Make-ahead Meal Plan and Exercise Schedule

Hey everyone! I’m going to keep today’s meal plan post short and sweet…or at least try to anyway. My sister decided to surprise all of us by coming in a week early. I’m so excited to see her and my nephew but now I need to put myself in full gear to plan ahead for the rest of the month. One of these years I will get my blog posts scheduled 1-2 months ahead of time. Ahhh that will be heaven. Until then I am going to bust my butt these next couple days to get the rest of December planned, written out, and all of the posts scheduled. Not to mention I am finishing up a huge meal plan power package. That should be up within the week. Melissa and I are pretty pumped about it. Stay tuned. Lots to do!

Okay, I decided I’m not going to post another weigh-in until the start of the year. I want to  enjoy the next few weeks. Not saying I’m going hog wild on fruit cake but I’m taking a break from the scale till the beginning of January. Trust me I have every intention of exercising and staying intentional with my foods. I have no desire to start the New Year heavier than I am now. But I need a break from the scale.

I’m also trying to decide how I want to present my weigh ins next year. Do you guys like them in my meal plan post? Do you like them every week? Do you even care? haha! I used to write a separate post for my weigh ins but with all my other blog posts that got to be too much. So, I’m taking the next few weeks to completely reflect on Organize Yourself Skinny. I want it to be the best it can be so I have some things I need to think about.

Since there’s no weigh in let’s go right to my exercise schedule.

If every morning went like today then I should be a mean lean exercise machine by January 1st. I was on the treadmill by 6:30am and had a great workout. First, I worked up a sweat on my treadmill for about 45 minutes. Then I did a ton of crunches using my exercise ball. I don’t know how many I did…I just crunched away until I couldn’t do it anymore. Next I did planks. Planks are no joke. I set my timer for 30 seconds and dang it’s not easy. It’s getting easier but by 15 seconds I can feel the burn. After planks, I completed some modified push ups and worked on my arms using resistant bands and 5 lb weights. The last exercise I did was a combination of squats and bicep curls. By the 10th – 12th squat I could feel my heart rate go up.

My goal is to push myself to make this morning exercise habit stick…FOREVER. Not for a week or month but till the end. I want to love exercise. I want to be THAT person that jumps out of bed and can’t function without an amazing workout. That’s who I want to be. Right now I’m the person who lays in bed and thinks “I really need to get up. 5 more minutes. No I need to get up now and exercise. Okay I’ll work out later” Then guess what? It doesn’t happen. Now I don’t want you to get the impression I don’t workout at all. I drag my butt onto the treadmill 2-3 times a week. But it’s need to happen more. So, I’ll be focusing on my morning exercise habit moving forward.

Here is my schedule. The goal is to be on the treadmill by 6:30am 5 days a week. Fingers crossed!

45 minutes on the treadmill. I will do some running, power walking, and incline walking.

50 crunches using my exercise ball

2 (30- second) planks

50 modified pushups

18 tricep extensions using 5 lb weights

25 combo squats and bicep curls using 5 lb weights

Onto my meal plan…

Here’s what I’m eating this week.

Breakfast

Peach raspberry super smoothie

Just peachy green smoothie

Food Prep Tips

• smoothies can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator or freezer.

Mid-morning snack

greek yogurt

or fruit and peanut butter

Lunch

Greek turkey wrap 

Sante fe chicken salad – new recipe

Ham and swiss roll ups

Food prep tips

• The wrap and roll ups will be made the day I eat them.
• Ingredients for the Sante fe Chicken salad were made last week

Mid-afternoon snack

cheese stick or cheese and crackers

Dinner

Pasta Fagioli

Chicken and Sausage Calzones (I made this into a pizza instead)

Italian Sausage and Pepper Meatloaf – new recipe

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Broccoli and Cheddar Quinoa Bake

Food prep tips:

• Soups were made a couple weeks ago and frozen.
• Meatloaf was made last week and frozen.
• Pizza and quinoa bake will be made the night we eat