained muscle! My clothes fit better and I feel like I can do more and I am more flexible. I’ve created a habit of working out and really miss it when I skip a day.   My other resolution is to read the Bible daily. I printed out a little list of passages you’re supposed to read daily so that at the end of the year you will have read the whole thing.. I did really good at first and then fell behind. when I have chunks of time I read a little. I need to work out a time to devote to this, but I just have not done that yet.

This is a sample of how I planned out my meals on the 21 Day Fix to make sure I got everything in.

This is my meal prep for one day to take to work :)

And these are just some other random projects that I have done this year ..... These are short term more crafty things...

got a new bigger red crock pot so i painted my old one with chalk board paint...LOVE chalk board paint!

Family project- we all worked on this a little I take most credit cause I put the last piece lol

Bow Ties!!!  I think little boys look soo cute in ties so I made these for my Dallas :)

I Fell Off The Wagon...

Hello everyone! Soooooo… Last week was a tough one for me... I fell off the wagon! I ate bad and skipped workouts, I felt horrible the whole week, and it all started when I skipped my Monday work out. Ii have 1001 excuses, but the truth is I just was not focused.  We went home for the holiday weekend, I had plans of being good and getting my workout in.  I did good on Saturday, then Sunday, no workout and I ATE soo much!! The food was sooooo good I OVER ATE! and that was not good :(  I’m always so tired when we get back home I decided that I “would work out monday afternoon instead of 5:30am”  yeah that did not happen I went to work then was so tired that I was in bed by 9pm!  I worked out tuesday then took the recommended “rest day” on Wednesday.  That was not good either I should of worked out since I had skipped Sunday AND Monday!   Then the weekend I felt like I had failed all week so I didn't drink my shakeology AND I didnt work out!! ugh!!!  I felt like a failure I worked so hard all these weeks building a routine and getting healthy and in shape for what?!?! To just give up over one crappy week?? No way I woke up this morning and did my workout and drank my shake!! I ate good and went to HEB to get the rest of the stuff on my list so that I can stay on track all week!  Moral of this story:  Don’t give up!! Even if you have a crappy day or week or month it’s never too late to keep going get back on track and work towards your goal!

Oh and I almost forgot!! Yay for non-scale victory!  I’ve been pretty steadily losing about a pound a week.. Its kind of discouraging. I mean would love to drop like 10 lb in a week but that’s not happening and I feel pretty confident my steady loss is a healthy way and more likely to stay off. Anyway this weekend I was looking in my closet and came across some skinny jeans that I wore a couple of years ago (and even then they were a tad bit snug :( ) I had tried to wear them for Thanksgiving, but they were too tight and uncomfortable.. Well.. I was able to wear them and wear them comfortably!!  I even wore a fitted shirt and did not feel as though my muffin top was hanging over the way I have felt in the past. I was comfortable and in that I was CONFIDENT!  (I also meant to take a pic but I forgot and changed then was too lazy to change back )

Mobile blogger test

Just downloaded mobile blogger just seeing what I can do :)

Hello There!

Well hello there! My name is Jenny Jo ( ^ that's me) I have decided to try a blog.. i tried one a while back and posted like twice then stopped hopefully this time it will stick! Soo... if you read my profile you see I'm kind of into lots of random things.. I'm mostly planning to blog about life and whats going on now or projects I'm currently working on.. I also plan to post about my health and fitness journey that I started in February of this year :)  right now I'm gonna go get organized and wash and stuff. so i can think and plan out what I'm gonna talk about!

- Jenny