Hi There!!
The winner for the subscribers who lives the farthest from Geneva, Illinois is Karen in SWITZERLAND!!! California, Florida and Carolina’s are close seconds!! Thank you all for your responses!! A HUGE thank you to all of you who took the time to email me and put comments on the new website! WOW…you really know how to make a girl feel good! I was overwhelmed with the response!
Today is December 14th. Do you feel like we have hit the time in the holiday season where we start scrambling to fit in all of the holiday traditions we love?? In last 9 days, I had the Geneva Christmas Walk (SO FUN!), the Geneva History Center Creche Luncheon (again, SO FUN), a Stone Tower Properties Christmas party and then a quick trip to San Diego for the weekend to attend my husband’s work Christmas party! All in addition to Christmas shopping, planning for Christmas at our house this year, attending Chase’s freshman basketball games and oh yes, MY JOB! Fun? ABSOLUTELY! Difficult to find the time to keep up with healthy eating to keep myself on my weight loss plan? ABSOLUTELY! So how are we going to manage this?
First, let’s decide our weight goals for the rest of the year…about 2 weeks. We have three choices:
1.) Lose weight
2.) Maintain the weight we have already lost
3.) Gain weight
No one ever wants to chose #3, but sometimes it’s worth it, so be honest with yourself!! I typically chose option #2, to maintain. Sounds easy, but it’s not a “no brainer” with all of the events, parties and high sugar/fat traditional holiday foods that surround us. This year, I’m in a different place with my weight. I’ve worked so hard since August and I am almost back to my healthy goal weight (which is different from my ultimate goal weight, but hey, I will take it!!) so I am going with option #1.
What needs to happen to maintain our weight or continue to lose weight over the next two weeks? I’ve been living the new WW plan for a few months now, and here is what I have learned: KEEP MY FOOD SIMPLE and focus on how good clean eating feels each day that I do it. This is what I’ve been doing everyday that I don’t have a really special occasion and it is WORKING for weight loss and livability!! We don’t have to be perfect everyday, so don’t throw in the towel all together just because you have some heavier eating days!
Have a look at your calendar and let’s pick our dates. In the next two weeks I have 5 really special days. That leaves 11 days that I can eat as simple and clean as possible. How many really special events to you have? How many free days does that leave you to stay on track?
To make it easy, let’s create a SIMPLE plan to stock our refrigerators with what we need to eat healthy on those clean days.
*Pictured below is the start of my plan for dinners this week.
1.) Lean Protein. We landed from our trip yesterday afternoon and I didn’t feel like grilling in the rain, so I stopped at Fresh Market and picked up already cooked chicken breasts. You could bake up several tilapia fillets, make pulled chicken in the crockpot and/or simply thaw already cooked, frozen shrimp. Whatever you like, just make sure to have plenty of lean protein ready for yourself to eat this week on the “normal” days. Feel free to eat as much as you need to fill you up! Tilapia (and most other fish), chicken and even lean red meat are great options.
2.) Whole Grain. Right now, I am loving whole wheat pasta. Last night, I cooked up a box (6 servings) to use throughout the week. It’s so much easier to stay on track at night when you have a head start on making dinner! The pasta re-heats nicely and it’s extremely versatile….spritz with spray butter and parmesan or add marinara or mix with veggies…I’m sure you are more creative (and a better cook!) than I am, so you can come up with more elaborate ideas that are even tastier! Besides pasta, baked potatoes or sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa are always good options too.
3.) Veggies & Fruit. This time of year, frozen works GREAT! If you haven’t already, try the steamer bags. It’s easy, easy to make perfectly cooked, hot veggies to go with dinner in about 7 minutes in the microwave. Even when veggies don’t sound good, I find that once they are cooked and on my plate, I almost always enjoy them. Don’t you??
I have many more thoughts to share with you, but I have to get ready for work and I am sure that you are busy too! If you care to share any of your ideas or read what others post (hopefully!), just scroll down to the very bottom of this page (you’ll pass the “recent posts” section) and you will see the comment box.
Have a fabulous day, everyone! Let’s enjoy the season to it’s fullest and still stay true to our healthy commitment to ourselves. “It’s not what’s not the table that makes the holidays………….it’s what’s in the chairs” -a great quote from Alice Farrell!
All is well😄
Terra💖
Thanks for visiting my blog! Just FYI…..We are still experiencing technical difficulties with the email function of the site :(( The emails have been going out a day late and they are not in a format that you can post comments. The only way to post comments is to actually click on http://www.terraayres.com. Hopefully this will be corrected very soon and when you receive your emails, they will take you directly to the site I apologize for any inconvenience!!!