Can you believe a week has passed since I made it public that I wanted to lose the last 5 kilos? Talk about being vulnerable. And accountable. Did you manage to make any changes this week? I was able to focus on my portion control and not overdo my main meals and snacks. My jeans are a little looser and the scale is definitely on its way down again.

Meal planning was the one thing I was hoping to achieve but I just couldn’t find the time. With 11 people in our home, finding a quiet time is proving to be difficult. Even while I am sleeping, I get two or three visitors through the night. I guess there is always tomorrow.

This week I will make sure I squeeze some time in for meal planning as it is a great way for me to stay on top of what I eat. I will also make an effort to fit more incidental exercise in. We recently returned from a week away where we walked along the beach and headlands and my heart was bursting with joy! I just love the ocean and if I lived near the beach, fitting in my daily walks would be a breeze. I don’t live near the beach and right now we are in the middle of a drought, the driest this area has seen in 106 years. Dirt, dust and brown abound.

To be honest, taking a walk during a drought is just unappealing with all the colour sapped from the scenery. I think the only solution is to make the effort to get more incidental exercise in. Last week I walked up and down from our main house to our cottage, which we are renovating, a few more times than normal. It is 100 m each way with a small hill on the return journey. Most times I need something from the cottage I will send one of the children but this past week I sent myself. Each time I walked up and down that 100 m, I had a strangely euphoric feeling of having done something good for myself. I also vacuumed the living areas of the house in one session making sure I kept up a good pace. I used music to help me move around faster and found that it elevated my mood and motivation. Not exciting stuff but enough to make a small difference.

Here is my quickly thrown together plan of meals for the coming week.

Weekly Menu Plan

I rotate the options through the week. I try and eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours as I am still almost exclusively feeding my 8 month old. I have a lovely little menu planner I use to hand write my menu each week. You may have one too, if not you can print out this beautiful one from Bonnie Walker. The menu is nothing fancy as the first week back at school is always harried. I need quick and easy and something that everyone will eat. I hope it will give you some ideas.

Breakfasts 

S – 2 eggs fried in coconut oil served with rocket drizzled with olive oil and balsamic (add toast for the hubby and kids)

S – yoghurt with raspberry coulis, add some toasted muesli for the kids

S – omelette with onion, bacon, and mushroom, served with rocket drizzled with olive oil and balsamic (add toast for the kids)

E – toasted chocolate muesli (p. 255 new THM cookbook) with raspberries and a collagen tea for extra protein – my kids LOVE this breakfast

E – porridge with 1/4 cup blueberries and sweetened with xylitol or super sweet blend – for extra protein, I either have a collagen tea or add 0% greek yoghurt

E – THM pancakes p. 259 for me and soaked wheat pancakes for the kids. This is a standard Saturday breakfast for us and has been for years. We cook the pancakes on the bbq to make it super quick. Serve with berry coulis and yoghurt for me and maple syrup and butter for the kids.

Lunch

We find soups easy to make and easy on the budget so they feature a lot in our weekly menus. All meals are served with wholemeal bread and butter for the kids.

Either a tomato soup (S) or lentil soup (E), we have lots of different variations of these so we don’t get bored

S – A big salad with a tin tuna or salmon, drizzled with olive oil

E – A big salad with chicken breast and 3/4 cup of brown rice or quinoa

Dinner

S – Bangin Ranch Drums (p.162 new book) with Sweet Creamy Coleslaw (p.230 new book), with rice for kids

E – Chilli Con Carne with green beans and rice (using kangaroo mince which is low in fat)

S – Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

E – All Day Channa Dhal Soup (p.311 original THM Book)

S – Spaghetti Bolognaise served with troodles for me and high fibre noodles for the kids

S – BBQ meat and salad – great for having guests over, serve with crusty bread for non-THMers

Snacks

E – apple or orange with a few almonds or a collagen tea

E – hummus with a small handful of corn chips

FP – 2 ryvittas with laughing cow cheese and vegemite

FP – Cottage Berry Whip (p.379 Original book)

S – Skinny Chocolate

S – Chocolate fudge brownies with a small amount of cream