The second week of my journey has begun, and I have to say, I am feeling really good! It is amazing how much better my body feels in just 1 week- I never really listened to what my body was telling me prior to this. But then again, maybe I did, and just chose to ignore it. Who knows, but now here I am doing what I need to do, and feeling great about it! Week 1 was a big success, and I was really proud of myself for staying on track. The meal prep I did last Sunday proved to go even better than I expected, so I knew that meal prepping, no matter how hard, would have to be the norm from now on.
For anyone that knows me, you know just how much I LOATHE going to the store for groceries. I don't know if it's the very act of shopping for food that bothers me or the fact that there are WAY too many choices for each item in the store. I mean, why does there have to be 16 different kinds of oatmeal? They're OATS.
Whatever the reason, I hate grocery shopping, but have found myself not minding it so much now. For meal prepping purposes, I have no choice, so I guess it doesn't really matter if I mind it or not- it has to get done.
Last week, I found myself with a huge grocery list since I was literally starting with nothing, but this week, my list was much smaller. I find it is so much easier to plan out my menu- breakfast, 2 snacks a day, lunch, and dinner prior to hitting the store, so that I know what I need and I don't over buy. And since I totally over bought last week, I found myself with lots of extras to work with. :)
It took me about 45 minutes to maneuver through the aisles this time around versus my 2 hour adventure last Sunday, so I was extremely happy about that. I never used to go to the store, so being there last week was sooooo overwhelming and fascinating. I'm weird, I know. ha ha.
Anyway, I made it home within the hour, and I was ready to go. It seemed to go much smoother this week than last- last week was just a mess. Ha ha. Since the meats I bought would take the longest to cook, I started with those first. I chopped up any accompanying vegetables, and threw everything in the oven. While that cooked, I started to chop up lettuce and spinach for my salads, and cucumbers to go with some of my dinners. I cooked oatmeal and packed snacks, as well. I put my label maker, a Christmas gift I had never used before, to good use. I actually had a little too much fun with that label maker- it's the little things. :)
Once all my meats were done cooking, it was time to get organized. I don't have containers for every single thing I make, but I make due with what I have, and improvise the rest. After one day, I am able to replenish some of my containers to use for a meal later in the week.
I get bored with food so easily, so I like to make a variety of things. Last week was mainly chicken and veggies since I was just starting and it seemed like the easiest plan to stick with at the time. This week, I made chicken with veggies, a whole wheat penne pasta w/ chopped zucchini, and some very lean hamburger patties. I tried to really like ground turkey, but some things I refuse to compromise on. I'm stubborn that way, but at least I know that anything I am doing now is so much better than where I was.
Overall, my meal prepping takes several hours from beginning to end. It's not really the cooking because it is as easy as throwing a bunch of stuff in the oven. It's the chopping, organization, and packing things that really takes time and patience. Clean up takes a while too, but I find that washing dishes as I finish one thing makes it less overwhelming.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted but really proud of myself. The best part about meal prepping, is that now I don't have to worry about anything else the rest of the week. I can just pull out my pre-labeled, pre-cooked food and snacks, and know that I won't go hungry or even have to make a decision on what to eat. And most of all, I know that I am on my way to a healthier ME.
