Tag Archives: meal planning

BALLS BALLS BALLS

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I got this recipe from doing the 36 Day Challenge at my gym EnVie Woonona and loved it so much I just had to share. This is my replacement for the chocolate or sweet cravings and it really works. I make these in my Thermomix and have worked out the weigh conversions, but you can make them in a bowl or blender. The only investment I had to make was the Protein Powder and I have used it for this and many other recipes now.

I used to think protein balls, protein bars and protein shakes were a bit of a wank and only for the serious body builder types but I was wrong, so wrong. I am sure like all foods they are not all tasty but these are AmazeBALLS.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Protein balls

(40g)1 Tbs Peanut Butter (I make my own in the Thermomix)
30g dried coconut
(12.5g) 1 scoop Chocolate Protein powder
(40g) ½ cup wholegrain rolled oats
(25g) 1 tbs pure honey (I have also used Golden Syrup and I hear Rice Malt Syrup is great too)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl or in Thermomix 4 seconds on spd 7. If the mix is too dry add about 10ml of water and stir again. Divide mixture into 8 and squeeze and mould them into balls in your hand. You can also roll them in a little extra coconut to pretty them up. I keep mine in the freezer and remove a few minutes before you want to eat.

Delicious balls of protein.

Delicious balls of protein.

Makes 8 AmazeBALLS.

Nutritional info per Serve
Calories 69
Carbs 8.6g
Fat 3.6g
Protein 2.2g

Challenge Accepted

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Rewind my life 6 weeks ago and things were very different. I was wrapping my head, once again, around weight loss and ongoing lifestyle changes. My motto was “Everyday Better Choices”.  I somehow got myself into the right headspace, which in my personal opinion is the ONLY thing you need to lose weight. I don’t know where it came from and how it took over the “Evil Food Queen”, but it has so let’s run with it.

My awesome gym EnVie Woonona was running a 36 Day Challenge and a weight loss seminar, in my endeavour to keep my momentum going I opted to participate in the challenge and attended the seminar. Knowledge is power and I came away from the seminar with a new vigour, re-enforcing things I already knew and learning some new key points.

Die fat

These are the things I really truly embraced:

Planning – “Proper Planning Prevents (Piss) Poor Performance” – the extra P word usually gets a run in our house, you may choose to leave that one out.
Meal and snack planning has been a major contributor to my success, it is not for the lazy or unmotivated. I personally found this more challenging than getting my butt to the gym. I have been working out for 7 years WITHOUT consistent weight loss, so exercise is never my problem. Even portions were not a huge problem, but the kitchen scales came out, and almost every morsel that went into my mouth (when possible) was weighed.
My biggest problem has always been snacking, finding healthy snacks to eat when you are on the run. Grocery shopping is hell and cooking is only fun when I want to do it and it’s usually cake. When I stop for fuel regardless of the time of day, filling the car up usually earned me a reward and the evening munchies I could rustle up some horrendous high calorie food with almost nothing in the cupboard (it’s a skill). These were the things I had to change. So my replacement snacks were hummus and carrot sticks, 1 row of rice crackers and a slice of cheese, protein ball/s*, peanut butter  and banana muffins*, vita wheats with light cream cheese and a small tin of salmon, dried fruit and nuts, small bag of lite microwave popcorn (I didn’t even know the small bags existed), apple or strawberries. I know some of these choices are better than others, but compared to what I could have had, it is a complete turnaround.
* These recipes came from the EnVie 36 Day Challenge Booklet

Eliminate – My mission was to get rid of as many things in the house as I could that I would normally “go-to” when I felt the urge to make bad choices. Some people can have a square of chocolate, I am NOT 1 of those people, I am a minimum of a row at a time and could easily consume ½ or whole family block in 1 sitting no problemo. I would sometimes buy a bag of Corn Chips for a nacho dinner, very rarely would they make it to that meal. I also love and Icy cold can of coke and a coke slushy, but they are wasted calories, I will confess I had 2 coke slushy’s in 6 weeks. Alcohol was creeping up to a couple of glasses to a bottle of champagne a few nights a week and often more on the weekend. This has been stopped, now only on special occasions and I have opted to drive to some events so as to only have 1 glass or none at all. This is a big change for me.

Set Goals – Small weekly goals, mini weight goals all leading to the bigger picture. Whilst I haven’t posted my latest goals they are in my head and I will post them this week to be held accountable and measure my success. “Failure is not an option”.

Everyday Better Choices – I enjoy a skim chai latte a couple of times a week and somehow crept up to a Jumbo size, these got a major cutback to a small once or twice a week. Every time I wanted something I shouldn’t have I would think, is this better than I would normally have, ie snacks at the movies, toppings on pizza, homemade pizza vs store bought. I will admit I am enjoying making my own food as I am often disappointed with take-away and café options, it just takes planning (see above).

Mindset – as I mentioned my head is in the game (it is all the game of life), not letting things get to me that would normally derail my mindset and I will confess there have been a few things in this 6 weeks that could have easily done that, I had to deal with my problems and not eat/drink them away. End result is everyone is happier (I think).

Support – I had to ask people for support, don’t be afraid to ask. Hubby had his part to play, if he felt a craving or a desire to have something, I asked that he not share it with me. The words “chocolate” and “McFlurry” were banned from evening conversations. My problem is I am not lazy, I will jump in the car and do a junk-food run at the first mention of “I feel like…….”
Friends on weekends away and dining out have all supported my better choices. Some friends today actually apologised for having easter eggs, cupcakes and biscuits, they shouldn’t have apologise, nor their kids go without because of my food choices. I proudly said “no thanks” because I truly didn’t want any, my fear of not being able to stop at just 1 is always in the back of my mind.
The girls at the gym are a massive support network, all the staff knew I was participating in the challenge and took the time to have a chat about whatever concerns I had about nutrition or exercise. Some of them were even participating in the Challenge themselves so they could discuss recipes and meal planning, it was fantastic.

Today was my final weigh and measure for the challenge and a little bit of “Old Me” came back with thoughts of launching from this fast moving wagon to go on a binge after weigh-in (because I can recover before I have to weigh-in again, please tell me other people think like this). Instead I packed my breakfast and lunch plus snacks for the kids and took it with me to our playdate. A binge is still lingering but with more support from the girls at the gym it is taking a back seat to just carrying on with what I have learnt from the Challenge.

So here are the results:
Start                      Finish                    Loss
Weight                 112.3                     108.3                     4kg
Arm                       40                           39                        1cm
Bust                      121                        118.5                     2.5cm
Waist                    127.5                     124                        3.5cm
Hip                        137                        132.5                    4.5cm
Thigh                     64                          62                         2cm

So 4kg down and 13.5 total cm’s lost, I am pretty happy with the results and the wagon is still rumbling along with me securely aboard.

PS: I’m at pre-baby weight, woop woop.

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Week 4 Challenge Wrap Up

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This week of the Challenge the motto was “Confidence comes from success. Don’t give up”.  My 2 personal goals were in line with this motto, 1) Don’t doubt yourself and 2) Go hard in every training session.

My meal planning and actual food went like this.

Mon – Grilled fish with sweet potato salad
Tue – Beef and vegetable lasagne
Wed – Salmon and sweet potato
Thur – Chicken and bean enchiladas (Actual meal – homemade pumpkin soup)
Fri – Homemade Pizza
Sat – BBQ Calamari Salad (Actual meal – Homemade Pizza.)
Sun – Herb Crusted Lamb

As for my goals I was fairly confident in my meals and planning, I did, however have a couple of bouts of reflux so I didn’t feel like eating much and I struggled to eat 5-6 times a day, hence pumpkin soup instead of my planned meal. I also had to take my little man to the doctor and got myself checked whilst I was there and she diagnosed both of us with a Virus, mine was ear and sinus related and she told me to hold off exercise for a while which was tough considering my 2nd goal this week. I really had to focus on the food and not get myself down and hit the chocolate or junk (not that there is any in the house).

I took 4 days of rest and then tried to go hard with a road run which I haven’t done in about a year. I was aiming to run as much as I could of a 5k circuit, after a bit of a warm up walk I started to run and managed to continue (very slowly) for 32 minutes. My previous best post baby was 14 minutes on the treadmill, so I was pretty happy with my overall progress. I will be back to 5k non-stop running in no time.

I have been busy this weekend with my big girl having a little surgery and my meal planning for this last week of the challenge has been put out a day or 2, I did however order my groceries online and took a trip to the fruit shop and there are still no bad choices in the house. I also have a fairly severe case of OCPC Obsessive Compulsive Portion Control, I am weighing almost everything I put in my mouth. I know I won’t have to do this forever but it is great to give yourself a reality check every few months to get any overeating (even if it is good food) under control.

I’m scared but excited for my final weigh and measure this coming Thursday and I will report back with the results.

I will leave you with these wise words from the EnVie Challenge booklet:

“It’s not what you do now and then that shapes you, it is what you do every day”

Meal Planning – Week 3

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Here is the wrap up of week 3 of my 36 Day Challenge.

This week of the Challenge the motto was “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”.  My 2 personal goals were to make good choices when ordering out and to continue to eat 5-6 meals a day.  So again I did a meal plan for my dinners:

Mon – Beef stroganoff
Tue – Beef Pie with garlic peas
Wed – Chicken and bean enchiladas (Actual meal – went out for Mexican, I had 1 Fajita but then I made the mistake of looking at the dessert menu, hubby and I shared Churros)
Thur – Beef and vegetable lasagne (Actual meal – deli style salad)
Fri – Take away Thai (Actual meal – 2 steamed dumplings, Indonesian style Sate BBQ chicken, garlic and ginger seafood, small portions of each)
Sat – Catered Meal (Actual meal – Beef Massaman curry plus green beans– meal was served with rice and bread and I didn’t have any.)
Sun – Herb Crusted Lamb (Actual meal – platter with ham, rice crackers, hummus, carrot sticks – too tired to cook).

I was away from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon at a Scrapbooking Retreat and my previous self-imposed reputation as queen of the junk food had to be squashed. Normally I would do a shop run for copious amounts of chocolate, chips and soft drink. This time I did a shop run for little tins of salmon, portions of ham and some cream cheese and prepared the night before by making hummus and protein balls.  My weaknesses tend to hit when I’m tired and on these type of weekends we stay up late, so by Saturday I am constantly tired.

Saturday afternoon 12 out of the 30 women got up from their seats and went and did a 1 hour workout session that I had organised from the girls at EnVie Fitness. Definitely felt great after that, but as I got tired into Saturday evening I buckled and had 5 small Maltester chocolates, 2 kiddie size packs of Smith’s Chips and 2 pieces of Coconut slice (evening snack provided by the venue). I felt bad about all of those choices but the deed had been done so as morning came I just had to move on and get back on track. All other meals were provided by the venue and I opted at most meals to avoid high carb options such as wraps, bread rolls and toast and keep a good eye on my portions.

Some of the evidence of what was my little chocolate binge.

Some of the evidence of what was my little chocolate binge.

Overall this week I had no Alcohol, no sugary drinks at all, it was water all the way. My few slip ups of Churros and Saturday nights little binge were disappointing but I must move on.

So food wise I would rate that I was about 75% on track and exercise 100% all 4 sessions planned were done plus the Fit Fab Forty monthly challenge of push-ups were mostly done.

My planning and some shopping has been done for Week 4 and some food is already made and portioned. I will leave you with these wise words from the EnVie Challenge booklet:

“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly”

Meal Planning – Week 2

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So here we are wrapping up week 2 of my 36 Day Challenge. The first week of the Challenge focused on nutrition with the aim to eat 5-6 good meals per day, this week was focusing on exercise but not forgetting about nutrition.

So again I did a meal plan and my friends and Facebook followers were keen for me to post some dinner ideas again. So this week I will give you a rundown on my meal plan plus 1 of my favourite lunch options and a few great snack ideas.

So the meal plan looked like this:
Mon – Balsamic Steak with cannellini mash (Actual meal – yep I did it I ate what I planned)
Tue – BBQ chicken burgers (Actual meal – yep did it again)
Wed – Beef and vegetable lasagne (Actual meal – 3 days in a row boom)
Thur – Beef Pie with garlic peas (Actual meal – leftover lasagne, why cook when you can reheat)
Fri – Homemade Pizza (Actual meal – Homemade Pizza chicken and pesto pizza)
Sat – Healthy Take-away (Actual meal – Homemade Pizza again)
Sun – Beef Strog (won’t be having this tonight as we are going out so will have to make good choices).

Some snack ideas I have run with this week were homemade hommus and carrot sticks, peanut butter flourless muffins and my “always have in my handbag” option of mixed nuts (properly weighed portions of all of these pre-made).

My favourite fast and easy lunch this week, smoked salmon, cream cheese and rocket wrap. Delicious.

My favourite fast and easy lunch this week, smoked salmon, cream cheese and rocket wrap. Delicious.

So again I was pretty happy with my food choices and what I put in my mouth all week, except Friday night Pizza was accompanied by homemade margaritas. I am pleased that even though I have scheduled it in, there has been no take-away for dinners.

So food wise I would rate that I was about 80% on track (damn those margaritas) and exercise 120% all 4 sessions planned were done plus an extra session (as punishment for margaritas) and the Fit Fab Forty monthly push-up challenge is continuing.

Planning is about to commence for Week 3 but needless to say there are lots of good options stocked up in the freezer and fruit and veg shopping has been done.

I will leave you with these wise words from the EnVie Challenge booklet:

“There are so many tomorrows….. DO IT NOW”

PS: I’m a little bit scared for tomorrow’s half way Weigh and Measure I never like the scales.

Meal Planning – this is new to me

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So last Monday I started a 36 Day Challenge with my gym EnVie, encompassing nutrition and exercise. It teaches you what to eat and when to eat it and most important key to success is meal planning.

I have meal planned before but not for a loooong time. My normal routine would be to open the fridge see my ingredients, if nothing popped into my head I would hit up Google and usually find something tasty to make. I may plan 1 day in advance to put something in the Slow cooker the morning before work but that’s about it. I must say hubby is no help in the dinner department, when I ask what he feels like the usual responses are “I don’t know” or “what do you feel like”. And let’s not go there when I ask Miss 4, her responses range from “Old McDonalds” to a “Restaurant”, we don’t eat out that much so I don’t know where that comes from. I am often cooking 2 meals or variations to suit everyone including myself so this week I was attempting to limit the different meals and plan ahead.

So the meal plan looked like this:
Sun – Lamb Rissoles with sweet potato chips (Actual Meal – Lamb rissoles with flatbread, tzaziki and rocket)
Mon – Beef stroganoff with cauliflower puree (Actual Meal – Beef and vegetable lasagne)
Tue – Beef and vegetable lasagne (Actual meal – beef and vegetable Lasagne)
Wed – Chicken Rosemary hotpot (Actual meal – chicken Rosemary hotpot)
Thur – Chicken enchiladas (Actual meal – Lamb cutlets with parmesan herb crust)
Fri – Homemade Pizza (Actual meal – Homemade Pizza chicken and pesto pizza)
Sat – Thai take-away making better choices (Actual meal – Homemade chicken tenders)

I don't often like a full length photo but I felt really good in this outfit and received lots of compliments.

I don’t often like a full length photo but I felt really good in this outfit and received lots of compliments.

So all in all fairly close to the plan and everything except Sat’s dinner out of the 36 Day Challenge Recipe List. Saturday I was allowing myself a non-judgemental day with food and alcohol as I went to the races for a friend’s birthday. In saying that I was better behaved than normal in both departments and opted to come home after the races instead of kicking on with the girls and actually got up to do an 8am Sunday training session.

Variations were minimal for Miss 4, she had mince and homemade corn chips out of flatbread instead of lasagne, her chicken was not in the hotpot and her lamb was not herb crusted.

So food wise I would rate that I was about 80% on track and exercise 100% all 4 sessions planned were done, plus the Fit Fab Forty monthly push-up challenge was about 90% done on the right day.

Planning and shopping list all done for Week 2 so I will leave you with these wise words

“PROPER PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE”