Getting In Gear --The Great Prep Day

After another string of not so great health around here.  I'm trying to get myself back in the weight loss and healthy living mind frame.  Over the years, I've come to just accept something about myself that is not awesome, I'm kinda lazy.  There I said it, it's out there.  My entire weight loss approach has been adapted over the years to accommodate this fact.  The only way I succeed is to make it super easy for me to eat healthy, and that means that on grocery shopping day, we not only do the shopping, but also the prep work that needs to be done for the week.  Which seems counter-intuitive based on my previous statement, but one day of work that equals 6 more days of less work seems to make sense in my head.

That entails lots of washing and chopping, broccoli & cauliflower for roasted veggies, peppers for salads, and whatever fruits need to be taken care of.  I also usually need to boil and peel some eggs.  Eggs are my meal super stars.  I thankfully love them just about however I can get them, and they are a definitely a little low calorie, protein power house.

Next up, bananas, their brown spotty little faces used to haunt my fruit bowl.  Now my daughter's job every weekend is to take the leftover bananas, peel them and chunk them up.  They then get tossed into a freezer bag and frozen to be used in smoothies throughout the week.

We make our lunches around here, the kids occasionally do hot lunch, but the routine is to make lunches in the evening when everyone gets home.  We also try to streamline this process as well, so on chopping day, we go ahead and divide up the carrots and veggies that we will take in our lunch.  My husband is just a carrot guy, but I'm a little more high maintenance, I need some variety, and something to dip those veggies in.  Hummus is my dip of choice right now, and the added protein doesn't hurt my feelings either.

As much as I'd like to, I can't take all the credit for this process, my husband is the organizational mastermind around here.  I come up with the ideas, and he is the person who streamlines the process so we get it done as quickly as possible.  This process is constantly getting tweaked, I've debated marinating and grilling up a pile of chicken breasts to have on hand for easy suppers and salads, and I'm also considering buying a couple bags of onions to chop quickly in the food processor and stash in the freezer so I have those ready to go at a moments notice.   Everything is a work in progress, but that's life now isn't it?  Happy New Year!