STOP Wasting so much FOOD!

A little part of me dies each time I have to throw away spoiled food. If your fridge is anything like mine, food gets bought and never eaten, cooked and then forgotten about. And it's not just ANY food, it's GOOD food. The more expensive meats, the all-natural and organic varieties, fresh produce and dairy products. Groceries aren't cheap and life isn't either. We need to stop wasting FOOD and MONEY!

While I'm writing this to help all my followers, I'm really creating a "to-do" list for myself. I need to take a dose of my own medicine here! Below is what I plan to do to cut back on wasted food. I hope an idea or two really resonates with you!

1. Make a Shopping List

This seems obvious, right?! But sometimes in the rush that we call "life" it just doesn't get done. My advice? Don't go to the store without one! Another important note on this one. Take INVENTORY before making your list. Open the fridge and pantry and look through everything...You need to know what you NEED and what you DON'T NEED. Don't get to the store and think, "Oh shoot, I can't remember how many eggs we had left!". You'll end up buying more eggs when you had a full dozen already. Put some TIME and THOUGHT behind your list then STICK TO IT!

2. Create a Meal Plan

This is something you would do before step number one of "making a list" if you really wanted to go above and beyond. Although I do provide clean eating meal plans for my customers, it doesn't have to be any sort of official meal plan. Sit down your with spouse or family and ask them what sounds good to eat over the next week. You could even look up a few new recipes first! Pick a meal for each night (working around already planned social events/dinners), choose whether you need additional food for lunch or if you'll be eating leftovers, and then pick a handful of items for snacks. Once you have a set plan, take inventory then make a list of what you will need. This will ensure you have enough food for the week, but not anything unnecessary or more than what you can actually eat.

3. Keep a FOOD LIST on the Fridge

I don't know about your significant other, but Derrick always complains that there is nothing to eat...TWO DAYS after we just went to the store! What I plan to do is keep a list on the fridge of foods that need to be eaten. If you made a meal plan this is basically already done, but if you didn't this could be a good back up plan. When Derrick is grabbing things from the fridge to throw in his lunch, he has a handy-dandy FOOD LIST to remind him of what's in the fridge and ready to eat.

For example, I might put:

Fruit (to be eaten this week) - Bananas and Kiwis
Veggies (for side dishes) - Carrots, asparagus, broccoli, green beans
Snack Items - Yogurt, string cheese, boiled eggs, hummus
Lunch Ideas - Leftovers, deli meat sandwich

4. Don't buy TOO MUCH Fruit

I LOVE fruit and always go overboard when buying it at the store. Realistically I shouldn't be eating fruit for every meal, and that means that I shouldn't buy some of every fruit in the store. Limit yourself to two varieties each week.

5. Freeze your Foods

If you do buy too much, FREEZE your excess. You can freeze a lot more things than you probably think! Here's a quick list:

- Baked Goods
- Baking Supplies
- Dairy
- Fruits
- Veggies
- Whole Meals

Here's a good blog with LOTS of details: http://andreadekker.com/freezable-foods/

My favorite tips here are to peel then freeze your almost-too-ripe bananas, put your loaf of bread into freezer baggies then thaw out only what you need each day (we don't eat bread on a daily basis), chop up lots of veggies, portion them to 2-4 cups a bag and freeze, steam them for a quick side dish to any meal!

And last but not least...

6. STOP EATING OUT! 

Yes, I had to add this in there. If you are spending money at the grocery store, you need to stop spending money by eating out. Don't load up on food then get lazy and head to McDonalds. Your food will go bad and you'll be out twice the amount of money! Eat what you've already paid for, plain and simple.

Sunday Night Meal Prep

Confession: I've totally slacked with meal prepping the last few weeks. After vacation it was very hard to get back into the swing of things! But I'm starting another round of P90X3 tomorrow and I am determined to give it 100%! No last minute trips to Subway to find something "healthy" or eating in the cafeteria at work because I didn't have any food prepped. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm going to be prepared for it!

Our grocery shopping consists of going to two stores, Sam's Club and Price Chopper. Sam's is nice because you can get a lot of stuff for pretty cheap - chicken, fish, frozen veggies, ground turkey, protein bars, and greek yogurt are a few of our stamples. However, with only two people in the house you can't buy everything in bulk! Plus I'm not a huge fan of Sam's produce so we have to make another stop at Price Chopper. Today we got lots of fresh veggies, farm-raised eggs, and PB2.

Having a lot of food in the fridge does NOT mean you are actually prepared for the week. You could "plan" to prepare and cook for 2 hours each night, but a slight change in plans could mean a trip to McDonald's for a quick bite to eat. Please avoid that! You are not setting yourself up for success!

Below is a outline of the prep we did tonight and a good starting point for any beginners!

1. Chicken - We bought about 7 pounds of chicken of Sam's. We opted for the cheaper kind this time and I quickly discovered why it was cheaper! Lots of fat and rib meat left on my chicken boobies! Even though we only cooked half of the chicken tonight, I cleaned all the breasts up and placed each breast in a separate zip-lock baggie (just in case you only need 1 or 2 at a time). Derrick seasoned 4 breasts with Nature's Seasoning (we didn't have any plain garlic salt) and grilled them up! Just enough for dinner tonight and Monday/Tuesday lunches for both us of.

2. We bought a bag of avocados that were already soft and ready to go so I had to use them quick. I decided to make guacamole and an avocado dressing. 

Guac - 5 avocados, 1/2 a red pepper, salt to taste, garlic powder to taste, and a couple squirts of lime juice. We will be using this as more of a dressing or garnish with chicken, instead of a dip for tortilla chips :) Yum! 

Avocado Dressing - I found this recipe on Pinterest. It is AMAZING! I use this stuff on top of grilled chicken, on top of rice (I hate plain rice), in wraps, on salads, almost anything! It doesn't look appetizing in the picture, but trust me it is! 

1 large avocado 

2 teaspoons  lemon juice 

1/2 cup greek yogurt 

1 teaspoon hot sauce 

1/4 extra virgin olive oil 

2 garlic cloves 

3/4 teaspoon salt

Blend together and enjoy! 

3. Broccoli - This one is simple. Buy a big bag of broccoli and boil it. Done!

4. Green Peppers - Some people like the sweeter peppers, but I LOVE green peppers. I bought 4 peppers, rinsed them off, and sliced them up. I'll keep them in a tupperware container to eat raw or to saute with coconut oil for a quick side dish to any meal. 

5. Strawberries - One carton of strawberries rinsed and sliced. I had originally planned to make greek yogurt covered frozen berries (yum!), but my freezer is too full to freeze them. I'll keep them in the fridge for a quick snack or to top a spinach salad.

6. The final product - I'm able to come home for lunch each day, but Derrick cannot and must pack his lunch. I made up these to-go containers with chicken, white rice, and broccoli. I'll put some gauc in a smaller container and he's ready to go!

That was my meal prepping for the week! Between prepping for the week, prepping dinner for tonight, and actually eating dinner, it took us about two hours total. Two hours to set yourself up for success the rest of the week? Totally worth it! If you have specific questions or want additional meal prep ideas, please reach out to me! I'm happy to share more.

Have a great week!

My Journey - From the start

Hooray! I finally got my blog up and running. This had been on my to-do list for several weeks and I just didn't know where to start, but after several viruses (from trying to download free templates), a nap, and a couple hours of playing around with designs, I finally got something that looks cute!

So my first post - it should obviously be about ME and MY fitness journey... That's why you're here right? I'll eventually get this in video form but here it is for now :)

Let's start in 2006. I found this picture of me (on the left) from a cruise we took at the beginning of that year. I was TINY! I even had visible abs for goodness sake. I danced in high school which kept me active but being skinny was just natural for me. I could eat anything I wanted, not exercise (outside of dancing), and I was skinny. Not too skinny, but just right. When people say, "yeah I wish I could get my high school body back", this is what I think of!

Fast forward a few months and that body didn't last for long. The summer of 2006 I started drinking and partying, but what really took a toll on my body was birth control pills. My butt grew, my hips widened, and my abs were no more. Was I fat? No, not at all. But my "extra curricular activities" definitely took a toll on my little body. I don't have any pictures of 2007 when we went to Hawaii, but I remember feeling huge. My self-esteem was not great on that trip. 

2008 Senior Trip - I had a lost a few pounds since I gave up drinking that year. Feeling back to normal and had a blast on a cruise with my girls Hannah and Brittany. 

Then came college. Mom refers to my first semester as the "party semester", and it was. Lot's of going out, road trips to Oklahoma, college cafeteria food, and the "Freshman 10" (for me, anyways). I remember eating sugary cereal for almost every meal and getting ice cream at least once a day. Once again, another toll on my body. The pictures below were taken on Spring Break 2009 (I really like cruises, can you tell?!) I remember feeling extremely self-conscious about my stomach this trip. Did it stop me from drinking and eating more ice cream? Of course not! Ugh I just cringe looking at these. 

Moving on...From 2009 to 2012 I hung out with a certain group of people. These people went out on Friday night, went out on Saturday night, and usually had a Sunday Funday as well. Lots of drinking, lots of eating out, and lots of unhealthy-ness. This was also a period of time where my work/school schedule was hectic. I would go to class in the morning and finish by 10:30am, but wouldn't have to be at work until 12:30 or 1:00pm. Almost every single day I would drive to McDonalds, eat a sausage McMuffin, drink a caramel frappe, and take a nap in my car. Not only was I eating terribly, but I would be so fatigued that I couldn't make it through the day without a nap! Then I would go to work at Bank of America where I would drink at least one can of Coke and eat donuts. I'm sure my body hated me these years! But honestly, it didn't take as big a toll on the outside as it probably did on the inside.

Time for another cruise picture...January 2012. How is my body? Outside...not bad. Inside...still feeding it crap and ingesting tons of alcohol (as you can see, I'm double-fisting strawberry margaritas).

Spring of 2012 I graduated college. Before, I had worked at a bank and was on my feet all day, now I was sitting all day at a desk job, had stopped dancing, and was getting absolutely no physical activity whatsoever. Throughout 2013 I would eat fast food at least 4 times a week. Lot of frozen pizzas, pizza rolls, frozen Stouffer's meals, and frozen burritos caked in sour cream as well. SO UNHEALTHY! A busy work life and a lazy home life - that was just life. 

FINALLY! January 2014 rolls around. I make a New Year's Resolution to take care of myself, physically, financially, and mentally. I was going to get in shape, start eating healthier, take better care of my teeth and get them fixed, find some hobbies, and get serious about saving money. Great plan, I know, but I had NO idea where to start with any of it! I hated going to gym because I would have no idea what to do when I got there. I had tons of workouts pinned on Pinterest but can anyone really get motivated to do those? I was struggling. Then, along came Raina! Raina was the wife of the older brother of a kid I went to middle school with....I didn't know her, but I knew that she was FIT and posted about it on Facebook constantly. I has seen her posts for several months but finally decided to reach out to her and ask about Shakeology. I ordered some samples, found what I liked, and eventually committed to her "New YOU Resolution" Challenge Group. I paid $180 for Shakeology and P90X3. Yes, that $180 changed my life. 

I rocked that 30 day challenge group and got these results: 

I had lost 1 inch around my waist, 2 inches around my hips, and 1 inch around each thigh. HALLELUJAH! I had finally found a program that I could stick with. There wasn't any question about what I was going to eat that day or what workout I was going to do. It was all laid out for me and I absolutely rocked it. Beachbody became a huge part of my life at this point...After the 30 days I decided to become a coach. I loved the products, I loved the way I was feeling, and I loved the group support I received in the challenge group. I knew I wanted to continue on with this lifestyle and I knew I wanted to help others achieve their goals as well. And remember that resolution about saving money? Yeah, I could knock that out too with this opportunity. I was just SO excited to get started. Through coach training I continued to rock Phase Two of P90X3 and got even better results.

Shakeology every day, clean eating, and P90X3. $180 investment and I had my body back! Once again, I kept on going...

I never calculated my body fat, but I know I lost a good percentage. 7 pounds down and tons of muscle gained. I actually have biceps now! It's fun to have muscle. It's fun to do things with your body that you never thought possible (like effortlessly lifting a 45 pound weight up to your chest to put it on the bar, and then proceed to squat with it). But for me it's more than just how my body LOOKS...it's how I FEEL. I wake up every morning refreshed. I have enough energy to last throughout the day and evening. I'm in the habit of eating clean foods and actually crave my Shakeology each day. I actually WANT to workout and feel lazy if I sit on the coach for too long. This has become part of my lifestyle and it's here to stay!! I am doing a second round of P90X3 combined with additional weights at the gym starting next Monday. I'm already in the best shape of my life, but I can't wait to see my next "after" picture. It's going to be good :)