Tag Archives: healthy living

Sunday Meal Plan Link Up – Week 6

Posted on March 9 by Jillian416 • 4 Comments

Happy Sunday and Meal Plan Day

I love weekends! They allow us to be super impromptu and make plans on the fly. This weekend was supposed to be full of packing but we’ve been working hard and decided we needed a break so we headed down to visit my parents and spent Saturday there with them. It was a really nice visit! Since it was so “on the fly” no plans were made, we just took the hour journey down there and hung out. My sister Bridget was in town so it was fun to see her as well!

Emmett is starting to slowly remember and recognize people, so as soon as we got there he was off and playing with Grandma’s toys because he was so comfortable. He even got a new one, a tracker and farm jeep that came with farm animals (similar). He’s a lucky lucky boy!

The only problem, since we decided to take Saturday off from packing and other weekly chores, that means we’ll need to work extra hard today. That’s alright, we can handle it!

This Week’s Meal Plan

Sunday: Homemade Pizza (a carry over from last week)

Monday: Honey Chicken Teriyaki (another carry over)

Tuesday: Mexican Pizzas

Wednesday: Tilapia and Cauliflower

Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Friday: Fend for selves (scrounge around house, this is an effort to save more money grocery shopping)

Saturday: Meatloaf and Bake Potatoes

You’re probably wondering why we have so many carry overs from last week, right? Well, maybe you’re not, but I’ll explain anyway. 🙂 Seamus and I decided to institute a weekly scrounge around the house day to save money, so that saved us one meal. The second, carry over happened, because we were supposed to make pizza last night but realized we had used most of the cheese for that on something else, so we ended up ordering pizza. You might think that takes away from us trying to save money, but we used money my dad had gifted us, so we were A-OK!

So that’s our meal plan for the week. It’s another one I’m pretty excited about, and I’m hopeful we’ll continue to be able to avoid eating out at our expense.

As usual, I’m linking up with Laura from Mommy Run Fast and Jill from Fitness, Health & Happiness. Check out their blogs and be sure to link-up!

Filed Under: All About Me, Family, Food & Recipes

Munchkin Meals #1

Posted on July 25 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

Since I’m not the only one who eats in my house, I thought I’d start a new series, titled Munchkin Meals. I got this idea from another of my favorite blogs, A Health Slice of Life, she blogs about all the different Munchkin Meals she serves her daughter, check it out.

Emmett loves eating and on most days will eat anything we give him, it might take him awhile to get to everything, but he’ll try it at least once. I truly believe that we did so much good by having him follow the Baby Led Weaning approach.

For breakfast, Emmett had some toast with sunflower, blueberries and half of a banana.

He has had a banana for almost every breakfast since he’s started eating solid food and he just doesn’t get sick of it. He takes after me, I love, bananas and eat one almost every morning too.

Lunch consisted of, a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich, plums, blueberries and yogurt. I kind of overdid it with this Munchkin Meal, I made way too much. Sometimes I get carried away, trying to be creative and including every possible healthy food item, that I make too much. The beauty is that Emmett just stops eating when he’s full, so even if I make too much he never stuffs himself. I love this since it’s something I struggle with often.

And I have to rave about the jelly on the sandwich, my mother-in-law makes it by hand and it is just so so delicious! This particular one is Strawberry, but we’ve had mixed berry and apricot too and all were equally yummy, plus Emmett loves it.

It looks like someone really enjoyed his lunch, huh?!

For dinner my little munchkin had, salmon, Israeli couscous, blueberries and some garlic naan.

He loved it all! I’m telling you he’s a really fantastic eater.

Now your turn…

What fun meals have you been feeding your Munchkin?

Filed Under: Daily Updates, Family, Food & Fitness, Munchkin Meals

30 Day Vegan Challenge – Week 2

Posted on June 27 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

(This is almost a week late, life has been crazy!)

I’ve made it through the second week of vegan eating!

I’ve definitely had my ups and downs with my menu but overall the transition hasn’t been that difficult. Admittedly, I’ve slipped a couple times and had eggs, dairy and meat, but the large majority of my meals were completely vegan.

My biggest challenge has not been finding vegan foods that I enjoy; the biggest hurdle has been fighting the cravings. I (sadly) love junk food, chips, cookies, fast food, pizza, you name it, it has been part of my diet. Every time I get in my car, I have to fight the desire to stop and fill myself up with that junk. I know that might seem silly to some, you’re thinking, make the decision skip to unhealthy foods and stick to that decision, but for some reason my brain doesn’t work that way. It is a constant struggle.

Israeli couscous, red pepper, raw pistachios, shallots and tofu… pure deliciousness in a bowl

I want to conquer this, which is part of why I started the challenge. I’ve tried a million different methods and still I struggle. I don’t blame those other programs, the problem absolutely lies within me but I can’t seem to conquer my junk food fetish, while still eating it. Because of that I decided that cutting it out completely was the best decision.

Honestly, it has been going pretty well. Within the first week, I lost a ton of weight, my pants were fitting better and my rings were swirling around my finger again. It was likely all water weight, but it felt good to feel more comfortable in my skin. Then mid-way through the second week, the cravings were hitting me hard and I hit a bump and stumbled a bit. I didn’t let it stop me though, I got right back on track and am proud to admit that I am still following the vegan challenge.

I’m considering expanding the challenge a few days, for each of the days that I ate “off plan.” At this point it would an additional 4 days, tacked onto the end. I see no reason not to, so right here and now I am making the decision to continue on after the original 30. The original 30 would have ended on July 9th, but that instead will be expanded to July 13th.

You’re probably wondering how I’ve been feeling, whether I have felt more energy or if my mood has changed. I am more than happy to report that when I follow a vegan diet very strictly, I feel so much more energy. I don’t feel like I’m crashing mid-day or like my blood sugar is going haywire, I feel good! At this point, I don’t know whether that’s because of the vegan diet or just eating healthier, but either way, I am enjoying the additional bursts of energy.

What changes have you made to your diet lately?

Filed Under: 30 Day Vegan Challenge, Food & Recipes

March Goals

Posted on March 4 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

I know many of you read my blog for the baby updates but for those who might be interested I want to start sharing more of my weight loss journey. I’ve shared throughout the months that I struggle with my weight and if you’ve seen pictures of me, you also know the extent to which I struggle. I am so very tired of being fat, tired of feeling sluggish, tired of being anything but my best and this needs to change.

I shared my March goals in yesterday’s post and I’d like to give some background surrounding those goals.

My first goal was:

Get in 16 workouts for the month

I’m setting my goal to 16 because that is 4 workouts per week, which is achievable and manageable. I know I need to be more consistent in my workouts and what a great way to do it! I WILL get to 16 but getting above that number is even better. Annnnd I’m already down to 15 workouts, after Saturday’s run!

My second goal was:

No fast food for the month, allowing for 4 meals eaten out or ordered in for the month.

This one deserves an explanation. As most people who are overweight, I’ve followed one diet after another and my weight has gone up and down (by my own accord) since forever. However, every single time I’d lose weight, whether it was WeightWatchers or just eating healthy, I’d always allow myself to eat whatever I wanted on Fridays after I weighed in. I’m talking going back 7+ years that I’ve been doing this (talk about an ingrained habit) and it needs to stop. This is not a healthy mind set and is not a mind set of a naturally skinny person, so going forward I will not allow myself to eat anything but healthy foods except for 4 meals in the month of March and the 4 meals that I may eat out should be healthy choices. I shouldn’t lose sight of my goals and let loose and have greasy, bad for me foods.

My hope is to break the junk food cycle because I enjoy fast food (aka: McDonald’s) a little too much. I’ve read numerous blogs over the last few weeks, written by folks who cut fast food out of their diets, and they claim they no longer crave that food and find the thought of it disgusting. This is exactly what I want and I am willing to try anything to achieve it!

I don’t care about being skinny, I care about being healthy. The weight should come off naturally but if it doesn’t and I’m eating healthy, clean foods and working out hard, I will accept that I am built to be heavier (this is not likely). So far, 4 days in, I am feeling so much better, more energetic and ready to take on new activities.

My third goal was:

Spend more time doing things that make me feel fulfilled and less time being a lazy lump.

Everybody wants to sit on the couch and do nothing and I will allow this to happen on occasion but I want to use my time more wisely. I’m considering reading the book, “168 Hours: You Have More Time than You Think.” The book dives into how to track your time so that you know how you’re spending the time you have and can then adjust and have better time management. I don’t have terrible time management but I do wonder where my evenings go because one minute I’ll look at the clock and it will be 6pm and the next thing I know it is 10:30. There are so many things I want to do that I am not currently doing, ie: make jewelry, workout, blog and read.

A Pair of Earrings that I Made in the Past

All three of those items are ways that I use to spend my free time prior to baby. Now that my life has leveled off and I have learned how to handle being a mom, working and having free time (though, this is ever-evolving), I need to get back into each activity. I honestly feel like this will be THE hardest goal in March. I need to spend some time trying to figure out how this will look.

Emmett is usually asleep by 8:30 and I usually head to bed by 10 or 10:30, so that leaves me an hour and a half to spend how I please. I do need to share this time with getting my clothes and lunch for the next day ready, so realistically, I have about an hour a night. I’d like to use 3 days making jewelry but I can also spend time doing that on weekends, so maybe my best use of time during the week is to read, blog and workout.

Hmmm… That gives me something to think about.

Thanks for reading and keeping me honest!

Filed Under: All About Me, Food & Fitness