Michelle and I set up a meeting for a Tuesday morning at her home. Concerned that my self-reported measurements and weight would not be sufficient for her, I ate little for breakfast. Every ounce counts when you have a fear of the scale like I do.
Michelle was far less scary than I had built her up to me. She is a petite, pretty woman with a “let’s get down to business” attitude. Perfect! I need to get at it and, like most working moms, time is precious.
We started our meeting by reviewing the forms I had sent. We discussed the need for me to hide my treats from myself, and make it as difficult as possible to access them. My downfall is sugary fat-laden food, chocolate being enemy numero uno. I like to bake for my kids – I prefer that they have snacks and treats from my oven rather than processed, packaged supermarket ones. This means I almost always have baking supplies including various types of chocolate chips in the pantry.
When I am tired, especially after a particularly harrowing bedtime with the kids, the baking drawer is like a powerful magnet pulling at me.
Strategy for Conquering Emotional Eating: Put the chocolate in a box and keep it in the storage room in the basement. My laziness and fatigue may outweigh the temptation. If the kids want some chocolate, it will be even more fun for them to go look in the “treat box” when they have permission.
Next on the agenda was a review of the nutrition plan. This plan is simple. There are higher calorie meal plan options (two to choose from). These I eat on days when I workout my legs.
There is a medium calorie meal plan option for days when I workout my upper body.
There are lower calorie meal plan options for days when I only do cardio or take a rest day.
The meal plan is tailored to my taste and restrictions, including a nut-free restriction due to my son’s allergy. It is a primarily vegetarian plan incorporating only a little bit of dairy, like for example, an ounce of crumbled feta on a salad. It also incorporates fish, prepared simply. I have rarely prepared fish myself that I actually liked. The recipes from Michelle are tasty; I love the tilapia cooked in coconut oil – delish!
The best part about the recipes are their simplicity. Each one has approximately five ingredients or less and takes minutes to prepare. The key is having the right foods in the house, ready to grab and go. An hour and a half at the beginning of the week and then halfway through the week, are enough to get most things ready for easy assembly and final cooking when needed.
Our meeting’s last agenda item was the workout plan. I have a four day schedule wherein I must take a complete rest day at least once a week, and can do a couple of purely cardio days (here is where I incorporate my social runs). The workouts are not long, and are laid out in a spreadsheet which is linked to Youtube videos; I can consult the videos if I don’t understand the exercise name. We did not spend at a lot of time going over the mechanics of each exercise, primarily because I have spent a lot of time in the gym and am familiar with most of them.
I left the meeting excited to get started. I stopped in at the grocery store and loaded up on all the essentials of my food plan, went home, and got right to work chopping away. Ninety minutes later, the fridge was jam-packed and my food was prepped for the next three days.
Next post: The Big Reveal (My Before Shots)