My Grocery Shopping for the Week!

We all have our own way of doing things, of course. Everything is a habit. The way we get ready in the morning, the way we brush our teeth, the way we make our breakfast, the way we get into our cars. Every single thing we do is out of habit. Including the way we grocery shop! So I wanted to share with you my routine. It's what works for me and I only have to go to the store once per week - huge time saver! 

This is my grocery shopping routine: 

I make my list of meals for the week. 

This week is as follows: 

• Monday: Chicken with creamy Alfredo sauce over zoodles with a salad

• Tuesday: Burrito bowls of chicken, black beans, rice, veggies

• Wednesday: Baked chicken and roasted potatoes 

• Thursday: Turkey burgers with baked home-made French fries

• Friday: Chicken salad over lettuce [chicken salad with hard boiled eggs, mayo, avocado]

• Eric's lunches for work: Stir fry with rice

*Note: the hubbs and I carb cycle, so it might seem a bit strange for a low-carb fan like myself to be eating all of this rice and potatoes. 

Once I have my plan, then I make my list of everything I need for those meals. I add a few other things for snacks and foods for Leslie, too. 

Here is what I bought at Aldi. I managed to buy everything I needed from Aldi this week, where normally I would have to go to Target for a few things. 

All of this came to $82.67!

What I didn't have to buy this week, which does take up a big chunk of our budget, is meat. I already had a ton of frozen chicken and ground beef at home.

Eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank! 

Planning and sticking to your list is a huge help. 

All this talk about Sugar ... what do we mean by sugar??

This might be a silly question: what do we mean by sugar? 

Duh, right?! 

Candy, cookies, brownies, soda, table sugar.. 

But did you know that to your body eating an apple is just the same as drinking a can of soda? 
And eating a piece of whole grain bread is just like eating a cookie? In fact, bread can cause a greater spike in insulin than many candy bars! 

Any carbohydrate is converted by your body into sugar - or glucose - of course in different amounts ... a cookie has way more sugar than a carrot, obviously. 
And when  your body has glucose coming in it needs to take care of it in one way or another. Your body will either 1) use it as energy or 2) store it away as fat.

What does this mean for me, right?! 

Well, what that means is that any carb source is a source of sugar. We are talking bread, pasta, broccoli, bananas, soda or juice. And when there is too much sugar, or glucose, in your bloodstream your body will store the excess as fat. 

But I don't want fat! 

Exactly. That's why everyone and their sister is talking about cutting out the sugar these days! It is one of the best, if not THE best, way to lose unwanted fat. 

So what should we do? 

My best advice for someone with a fat loss goal is to primarily eat veggies as your carb sources if you're really serious. Veggies have very little carbs, which means that your body won't have very much glucose in your bloodstream to use as fuel. This forces your body to use the stored glucose - or your unwanted fat - as fuel! This means that meat and fat are your best friends. 

If you have already taken out cereals or sugary coffee drinks or flavored yogurts, you're ahead of the game! Sugar lurks everywhere. See where else it might be hiding! Look at any nutrition label and focus on the Total Carbohydrates. If you divide the number by 4, that will give you the number of teaspoons of sugar per serving. That's a better visual than grams for most of us. 

Doing this is so much more effective than running on a treadmill for hours or doing 1000 sit-ups. You'll turn your body into a fat-burning machine by removing these sources of sugar! 

Hooray for burning fat!  

Check this out if you don't believe me

Don't let the FAT scare you

I'd really like to just dig in for a moment and talk about our friend, Fat. 

Fat is very misunderstood. Fat has been bullied around for years and hasn't been welcomed by many. 

But times are a changin'! The Dietary Guidelines for Americans has now taken away the upper limit recommendation for fat - yay! Which means, they're FINALLY complying with the research that has always been in front of our face about fat not being bad for us! 

This recent article from Science Daily has come out as well about sugar, not fat, being the culprit of heart disease risks like high blood pressure, high triglycerides and insulin resistance.

The article specifically says that when we take out fat from our diet and replace it with carbohydrates we increase our risk for heart disease and diabetes.

What does this mean for you?? 

Eat fat. Remove sugar. 

Simple, right? Easier said than done, I know. But take some simple steps towards doing this one thing today. 

There's a reason why my blog includes Butter! - because we need to welcome back our friend, Butter (or saturated fat), into our lives once again. 

Here are some ways to start: 

• Cook your eggs in butter
• Slather your veggies in butter
• Spread your lovely steak with butter for more richness - starting to drool... 
• Use real heavy whipping cream in your coffee
• Eat a good mayonnaise in things like egg salad or chicken salad 
• Have bacon with your breakfast
• Use leftover bacon grease for cooking (sounds illegal right?!) 
• Have sausage with breakfast
• Bring back red meat into your meal planning

Reading through these ideas, I'm sure you're thinking that by eating this way you're going to get fat. But don't fret! Sugar is to blame on the fat-gain train, not natural saturated fats such as these. 

My Leslie girl loves her fat. She loves bacon, cheese, butter and coconut oil. I'm a proud Mamma.

 

Exercise: But not too much, and not too little

This time of year is when we focus again on our fitness in order to improve our health. All of the gyms are packed - although I wouldn't know since I don't like going to them - and I'm sure those of you selling fitness products are making some good commission right now. 

Most programs out there will recommend and encourage us to workout every day. If you've had a busy day chasing after the kids, didn't get much sleep the night before, or if work is too hectic, you have no excuse to now fit in that sweat session! We hear this message everywhere, over and over. And it is so unfortunate. 

Exercise has so many health benefits, we know this. It can improve our mood, decrease depression, improve our blood sugars and blood pressure, it can improve our cholesterol and so much more. Exercise is a very important drug that is very underutilized in today's society. I am by no means saying we shouldn't exercise.

BUT when do we push ourselves too far? 

When you go to buy a new car one of the first things you look for is the mileage.  We are kind of like a car, in that, when we put on more miles we are wearing ourselves out faster. I know too many people who have attained too many injuries from running long distances for far too long. We just weren't meant to do that to our bodies. 

Exercise is stress. In any form. When you exercise you are putting added stress on your body, even when you feel great after a good workout. Add the stress from exercise to your stress from your job, the stress from your kids, the housework, your marriage, your finances, your TV shows or video games... that's a lot of stress! So this whole idea that we NEED to push ourselves hard in the gym every day, or even 5-6 days a week, is unhealthy! 

It is good to challenge ourselves, to make progress in our fitness. But we also need the rest. The gains happen when we rest. It's ok to hit snooze on your alarm clock and miss that zumba class if you really need the sleep. Sleep and rest should always come first. 

I used to do cardio. I used to do cardio because I didn't know how to lift weights. I didn't know what to do with dumbbells, other than the bicep curl. I used to do cardio about 4 times a week, ending my 45 minute jumping and dancing session with a bright red face and sweat dripping from every inch of myself. Then I noticed one day that I had gained 20lbs [and not of muscle!] and thought, what the heck is going on?! So I reconsidered my approach to exercise. Now I lift weights and I walk. 

I haven't done any sort of typical 'cardio' in about 4 years and I am in the best shape of my life. 

I encourage you to listen to this TED talk and consider your own exercise approach

If you are here confused about where to start with exercise, please reach out to me and allow me to give you some first steps on where to begin [literally]! 

TV is BACK! And a workout to go with it

I had probably one of the best, or maybe even the best, Christmas thus far. Having a little one around has made this Christmas so magical and so much more fun than I could have imagined. We were so blessed this Christmas and enjoyed being with family. 

With that said, I am so ready to get back into a normal routine, which of course includes watching TV. 

The hubbs and I are loving The Blacklist. We watched Fargo (which thankfully didn't have a winter finale). And I watch Scandal and the Bachelor (don't judge. I get sucked in every season. I've come to accept my addiction). 

I'm sure most of you have your favorite shows that you've been missing, which means that most of you are without excuse to get in a quick workout! 

On average, a commercial break is about 4 minutes long. So here is a workout that is about the length of a commercial break. Instead of just sitting around during those boring commercials, get off your butt! 

No equipment required, no excuses! We all have 4 minutes. (For the squat and press you can just reach up to the ceiling of you don't have any weights). 

Happy TV watching! And cheers to a brand new year!