Meal plan 12-26 July

With my mental health taking a fast plummet to the ground with no sign of survivors I am stepping my lifestyle up a gear in hopes that if survivors are found they at least have a chance of recovery.

First things first - what we eat.
We don't eat bad, a lot of our meals are healthy and for the most part clean but we do get take away through the week, or I skip meals that I shouldn't. No more.
Clean, healthy and sugar free (baby steps with that one!)

So lets see the meal plan!

SATURDAY
Breakfast - Fruit & Spinach Smoothies
Lunch - Poached Eggs on Toast
Dinner - Roasted Vegetable Tacos with Cumin Cashew Crema

SUNDAY
Breakfast - Blueberry & Banana Quinoa Muffins
Lunch - Fruit Pizza
Dinner - Ginger & Peanut Chickpea Sliders with Sweet Lime Cashew Cream

MONDAY
Breakfast - Berry Parfait
Lunch - Slowcooker Black Beans & Chicken
Dinner - Mango Cashew Chicken

TUESDAY
Breakfast - Pink Breakfast Smoothie
Lunch - Egg Salad Sandwiches
Dinner - Pumpkin Risotto

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast - Blueberry& Banana Quinoa Muffins
Lunch - Slowcooker Black Beans & Chicken
Dinner - Fish & Sweet Potato Cakes with steamed veggies

THURSDAY
Breakfast - Pink Breakfast Smoothie
Lunch - Poached Eggs on Toast
Dinner - Pork, Apple & Sage Meatballs with sweet potato mash

FRIDAY
Breakfast - Fruit & Spinach Smoothies
Lunch - Slowcooker Black Beans & Chicken
Dinner - Turkey Chilli with Wholegrain Cornbread

SNACKS
Fruit Kebabs
Fruit & Yoghurt
Nuts
Boiled Eggs
Frozen Banana Bites
Peanut Butter Dip with Fruit

Secondly - fitness
Endorphins do amazing things for us as does self esteem, being healthy and feeling great surely has to help in some way.

Morning Yoga
Bootcamp 3 x per week at Ballarat Health Studio - 45 minutes of intense workouts at 6am!
30 day challenges
On Thursday & Fridays I will also be walking/jogging around Wendouree Lake which is 6km and probably work in a weekend walk with the whole family too
Yoga to promote better sleep 

I also need to think of some ideas for when the boys are in daycare and the girls are in school of things to do for ME

Get some pork on your fork!

I have a serious craving for pork! A really serious craving, drooling at the thought of sticky pork ribs or salty pork crackling.
They aren't the healthiest of options though are they?
Since I'm spending $40 a week on bootcamp (when hubby isn't interstate) then I don't want to undo all my hard work by eating crap.

So off to pinterest I go to find some clean pork recipes and share them here and drool over them like I've just seen Channing Tatum in his birthday suit.



This I think will be dinner tomorrow night, mmmmmm looks so good, now I want pineapple too!

Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple

I would tweak this a little, instead of the sour cream I'd use Greek yoghurt as there are no organic options near me, certainly sounds good though!

Almond Crusted Pork Chops with a Creamy Mustard Sauce

It has been ssooooo long since I had meatballs and these sound delish, some go really dry when you cook them but I think the apple in these will keep them nice and moist

Pork Apple & Sage Meatballs

Egg rolls nom nom, I could never say no. These aren't crispy since they're baked not fried but that picture makes them look devine, I'm not sure about the ginger dipping sauce as I'm not a huge ginger fan but a plum or garlic sauce would work well I think.

Pork Mushroom Egg Rolls with Creamy Ginger Sauce

These are just a few of the many recipes that have had me drooling tonight.

Rainbow Chicken Salad

I love food with colour, it makes me feel happy. Colourful food generally means healthy food so even better!

I stumbled upon a recipe earlier in the week for a salad that looked delicious. Healthy, partially raw and pretty.

So tonight I made it

Http://pinchofyum.com/rainbow-chicken-salad-almond-honey-mustard-dressing

I added pumpkin seeds to mine just because I had them here, it was a weird combination but onei couldn't get enough of, the blueberries and the chicken went surprisingly well together.

I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow too :)

This is the kind of thing I want to eat more of, it's great to eat a meal and feel satisfied yet not bloated (at the moment I am confusing that with hunger) 

I finished it off by eating the rest or the orange I used for the dressing. 

Thursday I will have lots to update on as I have a doctors appointment that I've been meaning yo make for over a year.

Broccoli & Leek Soup

BROCOLLI & LEEK SOUP

Here's my recipe. I was going to use one I found online but my terrors hid my phone so I had to make it up. I have to say it turned out quite nice.

2 leeks

1 decent head of broccoli

3 cups chicken stock

1 clove minced garlic

1/2 cup coconut milk (or cows milk/cream or both if no allergies)

Chop leeks and saute with garlic for a few minutes, add the broccoli and saute for a further 3 minutes.

Add your stock and cook until broccoli is soft but not mushy (we don't want mushy!)

Blend with a stick blender or food processor/blender.

Stir in milk.

Serve.

Some nice parmesan bread would be perfect with this. 

It's healthy, allergy safe (for most common allergies) and tastes delicious.

Clean eating meal plan Jan 25th - Feb 8th

I don't really have the energy to write this so please excuse how simple it is.
I've done our meal plan and will hopefully get some recipes and pictures up as we cook this week. Most things I'm making in bulk not only to feed us 6 but to freeze for next weeks meals to save time and money.

Saturday 25th
Breakfast - Peanut butter & apples
Lunch - Fish nuggets & sweet potato fries
Dinner - Kale, pumpkin & potato soup

Sunday 26th
Breakfast - Breakfast parfait
Lunch - Chicken salad sandwich
Dinner - Free meal since we won't be home

Monday 27th

Breakfast - Mango & banana smoothie
Lunch - Chicken salad with apples
Dinner - Sweet potato gnocchi
 

Tuesday 28th
Breakfast - Boiled egg with vegemite toast
Lunch - Banana boats
Dinner - Balsamic steak rolls

Wednesday 29th

Breakfast - Breakfast parfait
Lunch - Turkey, brie & apple sandwich
Dinner - Mushroom & spinach omelette 

Thursday 30th

Breakfast - Berry crumble
Lunch - Egg salad wrap
Dinner - Cashew chicken

Friday 31st

Breakfast - Boiled egg with vegemite toast
Lunch - Salad & hummus wrap
Dinner - Spinach & feta quinoa cakes with a lemon & dill yogurt sauce

The following week will be repeats of these in a different order.

 

Blinded by the spiral

The spiral of self destruction, hate and anger. I hate the lows of bi-polar, I feel like I am suffocating on my own life. My husband hates me, my kids are scared of me, is this the way I planned my life? Far from it, I wanted to be that perfect mum, the one you see on TV, the one who always has her shit together. Instead I never have my shit together.

To make matters a bit more complicated my husband also has mental health issues and is currently on a waiting list to see someone to help him, like me he gets angry. Two people both with mental health issues trying to raise a family, some days I just want to drop my kids of somewhere and walk away, not because I don't love them, the very opposite. I love them so much I don't want them to hurt anymore, don't want them to see the lows, be on the receiving end of the monster that is me. I don't want them to hate me.

When I'm angry, I scare myself, I don't see triggers, I don't see any warning that it's coming, just bang here's the monster. It gives me horrendous stomach aches, headaches, I'm left feeling dizzy, numb and empty. I never used to be like this and I hate that I have become this.

So what is the point you may ask in this post of self pity? The point is I want to change, I want to be happy, I want a stable family, one that doesn't walk on egg shells constantly.

How am I going to do this? I already see a therapist once every two weeks and whilst I feel better there it doesn't change anything when I get back home. I twist everything to be my husbands fault, like my hate against the world is because of him, deep down it's not and I thank him for staying with me when I would've walked away a long time ago. Back on track to this I am in combination with seeing my therapist going to change my life for the better through exercise and healthy eating. I'm actually quite disgusted with how I look, it could be a lot worse but it also can be a lot better. I weigh 57 kilos and that's the heaviest I have been (except during pregnancy), since my c-sections thanks to today's chop happy medical system I've always had a muffin top but not it's bad. I can lift my gut up and drop it back down. Before my twins I've always had a flat stomach, laughed about how I could eat anything and not gain weight, well now all those lollies, chips, fried food, chocolate and soft drinks are all having a big hard laugh at me.

I've always been very self conscious when it comes to my weight, I was 19 had met my husband and just moved in with him after leaving domestic violence, I was under weight, I weighed 43 kilos. My husband helped me start eating properly again (not so much properly it wasn't healthy food but it was food, I ate maybe 3-4 meals a week back then) as soon as I hit around 47 my own mother started saying I needed to exercise and walk more because I was fat.

This "project" for me isn't about weight loss though it's about becoming healthy, mind, body and spirit but I certainly won't complain when my body looks better! 

So what's the plan? Workout 4-5 times a week and eat 5 healthy meals a day (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) by eating these smaller but more regular meals I will feel fuller for longer and not feel the need to snack/binge.

This set of photos is very embarrassing but what is this journey without being able to document progress? Excuse the huge crack in my mirror and one of my twins who can sense a camera anywhere!