Healthy Eating part 2a

Phase 1 ended up being a success!! ~well... mostly...

The success:
Having apple slices and the grapes w/o vines ended up giving us quick easy snacks to grab.  The added bonus was that since we were looking in the refrigerator for fruit snacks we also ate more oranges and carrots.
The problem:
we drastically underestimated how much of these things we would eat- and ate through most of the fruit early on in the week.  Veggies were largely untouched 'cause we went for the sweet things first.  Also the sweet fruits were more visible in the fridge then the veggies.  Also the apple slices went a little brown because I was lazy when I packaged them.
The Solution:
Instead of having containers dedicated to just one type of fruit or vegetable we will have fruits and veggies sharing snack containers.  So it will actually be a snack instead of a bunch of pre-cut fruits and veggies randomly thrown into the fridge.  Also; looked up how to keep apples fresher and will be trying some new things this next week.

The next success:
We snacked better!
The problem:
we still ended up going out to eat or otherwise grabbing fatty pre-prepared food because we still didn't end up having time to cook every night.  The other problem is our schedule but I'll get to that in a minute.
The Solution:
This next week we will have a menu for each day- and a more 'restricted' amount of food to eat.

The goal here is both to eat better and to lose weight.  We both want to lose about 100 lbs each by next year.  On the eating better thing: we are hoping to raise our kids with good habits so that they will be able to take care of themselves on their own.

So for this next week- I'm putting together a menu, shopping list and master plan for the next week.  I'll post it Monday for anyone who is curious (Healthy Eating part 2b).  Within that meal plan we will have the following things:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
2 snacks
and Juice (like the green juices you hear so much about)

The Juicing is something we tried over the summer and it was amazing how much more energy we had and also how it curbed our appetites so we were not eating as much nor did we desire as much junk food.  (the reason we stopped would be a very long story so I'll have to share it later)

Since it is a holiday weekend admittedly I've been spending more time with my family and less time preparing food or even doing homework (oops!) but tomorrow I'm back to reality and will have to start working on practical things again.  That is why I'm not posting the meal plan until Monday- which is also the day I'm going to go shopping and prepare all the food.

So for now that is what I leave you with.

~Nikkie