meal planning, week 5 - and more dog food.

Happy Sunday! I apologize for being such a bad blogger this week. There's been a lot on the table on all fronts, and I'm pretty sure if I got the chance to sit down, it was mostly to sleep. And eat. I never forget to eat. Ever.

On the wedding front, we had a big decision to make - we decided to cancel our local wedding reception, intended to be held two weeks after the big day in Hilton Head. As to be expected, it wasn't an easy choice, but we've decided to focus our energies and efforts towards the actual wedding celebration with just close family and friends - after the initial "bummed-ness" I felt, I'm happy to say it feels good to know that this year old build-up until the big day will now culminate in what I imagined as my dream wedding for as long as I can remember. Knowing I'm not trying to plan essentially two weddings has reduced my stress level infinitely.

In addition, on the home front, this weekend has been Operation: Fix the Leak at our house. This whole thing should really be titled "as seen on HGTV," but we've managed to make it work. It's been a long weekend for everyone, the dogs included, and I can't tell you how fantastic it is to have such supportive friends and family willing to help us out. In a nutshell, this is what my weekend looked like:

So, if you can imagine everything being taken out of our bathroom, can you begin to imagine where it all is? Yes, scattered around our house. There's a vanity in our office, drawers all over our kitchen table and a bathroom sink in our living room. There are mud rags and shovels in the entryway, and countless paper towel rolls, water bottles and dirty t-shirts in our kitchen. As most homeowners can attest to, what is supposed to be a 1-day project has turned into a full weekend of repairs, and that's assuming Rob finishes up today. To say it's put a dent in my meal planning and organized structure I live by would be an understatement. But, never fear - I've done my best.

I lost .2 at this past week's weigh-in. Am I disappointed? Absolutely. I am at the very bottom of a "decade" (a set of 10's, for those of you who don't give a damn about weight loss - ie, moving from the 140s to 130s, which is not where I am, but wish I was), and I peeked at the scale the day before weigh-in and, you guys, I was in my new decade. I was in it!

And then, because my body hates me, I got out of it for my actual weigh-in. The body is a bitch that way sometimes. Despite that, I did get a 9 mile run in on Friday - a fantastic one too, I won't even lie. I maintained an 11:09 pace, had negative splits for the first 5 miles and finished strong. More importantly, I felt strong. It's the first time in a while I've felt that confident in my running, and I hope to God it doesn't go away. I took a rest day yesterday, then hit the gym this morning where I did a timed 1 mile on the treadmill (9:26, yay!), and finished with an upper body/core strength session. I'll pick the miles back up next week, but I wanted to give myself time to recover. The best part about my house currently being a hot mess, is that the scale is buried somewhere in bathroom drawers and pulled up tile pieces, forcing me to live without it. This is so good for me.

If you didn't check in on last week's meal planning post, you can catch up here. I made a delicious new recipe - Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing (which is way too much of a mouthful, so I call it Thai quinoa salad). It. Was. Delicious. I made a dinner of it by adding Emily Bites' Thai Chicken Skewers (I made them in a pan, not on skewers on the grill), and Rob ate the leftovers all week. I'd highly recommend this!

YUM. No other caption necessary.

I had meals planned out all weekend, but late nights of leak-fixing allowed me to only make one of these and feast on the leftovers last night instead of making my second meal. Leftovers all weekend means I have a rollover meal from last week, leaving me with too many meals planned next week - if that's even possible. This week's meal plan is a little funny, just because we're not going to be around Labor Day weekend and I needed to pick up some "cookout" foods for the weekend. In addition to our normal groceries this week, I picked up soda for Rob, which is an added $10 I hate spending, but he demands on occasion. So, here are the details:

Total spent: $97 + $15 spent Friday to pick up english muffins, PB2, and some fruit
(this includes meat to last us through next weekend, 4 cases of soda on sale 4/$10)

Sunday:

Emily Bites Taco Cupcakes (rollover from last week - already have the ingredients)

Monday:

BBQ Chicken Quinoa (new recipe - pretty excited!)

Tuesday:

Emily Bites Pizza Logs,  roasted veggies

Wednesday:

Skinnytaste Meatloaf Cupcakes (I don't make the mashed potato topping), corn on the cob

Thursday:

BLTA's

Weekend: Hamburgers, chicken sausages and Schmidt's Bahama Mama's (yumsauce)

*My 1-too-many meal: garlic & herb chicken using Land O'Lakes Saute Express butter cubes (both the butter cubes and chicken, frozen, will last until next week, where we can use them one night)

Things I already had at home: all the ingredients for Taco Cupcakes (this was a rollover from last week), BBQ sauce, one giant zucchini from a co-worker's garden, and corn on the cob (I bought a bunch from the local market last week)

This week's grocery list looks as follows:

Produce:

cilantro

2 zucchini

1 yellow squash

head of lettuce

2 tomatoes

grapes (fruit for the week)

avocado (2)

white onion

Dairy:

Saute Express butter cubes, garlic & herb

2 carb-master yogurts (for snacks)

1 good block white cheddar cheese (splurge item!)

cheese slices, for hamburgers

shredded colby jack cheese

mozzarella string cheese

Meat:

chicken tenderloins

bacon

chicken sausages

Schmidt's Bahama Mama's

hamburgers (these came on sale in a pack of 10 - I separated them into two packs of 5 and froze them, so we can use them as a meal next week, too)

ground turkey

chicken breasts

pepperoni

Aisles:

egg roll wrappers

pizza sauce

soda

black beans

frozen corn

quinoa

Honestly, it was a pretty long list and I'm fairly surprised I survived for less than $100 - again, without a single coupon. I always go into panic mode when my dinner plans are thrown off course, but I've gotten fairly good at just looking at my week's meal plan, picking the meal with the least perishable items and holding it off until the following week. It takes some shifting around of what I had originally planned, but it works out. 

Lastly, I'll leave you with this little fun fact: Friday, I picked up dog food for both pups. You may remember my original post about dog food here, but this time I needed two 30-pound bags. The cashier had to have thought I was a nutcase for throwing one bag over my shoulder and asking her to lift the second bag onto my other shoulder. "I have someone who can take those out to your car, ma'am," she said to me. I told her I was fine - that I had lost 67 pounds and I needed this 60 pounds on my shoulders as a reminder of how far I've come. It sounded good in my head, but I'm pretty sure she still thinks I'm crazy. Regardless, by the time I got to my car, I was winded, my knees hurt and I was already sweating.

This is what 60 pounds looks like. This is what I carried on my body for years, never realizing how much easier my life could be without it. These two bags of dog food are a constant reminder that I shouldn't fuss over the minor details, and a visual representation of what I carried around with my every day. I'm so thankful for these two bags of dog food, you will never ever know. I will carry them out every single day until I am 90 years old and cannot lift them any longer. I don't need the extra weight, but I need these bags, and I will for the rest of my life.

Here's to a great week!