Menu Plan Monday: Weight Loss Happy

How is this Vegan thing going? Great! I’ve been having oatmeal or cereal with almond milk for breakfast. Healthy snacks of carrots & hummus, grapes, popcorn or soy yogurt. Lunches and dinners consists of baked potatoes with lemon pepper & broccoli, salads & soup, Indian food & brown rice, black bean tacos… It’s all good.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been on automatic pilot, at work, with putting milk in my oatmeal and then saying, “Doh!” But, I am not going to beat myself up over it. Eating Vegan is change that takes time. However, I have replaced the milk at home with Almond Milk and the family loves it! Works great in all my cooking, too. Small changes to make a healthy difference.

Want to know what else?

Well, if you don’t I am going to tell you anyways. I’ve lost 4.5 pounds this week! And yes, my meals filled me, I didn’t go hungry, and I feel great! So, I am not giving up this Vegan Kickstart anytime soon.

Financially, my vegan meals don’t costs us anymore than normal. I buy more produce and canned beans. Doesn’t cost me so much, so far.

This week’s meal plan

• Sunday: Ultimate Veggie Burger, mashed cauliflower, and a green salad. Dessert: Raw Cacao Walnut Fudge
• Monday: BBQ Veggie Skewers, leftover mashed cauliflower, and tomato-basil soup
• Tuesday: Easy Vegetarian Tacos w/ Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw with Vegan Sour Cream
• Wednesday: Eggplant Parmesan, mashed potatoes, and mixed greens salad w/ Balsamic Vinegarette
• Thursday: Teriyaki glazed salmon (non vegan night), brown rice, and broccoli
• Friday: Eat out
• Saturday: St. Patty’s Day/Surprise B-day Party

I know many of the recipes call for eggs, cheese or milk. But I use Earth balance for butter, omit the eggs (with no problems), use Almond Milk… there are ways around it.

To find more great menu plans, visit Orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday: 21-Day Vegan Kickstart!

This week is the start of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. I am looking forward to it! I plan on following the menus guidelines but with some revisions, as to stay in sync with my family’s meals.

Why am I doing this?

Well, some of your hear me tweet that I want to start a Veggie Business. It partly has to do with this idea (will expand on it more later). Next it is to explore aspects of better health. Then, because I love my fruits and veggies. This type of diet is perfect for me. Finally, I want to see if doing a vegan diet full-time with a family of carnivores is possible; sort of a research project for me.

This Week’s Menu Plan

Breakfast(s): Muesli, Granola, Oatmeal, and Mango-Strawberry Smoothies
Lunches: Hummus & Veggie Pita Sandwich, Brown rice w/ Tadka Dal, Salad & Veggie Soup(2).
Dinner:

• Sunday: Baked Potato topped Veggies & Lemon Pepper. Side of vegan chili
• Monday: Crockpot Cauliflower Curry (I didn’t get to make this last week. Omitting Chicken and adding Cauliflower), brown rice, and Boondi raita
• Tuesday: Black bean tacos and Carrot & Red Pepper Soup
• Wednesday: Pasta with a simple vegetable marinara and a mixed greens salad
• Thursday: Ultimate Veggie Burger, Mashed Cauliflower with roasted garlic, Veggies
• Friday: Out to Eat. This will be interesting to see what I order

This week’s weight loss: *tisk* 1 pound

I guess it’s good I am still on the losing side. No, I did not get exercise in to the days. Which is my culprit for not shedding more.

What’s on Your Menu?

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Rise of the Women Breadwinners

Gone are the days of the woman having dinner on the table, the evening drink ready for their man, the house cleaned and children raised in the home.

Women are becoming equal breadwinners with their male counterparts. The figures show that close to 40% of women are the breadwinners in supporting the family.

To think, women were only 7 percent of primary breadwinners in 1970!

Excerpt from Heather Boushey’s article called, The New Breadwinners:

Clearly, the days of Ozzie and Harriet are long gone. Within married-couple families, the typical working wife now brings home 42.2 percent of her family’s earnings.14 And women increasingly are the primary breadwinners. In 2008, nearly 4 in 10 mothers (39.3 percent) were the primary breadwinner in their family—either because they were a single, working parent or because they earned as much as or more than their spouse. An additional quarter (24.0 percent) of mothers are co-breadwinners—that is, a working wife bringing home at least 25 percent of her family’s total earnings (see Figure 2 and Table 1). 15

 

Gender Roles

But one thing hasn’t moved forward as quickly, the traditional gender roles. Household chores and childrearing activities still primarily are held with the woman. The balance of labor just isn’t divided equally, and a woman comes home from a long day of work and still has to do the chores. In fact, about 2/3rds of the household work remains with the woman in the role.

Do you think there can be a happy medium to be met with one’s partner in taking on some of the household responsibilities?

I see three options:

Communicate with your partner. Ask for help in taking on the household work. Could your partner help you cook some of the meals, take on some of the laundry, drive the kids to sport practice or vacuum? My husband comes home before me to start dinner. During the weekends we alternate who does the laundry. At times, he even helps me to make the kid’s lunches.

Outsource household work. You did read this guest post by Erica Douglass on Outsourcing, right? I am seriously considering hiring someone to deep clean the house twice a month just so I have time to spend with my family. Maybe even hire someone to make my children’s school lunches for me (don’t like to give them money for school lunches – bleck!). Hire a tutor to help the kids with their school work. Pay for services that will allow me to focus on the more time with individual family members and/or free up a bit of personal time.

Become a Stay-at-home parent. My husband and I once calculated the money saved if one of us stayed home. You reduce the childcare costs ($400 month), commuting charges, auto maintenance fees, etc… It is rather tempting to say, “I QUIT”, to my boss. But what is holding one of us to continue working, the two-income household still brings in more money to pay down our debts. Once our debt ratio is far down, we are going to revisit this last option for one of us to stay home. But one needs to consider if you can handle placing the financial responsibility to your partner.

My question to you: How would you resolve the stress issue? Are you a woman living as the breadwinner? Or a man supporting his breadwinner wife? What works for your family? What doesn’t work?

Menu Plan Monday: Week of Slow Cooking

Why is it men don’t eat for a day they lose 5 pounds? Women don’t eat for a week and only lose 1 pound. LOL. Yup, that is my first week total.

1 week = 1 pound

I think you’re right, peeps, going to need to implement the exercise factor. I am going to add in 2 days of walking 1.5 miles and 1 day of serious stair climing – 12 flights of stairs! Well, the first two tries on those stairs, I may not make that climb. But after the 3rd time it should be no prob. I am expecting some serious gluteal maximus pain, but it will result in extra nice form in a pair of jeans.

This week: Now that my husband has been working overtime and I get home late, it has proved extra hard to get a homecooked dinner on the table (want to eat at 7-8pm?). I have decided to implement a week of slowcooking. Put the ingredients in the crockpot during morning and wha la!, a delicious dinner at night.

Here is this week’s meal plan with delicious recipes from A Year of Slowcooking (they really are delicious):

• Monday: Teriyaki Beef Kabobs (daughter’s request), brown rice, grilled tomatoes, and a small mixed green salad
• Tuesday: Chicken Enchilada Chili and mixed green salad with chipolte yogurt dressing
• Wednesday: Cabbage Rolls and mashed potatoes (I am making vegetarian cabbage rolls filled with rice)
• Thursday: I wanted this Indian Curry recipe, but since it is high in fat we are going to skip it this week. Instead, we will have this Indian Chicken Recipe with basmati rice and Chapati (Indian flatbread)
• Friday: Can’t pass this one up. Looks so tasty! Baked Sinach and Cheese Noodles with a mixed greens salad. Not diet food, peeps! But that is where portion control comes in.
• Saturday: I have some salmon to use up. Along with the remaining spinach. So, I will be making the Lemon and Dill Salmon with Spinach. Can’t decide on a side. Hmmm…. Need to give it some thought.

Well, I am off to start week 2 of my portion controlled, exercise happy, kick off the weight week!

To find more great menu plans, visit Orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday – I am going on a diet!

Much like holding one’s self accountable for the budget, the weight also follows the same. Since October, status quo in my life has slowly been changing. Mixed with the holidays… well, I compensated it all with eating.

The problem is (and I don’t know if all women have this), I surpassed or hold borderline to the weight I told myself would never happen. Normally, I can fall back into routine and go back to the intended weight. Not this time and I am having difficulties getting myself to return.

I am going on a Diet

So, I feel it was time to share this information with you. Because I need to start holding myself accountable for my weight in order to lose it and maintain. I need to feel healthy again for me, my family, my husband, and my health.

I need to lose approximately 13 pounds. My plans are put myself on a 1200-1400 caloric diet (This number was figured using Lean Cuisine’s Keeping on Track Tools). The calories are not as low as you think, because I seldom have time for exercise.

How I figured my Diet Menu Plan

Here are my personal guidelines on how I intend to lose weight with my meal plan. *Keep it Simple*

1. Eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day – I enjoy eating small portions throughout the day as it aids in digestion better.
2. Limit carbs – watch the bread and pasta intake.
3. Fiber & Fruit – increase the legumes, whole wheat, and fruit intake to aid in digestion and health
4. Break up calories per meal – I can have approximately 300-350 calories for breakfast, lunch, and dinner mixed with 100 – 125 calorie snacks. Or if I eat a bigger lunch meal then dinner will be lower.
5. Use common sense – If your options are a crossaint or a bowl of granola with milk – its easy to figure out the granola is better for me.

At the start, I like to write down what I have eaten through the day. Then as time moves on with a routine of sorts, I can safely eat with confidence.

My Meal Plan

Breakfast(s): Oatmeal, piece of wheat toast, and a banana; Meusli with almond milk (lots of good stuff in this!); fresh fruit, yogurt, and a piece of wheat toast; green smoothie.

Lunches: I bought Lean Cuisine 300-350 lunch meals. They were on sale for $1.99 + a free coupon for a 6 pack of Skinny Cow Ice cream sandwiches.

Snacks: Hummus and veggies, trail mix, fruit and crackers.

Dinners:

• Sunday: Happy Valentine’s Day! Diet starting tomorrow. We are heading to Bucca di Beppos and off to see Valentine’s Day at the movie theater.
• Monday: Tuna salad with mixed greens and a bowl of tomato soup with sourdough croutons.
• Tuesday: Small portion of Mac and Cheese with (you guessed it) a mixed greens salad.
• Wednesday: 3 bean vegetarian chili, cornbread, and mixed greens salad.
• Thursday: Salmon, brown rice, and steamed broccoli.
• Friday: Eat out sensibly.

Ladies, have a wonderful Valentine’s day! For more Menu Plan Monday, check out Orgjunkie.com. Oh ya, I will keep you updated on my progress.

 

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