Meal Plan!

I have been doing a new fitness routine called ChaLEAN Extreme. It's mostly about lifting free weights in the comfort of your living room.

I'll be honest, it's not my favorite program. I am such a cardio junkie!! But I can definitely tell it is working muscles that I have never worked before! And I am getting stronger for sure. I can now do push ups on my toes as opposed to only on my knees! I can do about 4 regular pushups on my toes now before dropping to my knees. This was a goal of mine from back in April when I first started my new health and fitness Journey and I am so glad that I have met that goal!

The last few weeks I have been feeling my nutrition going down the drain.... I was trying to follow the nutrition guide from ChaLEAN Extreme. But it's basically a calorie counting program, with an emphasis on low fat or low carb at various phases in the program (burn phase, push phase, and lean phase) After doing the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan for so long, I had a hard time going back to calorie counting! So I decided to use my new cookbook Fixate and create a 21 Day Fix meal plan for this week to use with my ChaLEAN Extreme fitness plan!

Here is my meal plan for this week.

One part of this plan that you don't see is my "activities" section on this spreadsheet. One of the things I HAVE to do when meal planning is consult my calendar and see what I have going on during the week. That way I can take into account the days where we are leaving the house early so I won't have time to cook oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast. Or we will be grocery shopping one day which might mean less time available to cook dinner than normal. I have found this to be crucial in my meal planning so that I am more likely to stick to the plan!

Tonight I will be making a new recipe for tomato sauce, out of my Fixate cookbook. I hope to take some pics and share the recipe with you later this week! This tomato sauce is the basis for several of my recipes that I plan to cook this week, and it takes about 90 minutes to make so Sunday is a good day to prep for it! 

A few Crazy Days, and Some Delicious Pancakes!

We have been through quite the whirlwind of events the last few days!

On Sunday, my car was broken into. Well, I don't know if you can say "broken into," because I left it unlocked in my driveway. It was stupid, I know. Totally my fault. But it was still so violating to see that my car door was open the next morning, my bags were emptied and all over the car, and my garage door opener was gone. Boo-urns. Police report filed, and garage door motor unplugged until we can get it reprogrammed.

Then I took my son back-to-school shopping. I thought that would be a nice way for us to bond and get our minds off of the car thing. Yeah, I didn't think about the fact that I would become an emotional wreck as I was buying my son size 6 clothes (when did that happen?!?!) and he's telling me what is cool or uncool, and we are picking out folders and gluesticks and crayons, and looking at backpacks and lunch boxes. My baby is starting full time kindergarten in a month. What the heck???

On Monday, my one year old daughter had a cardiac catheterization scheduled in Seattle. We had to be at the hospital at 6:45am and planned on being there most of the day! She has a PDA (see this link here for a simple explanation) and it needed to be closed up. This was probably one of the scariest times of my life (aside from when my son spent his first 10 days of life in the NICU for the same condition!) and I think in the end we all handled it ok, but my own heart is still not fully recovered! And I think I may have a few extra grey hairs on my head today!

My mom left to go back to her home in Oregon this afternoon, so the kids and I were finally home alone again in the evening, as usual. I decided I felt like making pancakes for dinner. I got this new cookbook the other day and I love it!! It goes along with the 21 Day Fix nutrition guide and it is full of great go-to recipes like tomato sauce, mac and cheese, salad dressings, etc. And they are all made from whole, healthy ingredients with the container amounts listed for each portion.

So here is the recipe for the yummy pancakes I made!

Banana Oat Pancakes (From the cookbook Fixate)

• 1 c. unsweetened almond milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large ripe banana
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 c. old fashioned oats
• dash salt

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Heat 1/2 tsp. coconut oil in a skillet over medium to medium-low heat, pour 1/4 cup batter into skillet per pancake. Cook 2-3 minutes on one side (until bubbles form on edges of pancake) and flip to cook another 1-2 minutes on the other side. 

Makes approx. 8 pancakes. 
Serving size is 2 pancakes.
Container equivalents for 1 serving: 1 yellow, 1/2 purple.

*You can ensure that these are totally gluten free by getting certified gluten free oats and baking powder. 





They were a hit with both of my kids! We like to eat our pancakes with some peanut butter and a little bit of maple syrup. Yum!