My Nutrition Upgrade: Week 4

Last week was the last week of the My Nutrition Upgrade program I’ve participated in.

Upgrade #7 was all about choosing a prep day. This is something that you guys know I consistently do already with Sunday Food Prep. The program recommends following these 7 steps when it comes to prep day:

1. Choose a consistent day to be your prep day.
2. Choose your meals/recipes for the week.
3. Create a shopping list.
4. Grocery shop.
5. Don’t put the groceries away… start prepping food! Clean/cut/chop veggies, clean/cut fruits, cook/bake/grill meats/fishes/poultry ahead of time, prepare whole grains, make soups/casseroles, basically prepare anything you can ahead of time.
6. Portion out meals and snacks into containers and bags
7. Enjoy a stress free week of healthy meals!

We’ve got this down pat in our house. This process is incorporated into every single weekend. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it is such.a.time.saver! It takes a lot upfront, but the time and hassle it saves me during the rest of my busy week is SO worth it for my sanity.

Upgrade #8 was a discussion on the difference between a lapse and a relapse. This is a concept I learned about while studying for my personal trainer exam, and I can’t emphasize enough to you guys. A lapse is NOT a relapse. It is just a momentary return to old habits. For example, if you have a bad day and turn to cookies out of emotional eating. It’s just when lapses go unrecognized or ignored, that a relapse could happen. Relapsing is when you have a TOTAL return to your old ways of thinking and behaving, not just one slip up. I think it’s important to differentiate between the two and keep that in mind if you are being hard on yourself.

That brings me to the end of the 4 week My Nutrition Upgrade program. If you missed my first recaps, please check them out at these links: Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3. If interested in participating in future rounds, please be in touch. I’m sure I’ll have some more information to share down the line!

—

Weekly Eats

Last week wasn’t the most exciting food week. Tim was traveling, so I didn’t have as much help in the kitchen as I normally do. I also wasn’t as good about snapping food pictures as I normally am. So here’s a smattering for you:

My company gave out free fruit for National Healthy Eating Day last Wednesday. Did your companies do anything?

Here are some breakfasts. My cottage cheese usual, followed by Ezekial bread toast with peanut butter, sliced banana, and chia seeds.

Here’s some leftover veggie and polenta soup that I ate for several dinners.

Many of my lunches consisted of salad greens with tuna, chickpeas, tomato, and avocado.

 

And finally, a veggie plate. Because I think they’re pretty.

That’s it! Next week will hopefully be more exciting.

Did you take part in My Nutrition Upgrade? What did you think? Do you have a prep day? Do you beat yourself up over lapses or do you recognize that they aren’t the same as a complete relapse? Was last week an exciting food week for you?

Health fair day today! Wish me luck!

Disclaimer / Disclosure:  I was not paid to write this post, but I was provided a free registration in the My Nutrition Upgrade program in exchange for writing a review and sharing my experiences with my readers.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Weekly Eats and Patriotic Treats

Rhyming title… super cool.

Weekly Eats

Last week was a short week to meal plan for, since we only needed a few dinners and lunches before heading away for our weekend plans.

On Sunday night, we made six grilled chicken and plum salads to get us through our lunches until Wednesday.  And we didn’t use just any plums, we used grilled plums!  Grilling the plums brought out extra sweetness in the fruit, which we thought paired well with the greens we used.  I think next time we grill our plums, we’d use an even more bitter green as a base.

And here’s the lineup of how our dinners turned out:

Sunday
Grilled shrimp and veggie skewers, with a side caprese salad

Monday
Grilled eggplant and chickpea salad, a nice blast from the past.

Tuesday
Grilled salmon, with sautéed Swiss chard and grilled garlic scapes on the side

Wednesday
A random throw together taco night before heading down to the Cape… leftover salmon pieces, black beans, red onion, pineapple chunks, and bok choy.

For the 4th of July, we had plenty of food!  Here are some highlights from Thursday and Friday.

Patriotic Treats

Fun breakfast… plain Chobani yogurt with sliced strawberries, Uncle Dan’s quiche, a blueberry muffin, and some sliced cantaloupe.

The red, white, and blue salsa that we brought for an appetizer…

An assortment of awesomeness for our BBQ dinner…

I also made a red, white, and blue trifle for dessert.

Another highlight were the steamers enjoyed by the marina at The Summer Shanty, my favorite Cape Cod bar.

Other food from the included various munchies, brownies, sandwiches at the beach, and lots of adult beverages.

Last week I encouraged readers to share their own patriotic treats with me via social media, and I did have a few people send things in.  I figured this would be a good place to share.

–> Kaylin @kaylinberube sent in this amazing looking watermelon fresca cocktail via Instagram.  This is a Tone It Up Girls concoction!

–> On Twitter, Mary @marykcurran sent in a picture of a festive dip her friend made for the 4th of July party they had.  I bet this was delicious (minus the olives for me!).

–> Amber @amberwilliams76 also sent in a yummy picture on Instagram.  She said her friend baked these beautiful cupcakes!  So colorful!

And finally, Liz texted me a picture of her white chocolate covered strawberries.  She says they didn’t come out right, but I bet they still tasted so yummy.

Thanks for sending pics of your treats, ladies!  So fun!

Finally, the last meal and treats I want to share with you today are from Jen‘s wedding.  First, lunch from the restaurant at the hotel:

Second, my dinner plate at the wedding:

And last, hands down my favorite (of many) splurges from the week:

Un-frickin-believable cupcakes.  So good.

Have you ever grilled plums before?  What was the best thing you ate last week?  Anyone else make any patriotic treats they’d like to share?  Favorite splurge?

This week’s meal plan is off to a good start.  We were able to do a lot of Sunday food prep yesterday.  Coming up this week for lunches include grilled beet salads, farro and veggie salads, and avocado egg wraps.  And for dinners, pesto chicken skewers and veggie burgers.

…I just love food so much!

Weekly Eats

More Monday motivation!  I have a ton of summer-ish meals to share with you this week.  Enjoy!

Last Week’s Eats

Breakfasts

A couple that stand out from the norm…

Green smoothies.  I bought a TON of kale, so I’ve experimented with a few different green smoothie recipes.  A few of you guys sent me over your favorite green smoothie recipes last week, and I can’t wait to try them.  Especially the ones with more protein.  Thank you!

(don’t worry, at a red light)

Pancakes on Friday!  After my Studio Empower workout, I came home craving pancakes.  I made a bunch of these whole wheat chia seed pancakes.  Craving curbed.

Lunches

At the beginning of the week, we gobbled up leftover multi-grain pasta salad that Tim made for our picnic in Rockport.  Besides the pasta, this dish included grilled corn, grilled zucchini, a grilled yellow pepper, a grilled orange pepper, some tomatoes, red onion, olive oil, basil, s&p, balsamic, and Parmesan cheese.  Perfect summer salad if you ask me!

At the end of the week, we enjoyed kale salads with grilled chicken, sliced strawberries, almonds, and feta.  Also another solid summer salad.

Dinners

Last Sunday we ate more leftovers from the picnic.  This time we polished off the sandwiches!  Grilled chicken, brie, and apple with a honey mustard balsamic reduction sauce.  Fancy shmancy.

Monday night was a grill night.  We made teriyaki shrimp and pineapple skewers, with a side of whole grains.  Grilled pineapple is so tasty!  Also on the skewers were red onion and yellow/orange peppers.  We had these for leftovers on Tuesday as well.

Next up were the tacos.  We made a mix of ground chicken, garlic, yellow onion, and green peppers.  Topped it off with some plain Chobani yogurt acting as sour cream, mozzarella cheese, and sliced avocado.  These were good, but spicy!  I could actually handle it?!

We wrapped up the week with our tried and true zucchini boats.  Love, love, love these.  I had these for dinner on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday we didn’t feel like cooking, so we grabbed dinner nearby at The Stockyard.  We got an awesome grilled flatbread appetizer (that I didn’t take a picture of), but my steak tip salad was disappointing.  I could have put together a better salad myself.  Oh well, can’t like them all!

Treats

Last week I also managed to sneak in a bit of baking.

On Wednesday I tried the brownie recipe that Lindsay posted on her blog recently.  You guys.  You HAVE to try these.  No butter.  No added sugar.  No oil.  No flour.  And I honestly couldn’t tell the difference.  Neither could Tim or my co-workers whom I tricked the next day.  Sweet potatoes for the win!

The other treat I made were some flourless peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, which I brought along with me to The Paint Bar with the gym girls on Friday night.  I forget where I got this recipe, but I thought these came out lovely as well (if I do say so myself).  This time, oats for the win!

Was a pretty successful food week, if you ask me!

This Week’s Eats

Here’s the meal plan this week:

Lunches

No designated days:

• Very colorful quinoa salad
• Kale salad with barley and berries
• Grilled chicken sandwiches with pesto

Dinners

• Sunday:  Chicken pesto burgers with corn on the cob and side arugula salads
• Monday:  Leftover chicken pesto burgers with leftover zucchini boats on the side
• Tuesday:  Cilantro lime shrimp lettuce wraps
• Wednesday:  Eggplant parm
• Thursday:  Leftover eggplant parm
• Friday:  Roasted peppercorn pasta salad
• Saturday:  TBD or out!

Here’s a pic of the meal prep I did on Sunday night:

Nothing better than feeling ready and in control of my week.

I’m looking for some new food ideas, especially for lunch!  What are your favorite things to pack for lunch at work?