Trying New Things

 

I wanted to start today by saying thanks for the kind words yesterday…I’m praying for those of you in the throes of job changes! And thank you for other encouragement over the last few days – and the link to the Exodus song! One of these days I’ll be able to comment again, but I just wanted to say that at the start of today’s post.

            A few days ago, I had a question from Paula, I think, about meal planning and how I do that. I’ve done it a variety of ways over the years, but right now, I’m using the “don’t reinvent someone else’s wheel” method. Ryan and I have tightened up our eating plan again – mostly because I had fallen back in love with some bad food habits. I received my clothing supply for my new job and some of the sizes on screen were not accurate to real life, so that was great incentive to work hard at this meal plan adjustment that needed hard work anyway.

            Those of you who have read here for a long time might remember that back in 2016, I followed the 21 Day Fix meal plan method. It essentially pushed me to learn what an actual balanced diet looks like and helped me with portion control. Portion control and dessert are my two lifelong struggles.

            So we’ve returned to eating more along the 21 Day Fix meal prep lines, but right now, I don’t have the time to craft meal plans for that. It takes a while to do all the calculations and make sure I’ve pulled in all the food groups adequately.

            Happily, I stumbled upon the blog “Confessions of a Fit Foodie,” and the writer there shares (for free!) her weekly meal plans that are all pre-calculated. They also push me to try foods I ordinarily would not choose.

            We are both enjoying this return to better eating habits, and once I got past the BEAST of a sugar detox that the first few days provided, I have felt considerably better all the way around. I will not pretend to be any kind of hero that I’m not. I miss dessert with my whole heart. I do have samplings of it, but the truth is and probably always will be that if I could do whatever I wanted, I’d live on donuts, cookies, and Coke as my main food groups. They are my first food loves. So it’s not easy, and I’m not amazing, but it is good to do this, and I do recognize and appreciate the benefits!

            I thought I’d share with you some of the recipes we’ve enjoyed in the last couple of weeks.

            We really liked these Asian lettuce wraps. If you don’t like mushrooms, you could leave those out, but we love mushrooms, so they stayed in for our version. I made a double batch of this and we enjoyed it in our lunches all last week!

            I’m not a huge fish fan, but I swapped in some chicken for the tacos in this recipe, and we both liked it, too! I haven’t cooked with mango before, so the mango salsa was an experiment for us that we both were surprised to find we liked! (I purchased my mango in frozen cubes from Aldi, so I didn’t have to worry about the fruit going bad on my counter. Plus now I can try it in other recipes, because I have some left!

            We both liked this berry crisp. I told Ryan his opinion on this one mattered more than mine, because I miss dessert so much, I’m likely to enjoy anything! 😊 But it really was tasty.

            This orzo salad was not only yummy, it was also a big batch that lasted for several meals! That saved me considerable time, and I appreciated it.

            We’re also snacking on a lot of fruit and veggies, and while they’re not cookies, they do keep me full for a while, and I appreciate that.

            And for those of you who might wonder what to do if you have a husband or kids who aren’t satisfied with a healthier plan, here’s how I handle it. Ryan is totally on board with eating all this stuff with me, and he enjoys it. But I also know it’s not enough for him. He needs a higher calorie intake. If possible, I give him larger servings of everything, but I also make sure to pack extra snacks in his lunch: more fruit, some pretzels, chips, cookies – you name it. I always have bread for him on the side if he needs it with a meal. It ends up working perfectly!