I am not one for New Years Eve resolutions. I make goals to accomplish, but nothing to do with the “New Year, New Me”. Why do I need to wait for a new year to make changes in my life? That just seems silly to me. If I know that I need to make a change to make myself happy, I am not going to wait for a new calendar year to do so.
What I am waiting on a new calendar year to do, is to cut my calories. I am not going to torture myself and attempt to cut calories during the holidays. Not when I am getting dark chocolate peanut clusters from students at school, these crazy corn flake-marshmallow-caramel concoctions, and having a glass of wine or two at night. I am certainly not sitting down eating them all at one time, even though I really want to…but I am also not throwing them in the trash. I am hitting my macros for sure lately and then some.
“Splurging on one meal will not make me fat, just like eating one salad will not make me skinny.”
What makes you gain weight is when you are consistently eating unhealthy and not expending those calories. Calories in vs. calories out is the basic rule of weight loss. It doesn’t really matter where those calories are coming from, as long as they are lower than the amount of calories you are burning. For this reason I am not worried about gaining weight over the holidays. I know that I am expending those calories and don’t need to rush this cut. I am going to enjoy the holidays and the food that comes along with it for right now.
Another reason why I wanted to wait on this cut, is because of Scarlett. She will be ONE in January. I still can’t believe it. I started this blog while I was on maternity leave and now my little girl is fixing to be one. Time really does fly by when you start having children. Life gets more and more busy with every passing year and it just zooms right by. Speaking of liking to eat, our girl can put down some food. You would never guess it looking at her tiny 16 pound self, but she loves food. Since she will be turning one soon, I am going to be weaning her off of breast feeding. I didn’t want to cut my calories before she turned a year old and jeopardize my milk supply. She has really been weaning herself fairly well, since she likes food so much.
To be honest, I am nervous about cutting calories. I really like to eat, contrary to what some people say or think. People actually tell me that I need to feed my family more because my children are too small…rude. I think I am going to post what I eat on a daily basis on my Instagram so they can see how much I actually eat, before I start this cut. Not that it matters what other people say or think, but I certainly don’t want anyone to think that the way to achieve fitness or being thin is by not eating.
Since I will be starting my cut after the first of the year, maybe the third week in January, after Scarlett’s birthday party, I would love for anyone wanting to cut calories or anyone wanting to learn how to track your macros or even learn how to meal prep, to join me. I have thought about maybe meeting weekly or bi-weekly having check-ins, after the initial weigh-in & body fat % check. I am obviously going to keep doing my blog and posting what I will be eating for the week. I don’t post my weekend food, because I try to do as little cooking as possible on the weekends. I am going to post sooner in the week than I do now, so that those of you wanting to try and go by what I am eating, will have enough time to get to the grocery store and meal prep before the week begins.
If you think you would be interested in doing this with me, let me know or let one of the coaches at the gym know!
M • E • N • U
Salmon + Moroccan Oven Roasted Beet Salad
Pork Loin Chops + Broccoli Soup
Grilled Chicken Blueberry Feta Salad
Lemon Pepper Chicken with Garden Vegetables
I have made these a few times, with and without marinading the meat. It does not seem to make a huge difference whether I marinate the steak overnight or for an hour or so. I usually skip the canola oil in the marinade, but everything else stays the same.
If you aren’t into meal prepping yet, do the marinade a day ahead and just cook the meat the night of. You can always roast the vegetables before hand, because those do not need to be crisp when you eat them. I often forget to save some of the marinade for the vegetables, if you get busy and forget to save some it isn’t the end of the world, it will still taste great. If you do forget, don’t throw out any of the juice from the steak after it has been cooked, save it to add to the fajitas.
If you aren’t feeling like a fajita, you can make this into a bowl with jasmine rice.
Salmon + Moroccan Oven Roasted Beet Salad
I have been wanting to try a new beet salad and I just so happen to have a pomegranate on hand that needs to be used and almonds from the simple kale salad last week. This recipe calls for you to roast your beets wrapped in tin foil. I typically do not roast my beets, just because I like the simplicity of washing them off and boiling them until they are tender enough to stick a metal skewer through them.
There is no dressing for this beet salad, so I am afraid you must be a beet lover for this one to appeal to you. You could always pour some red wine vinegar and drizzle some honey over the salad if you aren’t sure about a beet salad, without a dressing.
We wrap the salmon in tin foil while it cooks on the grill. Salmon is by far my favorite fish to eat and likely my favorite meat all together. I can easily eat a pound of salmon in one sitting and not feel bad at all. I never order it when we go out to dinner though. I love how our salmon tastes the best and just can’t ruin that with bad restaurant salmon. We season our salmon with lemon zest, garlic powder, Tony Chachere, pepper, and lemon slices. It is delicious.
Pork Loin Chops + Broccoli Soup
We had this soup a few weeks ago, but I need it again. This soup first came into my life via my sister, who just so happens to be the owner of the blog linked. She made this soup for me when I was on maternity leave with Scarlett. Josh was MIA with Anderson, who caught the flu the day after Scarlett was born. Obviously, Josh did not get to spend much time with us in the hospital after she was born and for almost a week when we got home. Luckily my mom and sister came into town to meet Scarlett and ended up really helping me out with Josh being gone. Sarah sanitized my house and made a mass amount of food for me to have for the week. This soup stuck out and is still one of my favorites. If you are feeling frisky, add your favorite hot sauce and some great toasted bread for dipping!
I don’t make any changes to this soup. The macros on the soup the last time I cooked it were 86 calories, 2.3 grams of protein, 13.4 grams of carbohydrates, and 2.4 grams of fat per serving.
I am sure you get tired of seeing pork chops on the menu…but there are only so many healthy (affordable) lean meats out there. I like to use Tony Chachere on my pork chops. I lightly spray olive oil on both sides of the meat, season them, and bake at 425 until cooked all the way through.
Grilled Chicken Blueberry Feta Salad
I am guilty of scrolling through the sales paper while I make my grocery list. I wish I could just pick whatever looked good on my Instagram or Pinterest page that day, but alas I must shop smart. With that being said, blueberries are on sale and that immediately made me think of this salad. One cup of blueberries only has 17 carbs!
I use non-fat feta when I make this salad and I don’t use any oil in the salad dressing. I also make sure I pick between almonds or avocado when I eat this salad. The dressing per serving, only has 34 calories, 0.4 grams of protein, 6.4 grams of carbs, and 0.9 grams of fat, that is without the olive oil. I don’t find it necessary to use olive oil in my salad dressing. It just adds a lot of unnecessary calories. To count macros on the rest of the salad, I weigh everything out individually and add into to my daily meal.
Lemon Pepper Chicken with Garden Vegetables
I love when I can use one pan for an entire meal. If you have not browsed through this blog, you need to. Now. She has some of the most amazing and tasty food, not to mention her pictures make you want to cook everything she is making.
The only change I will make to this dish is the amount of olive oil that is being used. I have become a big fan of my oil pump spray bottle. I use less than half the amount of oil that I normally would to coat a pan or the food that I am cooking. Less oil equals less useless calories for me.
The macros on this dish the last time I made it, minus the chicken because I like to weigh the meat separately, were 151 calories, 2.2 grams of protein, 16.9 grams of carbohydrates, and 5.3 grams of fat per serving.
Don’t forget the list!
& MERRY CHRISTMAS
