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Healthy Living On A Budget: Dining In

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Earlier this week we discussed dining out now lets talk about eating in.

How can eating at home help?

You have control – You have all of the control. You can control: the portion sizes, the quality of ingredients and the costs. When we eat at home we are able to buy high quality ingredients to make dishes that are tasty, healthy and better fit our budget. You can control the salt and the fat, which helps you take control of your diet.

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Meal Planning Tips:

– Plan you menu for the week and make a grocery list. Make sure to include snacks and drinks on your list. Planning will help you to stay on track and to cut costs.
– Focus on simple, healthy meals during the week and one “WOW” dinner on the weekend. When you keep things simple you reduce stress and the desire to eat out. The “WOW” dinner is a replacement for eating out; make something special and make an event out of it. One of our favorite things to do is pick a movie and create a meal that follows the theme of the movie.
– Have a prep day. One of the biggest challenges many of us face is time. Take one day per week, I find Sundays work well for me, and prep your meals for the week. This helps things run smoothly through the week and you will have more time doing the things you want, rather than being in the kitchen all night.
– Buy in bulk and portion out. I love to buy nuts, seeds and dried fruit in bulk for snacks. When I get home I portion them out into little containers so they are easy to grab and go. This is also great to do with other snacks such as veggie sticks and hummus or whole grain crackers and salsa.
– Keep it simple and have fun.

My New Polar RC3 GPS & My 9-Week Plan

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The following post is sponsored by Fitfluential LLC on behalf of Polar. As always all opinions are my own.

This month I had planned to run 1-mile per day and well lets just say that hasn’t been a success.  What has been a success is getting back into working out and I attribute that to making a plan, sticking to it and honestly new gear. I have to say working out is so much more exciting when I have a new outfit, piece of equipment or new gear like my Polar RC3 GPS.

polar rc3 lindsay

I have been in need of a new GPS watch for running for awhile now and have been really loving my Polar RC3 GPS. I was a little skeptical about it at first and whether it would live up to my standards but in all honesty it has exceeded them. Prior to this watch I never used my heart rate monitor; I just never really saw the point. Well with the Polar RC3 GPS I find if you want really accurate stats that it is necessary to wear it. I was expecting the heart rate monitor to be uncomfortable and really distracting but I didn’t even notice it until I was about an hour into my workout it was that comfortable.

I now find myself wearing my Polar RC3 GPS on walks, runs, and out hiking with the family. I love having all my stats right there at a push of the button. When we went hiking I could track elevation which was really awesome and of course time, distance, heart rate, and calories burned. The other amazing thing about this watch is the battery life. It last 12 hours with the GPS on and for someone who is always forgetting to charge electronics this is great.

polar rc3

Overall I have been thrilled with the Polar RC3 GPS.  The only real cons I have experienced so far is the watch band isn’t my favorite. I find that it sticks a bit when trying to tighten it and well currently that’s it. So really just a minor complaint about the watch so far.

Now on to my 9-week training plan. I have been working on getting back into running. After my quarter marathon I really just had no desire to run and every time I laced my shoes up and headed out the door I dreaded my run and so I just took a break. I didn’t run at all in July and it felt good but by the end of the month I started to crave running again <– wahoo! I had planned to do a mile per day but due to poor planning and a broken BOB I missed a few days so I decided to regroup. Not only do I need to get back into running, I also want to do more strength training and yoga, so that’s when I made a plan.

9weekworkout

I really do so much better when I have a training plan. I know what I need to do and it feels good to cross workouts off my agenda. So I have decided to go back to Couch to 5k, I used my SpaFinder gift certificate I have been holding onto for over a year to buy credits to the yoga studio across the street and I am going to do the strength training and fit test from Best Body Bootcamp. I am also going to use my new Polar RC3 GPS to track my runs and any other activity I do.

I’m ready to get back to my fit self and have a few other topics to blog about regarding this topic like knowing when to take a break, using your baby as a reason to workout not an excuse and not related to working out but to getting back to a healthy state, the return to meal planning.

My Heart Goes Out To Boston

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Sending my love and thoughts to Boston and all those at the marathon.

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Such an amazing event that I had the privilege of spectating at in 2006 while living and studying in Boston.

It saddens me that something so horrific could occur at such an inspiring race.  My thoughts go out to all of those participating in the event runners, organizers, volunteers, those spectating, the families and the people of Boston.

Big News: We Are…..

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NOT! Ever since I started talking about our big news I have had tons of people ask if it is that we have baby #2 on the way. I’m only five months postpartum! Let me tell you we are actively trying NOT to get pregnant (birth control all the way- ParaGard IUD for those who are interested). I don’t know how people have two (or three) under two I think I’d lose my mind! We will be sticking to one child.

Stay tuned for the real big news.

I’d Love To Hear What You Think

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It’s been awhile since I have reached out and asked your thoughts.  Things have really changed around here from making the transition from CVL to RWT, to leaving my office job to be a full time stay-at-home-mom/health coach/blogger/freelance writer and oh yeah I had a baby.

Now that I am home I am spending more time focusing on the blog as well as our family blog so I am really looking for your feed back on what your likes and dislikes are on the blog, what you think about the look/layout and what you would like to see more or less of.

So for those of you reading this in your reader here is what RWT looks like right now:

I think that over the years I have really made some improvements to the blog and have evolved from a recipe centric blog to a healthy living, lifestyle focused blog (hence the transition form CVL to RWT).  So now I’m asking you to take a few minutes to provide some constructive feedback. If you can’t answer the survey in your reader head on over to the RWT mainsite and fill it out (pretty please).

Thank you your feedback is appreciated so much!