Weekly Menu Planning

So this weekend, I made the plunge and joined weight watchers.  I'm not sure if it was seeing my skinny ass sister who had a baby 2.5 weeks before me try on wedding dresses, if it's the fact that I have to wear a bridesmaids dress in the spring or more if I generally feel crappy about myself and my body, but something pushed me over the edge.  I really want to learn how to eat healthier and set a good example for my kids.  Hopefully this will encourage Kayla to eat better as well.

So I'm tackling a few items on my 101 list all at once.

#67: Plan weekly meals for 3 months.
#21: Lose 15 pounds
#10: Learn to cook 10 different dishes

#21 is looking more like "lose 30 pounds" to me, but we can start with 15 and go from there.  I've already been trying to cook a little bit more to help Justin bear some of that burden.  We bought the Weelicious Cookbook to try to encourage Kayla to eat better and more varied foods (so far this is a failure.)  But, we've made Chicken Parmesan Wheels, Chicken and Cheese Taquitos with Avocado Lime dipping sauce and Chicken Mac N Cheese Bites.  Last night we also attempted oven baked fries and Vegg-Wee Burgers.  They smelled excellent but for some reason it didn't work out like we planned, so we ended up ordering Jimmy John's and we might try those again another day.

I'm thinking weight watchers will really help me focus on healthy eating and portion control so I'm looking forward to it.  I also firmly believe that weekly menu planning will help Justin and I avoid wanting to eat out because it's easier.  If we already have a plan and bought all the ingredients for specific dinners it would be a waste.  So it looks like I may be going to the grocery store at least once a week but we'll see if we can work it so that the meals we plan use similar ingredients.

I'm also planning on starting to try to get some workouts in.  Eventually, I'd love to find a great spin place near me so I can start doing spin classes (another item on my 101 list), but for now, I need to find cheap and easy activities.  So I'm staring with Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (even though I hate it and it's boring as crap).  I may start running (even though I hate that too, at least it will give me 30 minutes with just me and my thoughts.)  I'm also considering P90X or a Beach Body workout program and forcing Justin to do it with me.  Anyone have any experience with any of those programs??

I'm really looking forward to focusing my life more on the things I enjoy and less on T.V.  Sorry to all my friends/family who like to talk shows with me, they are just going to have to take a backseat to more important things like my health, my photos and my family.  (And my job and hopefully house hunting soon.)