Monday Fitness, Meal Planning and some Paleo eats..

Today was day 1 of the Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Program and I woke up at 5:15am ready to go! Finally mentally and physically back at it. It was a great workout and I hope the rest of the week mirrors today. I added a little cardio and some abs to her day 1 chest and tricep work out.

Here is what Monday’s workout looked like:

Chest & Triceps – 3 sets of 12 reps

• Wide Pushups
• Barbell Bench Press
• Dumbbell Flys
• Narrow Pushups
• Overhead Tricep extensions
• Cable Tricep Pushdowns

Abs – 2 sets of 50 reps

• Vertical Crunch
• Bike Crunch
• Reg Crunches
• 1 set of 50: vertical knee raises

Meal Planning: All the groceries I got for the week for $86!

When you want to eat clean, the #1 thing you need to do to guarantee success is meal planning. I know everyone has there way of doing it, but I thought I’d share mine. I put together what I call a master grocery list, separated out by 3 categories: Fruits/Vegetables, Proteins, and Pantry. I then between looking at blogs for recipes, checking out my saved bookmarks, looking in cookbooks and/or just knowing what I want to make or sounds good I put everything on the list that I’ll want to get. The next step takes a little work. I then check my schedule and see when how often I’ll be able to cook or will need to cook ahead and then plan on what meals I want to make. This week I decided on 3 dinners, plus breakfast. I knew that the 3 dinners planned would produce leftovers that I could eat for lunch the next day. After I figured out what I wanted to cook I looked over the ingredients needed and narrowed down my grocery list for those items. It gets easier the more you do it and the more meals you have on your list of go too. I like to stock up on my pantry ingredients when I have a little extra money that way when I’m meal planning all I’m needing to buy is the vegetables and proteins. Things that I think are must to have in your pantry: coconut oil, coconut milk, olive oil, dried spices, seasonings, chicken broth, larabars and almonds. The best news is that my meal planning actually paid off this week. I had a budget of $100 to spend on groceries for the week and I was able to get everything I needed for $86! Meal Planning does work if you allow enough time for the planning process.

For lunch today, I was running low on everything as I was getting ready to go to the store, but I know better than to go to the grocery store hungry so I grabbed a chicken thigh I was saving for dinner this week and the little bit of broccoli I had left and I ended up making the most delicious quick lunch ever. If you want something quick for lunch or dinner or after a work out I suggest you try my Sautéed Balsamic Chicken and Broccoli.

Balsamic Chicken and Broccoli: Quick Delicious Lunch

Sautéed Balsamic Chicken and Broccoli
1 Chicken Thigh – Cut into bite size pieces
2 garlic cloves – Chopped
1 large broccoli bunch – cut into florets
Garlic Powder
Chile Flake
Salt & Pepper
Sriracha
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what I did: Heat enough olive oil to coat my cast iron skillet, add chicken and cook until starting to turn white, add broccoli, garlic powder, chile flake, salt and pepper and cook until chicken is completely cooked and broccoli is tender. Add a little squeeze of sriracha and a splash of balsamic and stir pan until chicken is well coated in balsamic. Eat up! *note: I do not measure my seasonings ever, just eyeball and add enough to add flavor but not overpower. This meal took about 15 mins all said and done and was delicious!

Spaghetti Squash, Kale, Sausage Casserole: Picture doesn’t do this delicious meal justice.

Tonight for dinner, I decided to try paleoOMG’s Sqaghetti Squash, Sausage and Kale Casserole. It was absolutely delicious! I changed up the seasoning a little. Instead of tarragon, I chose to use thyme and fennel salt. Her recipes are always so good and this one is no different. The picture doesn’t do it justice, the flavors were awesome!