Getting Ahead of the Week Ahead

I have never been one to plan ahead for lunches or dinners for the week. A woman I work with plans her whole week, one shopping trip, all recipes planned ahead---I just have never made that a priority. But now that I'm on Ideal Protein, some planning is certainly needed. After all, I can't just order a pizza when I get home and don't have anything easy to make for dinner. I like to have things at the ready, easy to cook and very little prep.

My strategy is a little bit of a hybrid--get the fresh food ready for cooking easily each night, but not over-think what each night will be.  My gang is not keen on leftovers, especially now that we are only eating one full real meal each day. That means that making a big batch of roasted veggies for the week, for example, is not a winner here. So here are some of the things I do to get ahead of the week:

• Make a huge bowl of salad.  When I make salad, I make as much as I can fit in my large salad bowl. Lettuce, radishes, onions--maybe some peppers all goes in a big glass bowl with a nice lid. Usually I can get 2 dinners and 2 lunches out of a batch (for everyone), and then it's time to make again. You can use the pre-washed lettuce, but we prefer romaine to give our salads a little crunch. The key here is to make a big batch and use it for a few meals instead of making new for each meal.
  
• Process proteins on the weekend. When I go to the butcher (or your grocery store, whatever works for you), I typically buy chicken breasts or fish or meat for a week or two. At some point over the weekend, I take 30 minutes and cut everything up and freeze in ziplocs in portions for a meal (for us, that's about 1.7 lbs with two of us on IP and two kids). For example, with chicken breasts, I take the 4 pound package, divide into two, and cut it all up into chunks. I do chunks because these cook quickly on the stovetop and work well if I haven't defrosted something in time. Also, quick cooking over high heat helps keep the pieces juicy--chicken breasts are known to get dried out easily.
  
  Just like with the chicken, I do the same processing with chopped meat, fish, etc. -- I divide everything into ziplock bags, each with enough for one family meal and all the bags go into the freezer. Sometimes I include spices or a marinade in the bag and then as it defrosts, the meat gets extra sauce time. I especially do this for crockpot chicken recipes -- everything goes into the bag and then I can throw it all into the crockpot whenever I've defrosted it. More often than not, it's plain tilapia or chicken breasts (our two staples) and I just figure out the spice angle when I'm making dinner.
  
  Every night, I take a bag out of the freezer for the next night's dinner. So my decision is really which protein bag, and which vegetable, and then we always have salad (unlimited lettuce!).
  

  

  Chicken cooking--pre-cut into chunks

  
  Having extra portions in the freezer really helped me out today, in fact, when one of my beloved packages, all ready with chicken parts and wonderful spices, got nabbed by the dog and was gone in a blink of an eye. Luckily I had a bag of chicken in the freezer and I grabbed it, soaked it in a bowl of water, and got it defrosted in time to make dinner.

• Chop up as many veggies for the week as possible. Whenever I can on the weekends, often while making dinner on Saturday or Sunday evening, I process as many veggies as I can for the week. I slice up 10 zucchini, chop up a couple heads of cauliflower and broccoli, cook up some Rhubarb Compote, slice up radishes and onions--you get the gist. That way when I get home from work, I grab the prechopped veggies and start cooking those, get my protein on the stove and voila--dinner in less than 30 minutes.
  
• Always have fresh veggies for raw eating. For those meals when I don't have time to cook, or for lunches at work, I love to grab a cucumber and a red pepper. So that means I always have them in the crisper--and then there's never an excuse to not have something to pack! For things like jicama, I like to peel and chop two into finger-sized pieces, and then I have a bowl from which to grab some whenever I need it. Easy.
  
• Chop more than you need. Whenever I'm chopping veggies, I chop extra and stick it in the fridge. I usually have a container of chopped onions, for example, or radishes so that I can grab it. When I'm cooking, I can easily toss in some green onions or leeks if they are all ready for me. If they aren't, I'm likely to let them rot in the fridge. I like to use the Debbie Meyers Green Bags to keep veggies fresh -- these really work!
  
  If you are catching on to the theme here--it's Touch It Once: when you are dealing with your veggies or proteins, chop all of it at the same time and then put some in the fridge/freezer for when you need it. Processing is what takes most of the time, so only do it once a week if you can.
  
• Make a big batch of dressing. We like to use homemade dressings. At the start of the week, make a big batch and you'll use it all week long. No temptation to use something with ingredients you can't have, and we prefer the taste to most of the Walden Farms collection. I'll post some dressing recipes soon.
  
• Pack lunches while cleaning up dinner. For us, packing up lunches goes hand in hand with cleaning up dinner. First of all, the kitchen is already a mess so adding to it is no big deal and then you are only cleaning up once. Also, half of the stuff is already out. The salad bowl is already on the counter--grab some lettuce and put into containers for lunches the next day. If you like leftover cooked vegetables for lunch, make extra at dinner and pack up some while you are cleaning up. This way, once the kitchen is truly closed you can feel a sense of accomplishment, and in the morning you can easily grab what you packed for lunch and head out the door. Many times I will even make up a pudding (my favorite is my peppermint chocolate pudding, which also works for shakes). That way it's easy in the office as well.

What are some of the ways you make your week on Ideal Protein as easy as possible?

Good Problems

There are problems, and then there are good problems. And pants that are too big, my friends, are very good problems. I am so thrilled to have my pants falling off!

Unfortunately for me, I just paid $137 to have 4 pair of pants tailored down in an effort to avoid buying new so soon. I still have about 50 pounds left to lose--there will be plenty of pants in my future. This morning I was so excited to slip on my newly tailored pants, ready to look great and take on the world.

OH NO!

In the 10 days it took to get my pants back (plus perhaps not enough tailoring), I am left with a slightly loose waistband and a very saggy backside. These pants are ok for another week or so, but after that--no can do. And for important work meetings, these are definitely a no-no.

Time to get a few inexpensive pairs of pants to hold me over until the next size drop. No sense working this hard to walk around with an extra pair of pants worth of fabric on my body!!

Everybody Needs a Friend

I'll say it--dieting is not easy. And this diet can be challenging in that there is no flexibility to cheat here and there when the mood strikes. For me, I actually think that's better because I must stick with it and so I am. But that doesn't mean it's easy or that I don't need support and encouragement.

I am fortunate that a good friend of mine (and co-worker) has been on the Ideal Protein diet in the past and had great success. She's been so encouraging (Joanne, you know who you are!) and it's wonderfully motivating. She always comments about how my weight loss is really showing, sending me encouraging quotes and sharing ideas about how she liked one packet or another.

Her past experience is helpful, but I actually think it's having someone around me at work that knows I'm doing the program that is most beneficial. I don't think everyone needs to know your business if you don't want to share, but having at least one person understand the program to some extent can be helpful. For example, yesterday there was a staff pizza lunch complete with scrumptious looking chocolate chip cookies and lovely bready sandwiches. I brought in my salad from home, veggies and a shake. I didn't feel awkward, in part because I knew that someone understood why I was doing that. Joanne didn't push me to 'just taste' anything--she would never do that. Even though I was offered a cookie and painfully declined, I felt comfortable in my new IP skin. Having someone who knew why I was eating my own food really helped me.

I encourage you to find someone to talk with, even just to let them know that you are trying to eat differently. For some, life is an open book, while for others it's hush hush. Whatever your style, consider building yourself at least a small support system. Your true friends want you to be healthy and they'll help you any way they can. You just need to let them know how.

So thank you Joanne--I appreciate you helping me find success with IP!

Three Weeks and Twelve+ Pounds!

I'm thrilled to share that in 3 short weeks I have already lost 12.4 pounds! The inches are also melting away, and I lost a good bit this week from my bust, waist, arms and neck. I won't bore you with the measurements.

This week's weigh in was a good motivator for me. I can really feel things changing--my pants are all getting too big and in a few weeks I will have to go shopping. Oh woe is me :-) My mom has now officially noticed my weight loss, and everyone knows that moms are a tough crowd.

Last week I was only down 0.6 at weigh in, so I was thrilled to feel on track this week. My understanding from others is that week #2 is often not great numbers-wise---your body is getting used to things and things are shifting around. I also had a few really salty dinners accidentally (like when I spilled the Old Bay seasoning into the bowl) and I could feel the water on myself. In any case, I stuck with it and was rewarded this week!

I'm not finding the diet all that difficult, actually. The hardest part is if I have to go somewhere outside of my usual life, but regular days at home or work are now getting routine. I'm finding meals I like and getting things set for myself. For lunch, I usually like to have a salad with raw veggies instead of cooked and then my packet. For dinner, I'll make different proteins and cooked veggies and then some raw veggies on my salad. I have definitely found that 2 cups of a single cooked vegetable is not for me -- I get bored and then really don't want to eat it at all. So, variety is the ticket!

This week is a holiday, and I am a little nervous about how things will go. Timing for meals will be off, but my husband and I will figure out a way to make it work! I am already anxiously awaiting next week's weigh in day--I can't believe how fast the diet is working, and I really am not finding myself starving. My goal is still far away, so I'm just focusing on week at a time.

Off to have my Southwest Spicy Cheese Curls!

Weekend Craziness

I find weekends the hardest time on the diet. When I'm at work, I'm so busy that I don't have time to think about eating most days. At home, the kitchen is there and I'm used to using it! I have very little junk in the house, but I do have two kids (8yo boy and 1yo girl) and they have to eat -- and not IP :-)

Diet or not, we usually try to do family things on the weekends since my husband and I both work full time. We enjoy our quality time with the kids and with each other. IP has definitely impacted what we can do. Of course, we knew that but ignored it and found out for ourselves.

What am I talking about?? We had the brilliant idea to enjoy one of the last days of summer with a 10 mile bike ride into Washington DC. It felt great on the way, but when we turned around to head home it became immediately clear that there had been an ever-so-slight downgrade on the way. Yes, folks--that means uphill the whole way back. It took us forever and we were dragging horribly. We both agreed we could have done it with calories in our bodies and carbs to burn off, but without that we were really struggling. The good news? We made it and didn't cheat at all even though we were starving after that trek.

Also, this morning I blended up a chocolate drink mix with water and some ice. It was really tasty and I will defintely do that again (at least on the weekends).

Here's what I learned today that I already knew:

• We cannot just wing it when it comes to food. We did bring pre-made shakes and two mini-cucumbers, but by the time we hit the trail it was actually lunch time and we had no plan for how we would get a reasonable salad and other veggies. Unfortunately we were out of lettuce so we didn't pack it to go before we left.
• I cannot count on places having dressings I can eat. We went to the Whole Foods salad bar once we finally got back, and they had olive oil but only balsamic & white wine vinegars. Since we were at the grocery store, we just bought lemon juice too but if we had been elsewhere it wouldn't have been that easy.
• Ten miles is a long bike ride if you are out of shape and not eating very much.
• I do, in fact, have some willpower.