Menu Plan Monday 5/7/12 A New Beginning

Out of Time Mom ♦ May 7, 2012 ♦ 2 Comments

I subtitled this A New Beginning because I am embarking on a new career journey today, and also a new path for eating. Out of Time Dad continues his remarkable dieting success, though we don’t have the exact amount lost until he goes to his doctor, we do know that he’s lost well over 60 lbs. since the end of January. I knew that the time would come that I had to jump on board with losing weight, but it didn’t seem the right time. I just wasn’t ready. I’m ready now.

Here’s a few reasons why my time is now. I bought new clothes for my new job, and had to face the fact that I needed a larger size. My usual size bra is too snug and my fat is squishing around the edges. I don’t have any full length mirrors in my house, but when I went to visit my mom, I took a serious look. It was not pretty by any means. The final reason is the new job. With the new job, I will be working mostly alone in my office or out in the field. There won’t be the opportunity to be convinced by well meaning coworkers to splurge or ignore the lunch I packed and join in on a take out lunch. I will miss my coworkers terribly, but I won’t miss how easily I was swayed to pick up meat and cheese subs or chinese food that I always regretted eating immediately after.

Out of Time Dad thinks this is a bad time to start this. I am an emotional eater, and the stress of a new job will be hard for me. I feel like I can’t not do it now. I need to set the pattern right off, that I will be in control of my eating at home and at work. He also worries when I go off on a diet, because it ends up costing us a fortune in all new groceries. I concede his point. It is very expensive to eat healthy, unless you eat just fruit, bananas, yogurt, and protein powder smoothies like he’s done. (I buy about 12lbs of bananas a week. BJs must think I’m hiding a gorilla at my house!) It’s also very expensive to have frequent trips to the doctor, have painful knee joints and back pain, and eat out meal after meal. So I’m going to change my diet, and still try to be mindful of the costs.

Out of Time Teen reminded me a few years ago that we’d had a lot of success with the diet that I’d found on glamour.com. Exactly What to Eat to Lose Weight. I had copied it and saved it on my computer, and even printed out index cards to use as a guide.  I was missing a couple of days so I went back to the website, and it looks like they have updated it this year. I immediately jumped on board for the new diet. I went to the store, spent a ton of money, but I have everything I need for the first week of the diet. However, I don’t have the menu for every day. They dole it out one day at a time. I signed up on Friday, so I only have 4 days worth of the menu, but as I followed the shopping list, I have all the items to make the full weeks meals  (Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) with some substitutions for expensive items and will repeat eating some of the fruits as I couldn’t bear to pay for foods that I couldn’t get on sale or the meats that are more expensive. I’m flexible enough to improvise. I actually started the menu plan on Saturday. So I’m starting my menu from Saturday, and will add to it as I find out what’s in store for the week ahead. I will be posting my improvisations from the glamour menu.

So without further adieu, here is my weekly menu plan.

Special thanks to Laura at Orgjunkie.com for providing this link up. You can find more meal plans here.