If you don’t want to cook, this is really the meal prep for you. Three lunches can be made and put away in about 15 minutes! And, you’ve got tons of flavor with shrimp, pico de gallo and more yumminess!
Shopping list:
Whole grain wrap or cabbage leaf
Turkey Lunch Meat
Turkey Bacon
Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Pickle
Dressing
Meal prep:
Cook turkey bacon- 4 pieces per wrap you’re preparing.
Lay a piece of parchment paper on a large plate or cutting board
Rinse and dry the lettuce & tomato
Lay the wrap or cabbage leaf on the parchment in overlapping lines until you form a 10″ x 8″ rectangle of lettuce
Then drizzle on your dressing spread of choice
Layer on your fillings starting with lettuce, bacon, lunch meat, then bacon, then tomatoes, pickles and finally cheese
Use the parchment to help roll the sandwich into a tight tube by folding in the ends as you roll
Slice the sandwich in half and fold down the parchment as you eat!
If you don’t want to cook, this is really the meal prep for you. Three lunches can be made and put away in about 15 minutes! And, you’ve got tons of flavor with shrimp, pico de gallo and more yumminess!
Shopping list:
20 medium shrimp peeled and deveined (or about 4.5 cups)
Quinoa
Black beans, drained and rinsed
Corn, drained rinsed
Shredded cheese
Cilantro
Frozen onion medley (Pictsweet brand or similar)
Pico De Gallo (or make your own by mincing onion, jalapenos, cilantro and mixing with chopped tomatoes and lime juice)
Olive Oil
Garlic
Cumin, Chili Powder, Onion Powder, Salt
Cilantro
Recipe:
Cook 1 cup of quinoa.
Saute onions with spices for a few minutes, then add in shrimp.
Chop cilantro.
Meal prep:
Set out 3 bowls to assemble in each: 1.5 cups shrimp, 1/4 cup cheese, 1 cup pico de gallo, 1/3 cup quinoa, 1/3 cup black beans, 1/3 cup corn, lime dressing, 1/2 cup cilantro, 1 cup peppers
We all know salmon is a great way to get your Omega 3s and is packed with nutrition. This recipe, straight from Martha herself, gives you a fun and fancy way to serve and enjoy a restaurant-like meal.
Shopping list:
Skinless salmon fillets
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups baby spinach
1/4 cup feta, crumbled
2 TSP pine nuts
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Recipe:
Broil salmon on high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until opaque all the way through.
While the salmon is cooking, saute spinach in skillet over medium heat with oil. After spinach is cooked down, remove skillet from heat and add in pine nuts / feta cheese, toss.
Broccoli Salad is a fun, fresh way to get healthy food in your belly!
Shopping list:
2 broccoli heads (about 6 cups)
Turkey bacon
Red onion
Cranberries
Sunflower seeds
Goat cheese
Honey
Mustard
1 TBSP Plain Greek Yogurt (optional)
Recipe:
Chop 3 small / medium sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Coat with 2 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast @ 425 degrees for 45 minutes, tossing/turning once in the middle.
Cook 8 pieces of turkey bacon, chop.
Slice broccoli into bite size pieces.
Mince 1/2 red onion.
Mix potatoes, bacon, broccoli, onion, 1/2 Cup goat cheese, 4 TBSP sunflower seeds and 2 Cups cranberries in a large bowl.
Mix yogurt, 2 TSP honey and 2 TSP mustard. Add to vegetable mixture.
Are you trying to fit it all in but wondering if there’s really enough room to squeeze it in? Or are you going day-by-day, guessing what the day will look like and unsure when the most important things, or the goals you’ve set will get any time or attention?
Budget your time like you would your money: it’s a limited resource and you want to be sure you’re investing it in what matters most.
Enter the Ideal Time template! This template allows you to blueprint your week and give every important thing in your life a placeholder in your schedule ahead of time instead of as an afterthought or reaction.
How does it work? Ideal Time is similar to time blocking in that you can schedule time for specific types of work or chores or fun or goal-oriented tasks. Ideal Time allows you to see all five (or seven) set of 24 hours at once so you can see a realistic picture. You’ll plan for priorities rather than hope they get done. Let’s take a look at an example to get started:
Start with the things that are most permanent.
6am Wake Up
7am Kids Wake Up
8am Kids School Drop Off
9am
10am
11am
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm Kids School Pick Up
4pm
5pm Sports
6pm
7pm
8pm Kids Bedtime
9pm Bedtime
Next, add in your other priorities, including work, self-care time and whatever else is unique for you!
6am Wake Up
7am Kids Wake Up
8am Kids School Drop Off & Workout
9am -11am Morning Work Block
12pm Lunch Break / Bible Study
1pm – 245pm Afternoon Work Block
3pm Kids School Pick Up
4pm Chores / Homework
5pm Sports / Activities
6pm Dinner
7pm Family Quiet Time
8pm Kids Bedtime / Epsom Salt Bath & Read Book
9pm Bedtime
Finally, be sure to add in buffer / margin. This is white space in your schedule and life that you need.
Also, don’t underestimate the time it will take you to do things. Add in buffers on purpose. You can see how your day can fill up quickly and it’ll become clear that you can actually fit in if you also want to sleep. =D Your day can be as detailed or generic as you wish, knowing that you might edit and adjust as you go. Each day of the week might look different, and that’s okay. Plan all of them out and see where you end up.
Claim your calendar before someone else does.
Michael Hyatt & Daniel Harkavy
The goal with your Ideal Week is not to aim for perfection. The Ideal Week acts as the plan for you to get in everything that is important to you. It gives your priorities the container and space they deserve in order to actually have a chance at happening! You can aim to hit your Ideal Week @ about 75 percent each week, understanding that things will come up to require your flexibility. Having your Ideal Week gives you an aim, a best case scenario. It also lets your brain rest knowing that you’ve thought it all through and you don’t have to reinvent or scramble each day.
It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau
If you need help with this, you’re in luck. We have an awesome worksheet to help you visualize your Ideal Week.
PS: If any of this resonated with you, we’d love to work with you 1-on-1. We teach our clients how to build a life they love by being intentional about their time and habits in order to realize their own version of an Ideal Life!
Ideal Balance is The Life Coaching Facility in Navarre, Florida that focuses on Fitness, Family & Finance. We help our clients create the discipline & habits they need to strip off what’s holding them back from living the life God created them to live. We work with clients in 1-on-1 sessions in person and virtually as well as in Small Groups in Personal Training sessions, workshops and other events. We’re on a mission to inject hope and empower our community one client at a time. Contact us if you’d like to find out more.
We also welcome you to end August well by reflecting on your highlights and then start September off right by following these journal prompts. You can print the page out or answer the questions in your own journal!
What were your biggest personal and professional wins in August?
What were the highlights & blessings that happened during the month?
What lessons did you learn in August?
What is the status of each of your goals now?
What do you hope to accomplish in September? What do you want to focus on in September?
Many of our clients have goals in the finance and the fitness department. That means that they want to save money AND save calories. We’ve created this list to help you save money while sticking to your health goals. So let’s get right to it, 15 Ways To Eat Healthy On A Budget
1. Stop Eating Out.
Well that one was obvious and we won’t beat a dead horse. But when the average restaurant meal is $13 and the average meal made at home is $4, you can see how you’ll save money.
2. Plan Your Food.
Planning your food reduces the initial expense by forcing you to take stock of what you have and, hopefully, forcing you to shop from your list only. In this way, you only buy what you need. This is truly the first step to saving money. Plan your meals, plan your snacks, plan, plan, plan!
Get your family involved in planning as well. Have them help you pick some of the recipes, snacks and so forth. In this way, you’ll have some buy in for the food your purchasing. That, in turn, will help reduce the “let’s go out to eat” triggers as well as waste for food that goes uneaten.
3. Nix the Crap
This one is in a special color because it’s probably the #1 food budget saving tip we’ve got. Don’t buy junk food, junk drinks, junk condiments and junk snacks. This tip alone could save you hundreds of dollars a month. And, oh by the way, it’ll also save you calories.
Also, think about saving money in simple math terms. For example, a woman who is 40, i 5’6″ and weighs 185 and is lightly active is consuming about 2,067 calories a day to maintain that weight. That’s just math. If we reduce her caloric intake to 1500 a day to lose weight and then to maintain that weight, guess what? We save 500 calories a day. That’s actually quite a bit of REAL food or a little bit of JUNK food. What are some equivalents?
Bagel with cream cheese
4 pieces of Bacon
Starbucks Venti Caramel Frappuccino
Now look at the equivalents in healthy foods:
6 Eggs
5 Bananas
9 oz Steaks
Either way, you can see how you’d save money by saving 500 calories a day by nixing the EXCESS caloric intake in order to meet your weight loss needs. Getting to the appropriate weight and then the appropriate healthy caloric intake for that weight is saving money!
4. Cook it yourself.
Don’t buy prepackaged or prepped food if you need to save money. Buy whole foods and make them into food you can eat. 😉 That is, cook the chicken yourself and mince the garlic yourself to give a few examples. Most of the time making food yourself will save you money because the grocery stores sure do mark up the amount of work they put into a product.
5. Go for the deals
If chicken is on sale, buy the chicken! If ground turkey is on sale, buy the ground turkey! Sometimes you’ll have to reverse engineer your recipes to match deals, but we believe in you and we believe you can do it!
Speaking of deals, often store brands are cheaper than name brands. Consider buying them–often they are the exact same product bottled or packaged differently. One word of caution-be sure to look at the ingredients on both labels. While they are often very similar, sometimes the cheaper brand might be so because they’ve substituted high fructose corn syrup or something similar.
6. Consider frozen & canned
Frozen produce is often cheaper than fresh produce. While this trick will not work for every recipe, if you can, go for the frozen. Frozen produce is picked and flash frozen at its peak ripeness meaning its nutritional compounds are at their peak. If produce is not flash frozen at this point, it will start to breakdown. Sometimes produce on the shelves you see has been sitting there for a week after at least of week of travel from being plucked off the vine to placed in the store. When you consider that, you might get more nutrition from your frozen food.
There are many cons healthy people consider when eyeing canned food including BPA, preservatives (namely syrup & sodium) and nutritional loss. Nutritional loss always happens regardless of the method (fresh, frozen, canned), especially when items are cooked. Keep that in mind and if your budget only allows for canned, move forward smartly. When picking your canned foods, make sure these factors are eliminated:
Only buy items stored in their own juice or water (no salt, brine, added sugar or syrup).
Only buy BPA free cans.
Consider your top options to be items like tomatoes and tuna!
7. Cook in bulk & save leftovers
The fewer times you cook the fewer times you have to expend energy and ingredients cooking. That saves time & money. So, consider cooking in large portions and saving the leftovers for lunches and other dinners. Again, this allows you to minimize waste, have to plan less and use up less of things like Extra Virgin Olive Oil!
8. Use the Healthy & Cheap List
The graphic shows you some cheap and healthy foods to consistently buy. The reality is that healthy is not more expensive. You do have to be more thoughtful, but you can eat healthy on a budget.
To be fair, the more of a budget you have, the more outside the norm you can get. That being said, you’ll be much more healthy even if your confided to the budget-friendly foods on this list than if you eat the prepackaged, man-made foods that most folks find in their shopping carts.
Once you’ve got that skill down, come see us for help on your budget so you can get more bougie with your healthy menus!
Ideal Balance is The Life Coaching Facility in Navarre, Florida that focuses on Fitness, Family & Finance. We help our clients create the discipline & habits they need to strip off what’s holding them back from living the life God created them to live. We work with clients in 1-on-1 sessions in person and virtually as well as in Small Groups in Personal Training sessions, workshops and other events. We’re on a mission to inject hope and empower our community one client at a time. Contact us if you’d like to find out more.
Have you ever been guilty of keeping your home in better shape when company is coming over than when you’re living in it? This popular meme says it all:
Now cleaning is an entirely different subject than what we’re going to talk about today. Of course that’s a large part of having your home “company ready.” But when it comes to having your home decluttered, organized and presentable we want to offer you strategies to make it happen! Why? Because we think you deserve to enjoy your tidy home just as much as your company does!
So let’s get down to the four strategies we’ve got for you. By the way, we’ve got a quiz & brainstorming worksheet for you at the end so don’t miss out!
1. Personal Hall of Fame
Imagine walking through a Hall of Fame museum that featured YOU and your life. What would it contain? What are the things most memorable and that bookmarked important moments in your life?When you’re going through each category of items, think about creating your own personal hall of fame. It’s a fun way to really understand what to keep and what to discard.
Quick: What are five things that would go in your hall of fame right now?
This exercise helps you to consider not keeping stuff that isn’t the very best and most important to you. Why keep stuff that isn’t the best? That doesn’t really reflect you? That’s not in alignment with you?
2. Follow the Fork
If anyone in your family found a fork in your bathroom, they would all know it doesn’t belong there. Moreover, they would know where it was supposed to be. We want to apply that exact concept to all of your stuff. Everyone knows where it goes: this is the new rule of thumb for all of your stuff.
This does mean that everything you own has to have a home. It will also mean that stuff is stored with like stuff. Consider the silverware drawer for guidance. Forks aren’t in a different drawer than spoons-and this is what makes it easier to put things away. Likewise, you can keep ALL linens together, ALL umbrellas, ALL tape, All electronic cords, all paper etc.
The trick here is that in order to be able to give everything a home, you need to have space for that to happen. Does that mean you need to discard items?
We want things to have a home with plenty of space in order to help us achieve the next strategy.
3. Make it easy to put away
There are many strategies to use when you’re organizing your home and figuring out where everything will go. The most important thing to consider, however, is to make items quick & easy to put away. If you don’t, let’s face it, people are MUCH less likely to actually put things away.
Some key factors in making it easy to put away are:
It has to be known by everyone
Make sure everyone knows where it goes, don’t assume. Have a training session if needed!
It has to have enough space
If there is not enough room, people will give up. Yes, this little bit of resistance is what can keep you from keeping up your home as easily. Make sure everything has plenty of room when giving it a home. Don’t make it hard by requiring shoving or decision making in the moment.
It has to not have to be several steps
Do not make putting things away a game of Tetris. No, make your items as close to open container/cabinet/drawer, store and close as possible. The more steps it takes, the more people will avoid putting it away and the higher chances it’ll be put away incorrectly.
There may be items that will require several steps to put away such as in the attic or the top corner shelf of a closet. Save these spaces for the things that get used least often but that you’ll be motivated to get out such as Christmas items.
4. Put it all the way away
This concept derived from my son when we lived in a two story house in a cold climate. He would dutifully take his boots off upon entering the house, as he should have. That’s when the system failed. The boots would remain by the door.
“Zach, put your boots away,” would commonly ring out from the kitchen.
Next, I’d notice his boots were on the foot of the steps. That’s closer, but not all the way away.
“Zach, put your boots away.”
Then the boots would move to his bedroom. Still closer, but not all the way away.
“Zach, put your boots away!”
Finally, if I had the diligence to get to this fourth step his boots would find their way to his shoe shelf inside of his closet. Yes, they were finally put all the way away.
Let’s work on creating the ease and discipline of putting things all the way away. Be a broken record. Don’t settle for hal put away. Train yourself and your family to put it all the way away the first time-it is much LESS work than returning to the task over and over and having the items haunt you with clutter until you do finally put them all the way away.
Listen to the podcast to hear about our bonus strategy: Your kids are only as disciplined as you are.
GET YOUR QUIZ & PLANNING WORKSHEET!
Hey, if you need help with this, you’re in luck. We have a FUN quiz and a helpful brainstorming worksheet just for you. Download it now!
PS: If any of this resonated with you, we’d love to work with you 1-on-1. We teach our clients how to build a body they love and change habits slowly to match their goals. In a world with fake quick fixes, we help them adapt a lifestyle that they’ll want to keep. If that resonates with you, please get in touch with the form below!
Ideal Balance is The Life Coaching Facility in Navarre, Florida that focuses on Fitness, Family & Finance. We help our clients create the discipline & habits they need to strip off what’s holding them back from living the life God created them to live. We work with clients in 1-on-1 sessions in person and virtually as well as in Small Groups in Personal Training sessions, workshops and other events. We’re on a mission to inject hope and empower our community one client at a time. Contact us if you’d like to find out more.
Sunday is the time to prepare for a busy week. One of the biggest favors you can do yourself is to plan what food you & your family are going to eat ahead of time so you don’t have to use those scarce and valuable brain calories during the week.
But what does that look like? Well, it surely doesn’t have to be complicated. Grab a pen, a piece of paper or use our free printable and let’s go!
1. Plan
First, let’s plan your week of dinners. Go ahead and look at your schedule. Note the days you might not be home, the days you’ll have more or less time to prepare food and so forth. Plug in those easy meals or meals that you’re eating elsewhere first. Next, figure out all your dinners. Plan to cook extra in order to meal prep lunches.
Next up, figure out your lunches. Lunches can often come straight from dinner or meal prep that happens alongside Sunday dinner.
Finally, you’ll figure out your breakfast and snacks.
TWO KEY TIPS WHEN PLANNING YOUR MEALS:
If you’re trying to lose weight, plan your carbs and heavier meals earlier in the day. If at all possible, let’s only put protein & veggies down the gullet for dinner.
Be realistic when planning. Don’t overdo it. Don’t try to be a hero. Stick to what you & your family are used to and what’s easy and stretch yourself just a little. That might mean taming a few recipes to be a little more healthy or it might mean trying one new recipe a week.
2. Purchase
When you’ve got all your meals and snacks planned, figure out what ingredients you need to shop for to make that happen. You can do this as you go or you can do it once you’ve brain dumped all the ideas.
TWO KEY TIPS WHEN SHOPPING:
As you get better at this, you should be able to have a staple shopping list that you always purchase (weekly or monthly) that makes the quick trips easier and more efficient.
Try pick up or delivery as an option when shopping. It saves you time and usually money by avoiding extra spending. You’re also forced to plan if you do pick up!
3. Prep
Okay, now that you’ve got a plan and you’ve got your shopping list, you’ll figure out what you can prep ahead of time to make your food life easier during the week.
This part can seem overwhelming so let’s chunk it down. You can choose to meal prep just one or two types of things for the week. You might also choose to only meal prep lunch and cook dinner. You’ll find your family’s sweet spot to meal prepping. Just know it does not have to mean you meal prep 100% of your meals and spend eight hours in the kitchen on Sunday!
TWO KEY TIPS WHEN MEAL PREPPING:
Consider stacking your meal prep time with your grocery time. You’re already spending time putting stuff away, so it saves time now to prepare it in such a way that it’s ready for the week. That may mean rinsing and chopping fruits and veggies, it might mean boiling or grilling proteins and it might mean cooking rice or quinoa.
Consider buffet style meal prep if prepping meals stresses you out. Yes, your fridge can offer you a buffet of healthy ingredients, ready to mixed and mingled into healthy meals. Ideas for buffet style:
Remember, planning in this way is a form of self-care. Yes, you’re taking care of yourself by deciding ahead of time and relieving yourself of needing to do so during the busy week. The special human ability to plan is a gift, so let’s use it.
GET YOUR PLANNING WORKSHEET!
Hey, if you need help with this, you’re in luck. We have an EASY PEASY lunch meal planning worksheet just for you. It’s not fancy, it’s not complicated. It’s REALLY simple and easy and fast and amazing. Download it now!
PS: If any of this resonated with you, we’d love to work with you 1-on-1. We teach our clients how to build a body they love and change habits slowly to match their goals. In a world with fake quick fixes, we help them adapt a lifestyle that they’ll want to keep. If that resonates with you, please get in touch with the form below!
Ideal Balance is The Life Coaching Facility in Navarre, Florida that focuses on Fitness, Family & Finance. We help our clients create the discipline & habits they need to strip off what’s holding them back from living the life God created them to live. We work with clients in 1-on-1 sessions in person and virtually as well as in Small Groups in Personal Training sessions, workshops and other events. We’re on a mission to inject hope and empower our community one client at a time. Contact us if you’d like to find out more.
