It's All in the Planning

Nervous.  Overwhelmed.  Intimidated. 

I am so looking forward to getting healthy.  When I walk into a gym, I know where to start.  I was actually blessed to have a best friend who is a personal trainer.  While we have lived several hundreds of miles apart for years, she is amazing at passing on tricks and tips and ideas whenever I ask for her help.  I would ENCOURAGE anyone who can to invest in a personal trainer, they are invaluable, but I have learned quite a bit from her that I am fairly familiar with a gym of any size and what to do in it.  I know cardio.  Oh Lord, have mercy do I know cardio.  After training for a few 5K's, a 13K and a half-marathon, the treadmill and I have a love/hate relationship.

I was told once that getting into shape is 3 components.  Cardio, strength training and diet; cardio making up 20% of that ratio with diet and strength training splitting an even 40% and 40%.  I think that's probably true.  So if I am comfortable with cardio and strength, all I have left is what I put in my body to fuel it.  This is where I am overwhelmed.

There are so many blogs, sites, links, pins about paleo, clean eating, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free.....ahhh!!  It's like brain overload!!  I don't even know where to start!!!  Well, here is what I've got.  I start small.  We don't have the finances to throw out our entire freezer, outside freezer, fridge and pantry but I can start with the little things and work from there.

I am a planner, by nature.  I like lists, things planned out and organized.  I am awesome at dinner meal planning and our dinner meals are usually well rounded and health-concious.  Breakfast, I do fine but my kids are still eating toaster streudels and frozen waffles every morning.  Lunches I can definitely improve upon but more often than not, we are eating leftover dinners and since they were pretty good, I feel okay eating them for myself or giving them to the kids.  Where I FAIL miserably is snacks!  Snack choices, on the go snacks, last minute snacks, snack portion size....across the board, I fail.  And the old saying goes, "Failure to plan is planning to fail."  So that's where I start.  I pulled out some of my Biggest Loser cookbooks and started making a list of good snack options as well as surfed around a bit to see what I could find that would satisfy myself and 2 children.  Luckily, neither one of my kids are picky and I like to experiment so this is a good trial situation.

I have a long list now hanging on a cupboard.  All the "go to" snack options so the minute Connor walks in the door from school and immediately asks for a snack before he can even take off his coat, I can say, "would you like a homemade granola bar or crackers with hummus?"  Here are some of the snack options on my list....enjoy.

granola bars (search around, you can find a ton of recipes that fit your tastes)
apple slices (cross-wise slice with a little peanut butter, oats and chopped nuts)
Trail Mix (not store bought but you can find a ton of recipes out there)
apple slices with sliced cheddar cheese
hard boiled eggs
chili roasted chickpeas
veggies with hummus (again, hummus has a huge variety of options, try one!)
banana freeze (dip a banana in greek yogurt and roll in coconut flakes.  freeze and enjoy)
fruit leather (you can find this all over pinterest right now)
jello
ants on a log (can spice it up with a little granola thrown on top too)