Happy Tuesday! How was your Labor Day yesterday?
I thankfully had the day off, so I had a great and relaxing weekend! I did all my meal prep yesterday and my blogging for the week last night – so these pics are coming to y’all a day late.
Last week I had my usual meal plan, but I (again) missed eating a few of the meals. Sigh. Now that I’m actually in rotations – it’s becoming more and more difficult for me to get on a routine with working out and eating dinner every night.
I’m finding that I’m exhausted when I get home and I truthfully don’t even want to eat dinner, especially after working out. It’s like I come home after working out and just need to start homework and I just am too dang tired to eat, even though the food is already made for me.
The other problem is I’ve been experiencing a lot of exercise-induced nausea with working out at night after such a long day of work and being on my feet all day. Coming home and digging into a veggie rich meal is the last thing on my mind. With my effort to continue lifting weights, I definitely feel the need to drink my protein shake after I finish lifting but drinking a protein shake AND eating a big dinner is way too much food. So I’m kind of getting hit on all ends I feel.
So – these things have really been frustrating me, but I know it’s just a matter of continuing to work on finding the right balance/routine. I’ve been trying a few different things the last few weeks and it’s really just a matter of trial and error right now. Thankfully Matt is on board with helping me figure this all out, so we are trying different things this week (which I’ll share with y’all next week).
Groceries
So I’ve been taking Matt to the grocery store with me lately, which is definitely a new thing for us. The last two years, I was in charge of grocery shopping because he was in school full time + working full time and that wasn’t something he had time to do. However now that he’s finished with school, he knows it really helps me when he comes shopping – so he’s been making an effort to join me when he can.
What this really means though, is that we are spending more money at the store. Matt is NOT a planner at heart, like I am. I ask him every week what he wants at the store and he gives me like 4 things – that are always the same. I’ve gotten very good at making my list and sticking to it each week. But with him, he’s more impulsive and he definitely grabs things he sees and throws them into the cart.
I am okay with this though – because I truly believe he doesn’t eat out/snack on junk food at work as much when he’s able to pick more things that he really wants. Plus, I definitely want him to be eating the things he WANTS to eat – and he just really sucks at telling me what those things are unless he’s at the store with me and able to see them.
I tell y’all of this, because you might notice random and unusual things for us in our shopping pictures now – so just know those are the weeks that Matt joined me at the store 
Also this week Matt made pork tacos for a taco day at work – so those ingredients are in here too.
Fruits/Veggies: Bananas, spinach, broccoli, carrots, garlic, zucchini, bell peppers, avocado, onions, corn, apples, snap peas, celery, lemons, nectarines, hatch chiles, poblano peppers and habanero peppers
Pantry(ish): Tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, chicken stock, beef stock, coconut water (I’m pretty sure this was spoiled, because it tasted like feet), chopped onions, garlic powder, onion powder, mojo bars, bay leaves, multi-grain tortillas
Meat/Dairy: rotisserie chicken, chocolate milk, skin milk, greek yogurt, parmesan cheese, ground turkey, sliced turkey, eggs, string cheese, pork (for the tacos)
Weekend Meal Prep
Again, I didn’t get to eat all of this – which was sad. However, Matt ate almost all of it – except all the veggies, so I was happy about that!
L: Cut zucchini and bell peppers + minced bell peppers and onion.
R: Onion and sweet pepper turkey meatballs (which I never got to eat.. UGH) and cut snap peas for Matt
L: Hard boiled eggs for breakfasts and leftover white and dark meat chicken for Matt from the rotisserie chicken
R: My Savory brown rice casserole (square containers were double portions for M, round were single portions for me)
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup – I used the rotisserie chicken for this soup. I had planned on dividing up the large round container into bags to freeze, but completely forgot and it sat in the back of my fridge all week. UGH so frustrating.
I love soup because when I’m too lazy to chew, it’s right there and easy to eat. Plus it’s warm and comforting – so this was an attempt for the week for food that I would want to eat when I was tired. And it definitely worked!
Matt thankfully finished everything except for the bell peppers/zucchini (supposed to go under my meatballs instead of pasta) and my soup.
My meals
I really don’t have much to show here unfortunately. I forgot to take pictures of everything I ate!
L: I am obsessed with this yogurt and eat it as often as I can
R: Chicken, green pepper and onion quesadilla with guacamole and refried beans
I ate the soup one night with an applesauce, and another night with a grilled cheese on the side.
And for stuff eaten at work – I found a make your own salad station with a special salad each day! This is definitely going to be a station I visit often. Also, I love these mojo bars. I usually eat half of it in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. This flavor tastes just like an almond joy!
Sadly, those are all the pictures I snapped this week. I did eat the rice casserole for breakfast on Saturday (sigh, don’t ask).
This week I’m going to definitely work on eating what I made and taking more pictures for y’all!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
“I love soup because I’m too tired to chew” <— I died laughing at this. SO TRUE.
Not that I'm glad you have this, but I'm so glad the nausea isn't just me! I get it all the time – morning before I can eat, at night when I lay down to go to sleep and after exercising. I asked my Endo because I was so worried something was wrong (I even took a preggo test! Negs, ha) and he said it was likely that I was a) drinking too much caffeine with my thyroid meds and b) because my metabolism is artificially high due to the meds so it keeps burning when there's nothing left in my system. I also have low blood pressure & low calcium so I often feel like I might pass out at the gym, especially when lifting. I have to have something to eat, stat, after I work out so I try to have a LaraBar or something else in the car and then eat a butt load of protein after I get home. That seems to help. I also notice the days that I drink coffee or lattes instead of tea, it's worse too.
Maybe you could try eating the turkey meatballs or a bunch of protein after working out and eat the veggies with lunch, before your workout or while driving home (I know, so not portable though)? Or maybe for a little while you just minimize dinner to your protein shake and then some veggies with guac or hummus or something smaller at home that you can eat while studying?
We are seriously separated at birth. It's so weird
It’s so true that I eat soup because I’m super lazy and sometimes just don’t want to chew. It’s a great way to get in a lot of vegetables without the annoying chewing
The nausea thing is probably not related to the same reasons you are having. Your hypothesis are interesting though!
I think for mine – I’ve always struggled with hypoglycemic attacks when I wait too long between eating. I used to only get nauseous with exercise when I REALLY pushed myself at the gym, but now I get them all the time. I did some trial/error this summer and found out if I don’t eat some really carb-y within 20 minutes of starting my workout, I get sick after. I’m one of the rare people that has to workout with food in my stomach. That was a huge revelation, because I always used to get sick when I didn’t eat properly after my workout. I have learned over the years to eat properly after, but I think this nausea from the first few weeks of my night workouts was related to not eating enough before.
And for me, protein after cardio doesn’t work. I have to do carbs or I get sick. I only do the protein after weights, but I drink a mixed pro/carb protein powder, so that keeps me from getting ill.
So now on cardio days – I eat a snack about 20 minutes before (I’m loving Kashi cereal bars), and then I eat a shot block directly before the workout, and one directly after. Since I started this a few weeks ago, I’m not getting sick anymore!
As for your other ideas – I’m working on some of these things and I will share soon
Too funny – when Mike comes to the grocery store with me, it’s the same. Besides Milk and Yogurt, he never puts anything on the list, but then he always manages to find all sorts of treats at the store – fancy beers & cheeses, and tons of snack foods like Goldfish & Chips. He is good at finding the items that I’ve written on the list though!
I actually quit planning dinners for a few weeks while we were busy packing & moving and it actually worked out well for me on the busier days. Before, if I got stuck late at work, I’d snack at my desk (and feel guilty for ruining dinner) then eat my whole dinner anyway – double calories! After, if I got stuck at work, I could go grab something near the office (Chipotle!) then just have a salad or some fruits or veggies later when I got home.
It might be helpful to plan less meals than you think you’ll need each week to build in that flexibility. You can keep some things in the freezer or pantry in case you do wind up needing meals every night.
I would last about 2 days of not planning my dinners before we ordered a pizza. haha. I just know myself, I know Matt and I know that I would never be able to pull off not planning meals. Especially after I commute home 1-1 1/2 hours every night.
I tried some things different this week that have worked, so I’ll share those soon!