Tag: healthyliving

Easy Meal Prep Ideas – Lunch

Easy Meal Prep Ideas Lunch

Lunch prep saves me on so many occasions when I start to feel hungry and need to eat a meal. I can be very indecisive (Libra tendency) when it comes to what I would like to eat (Just ask my husband when we are trying to figure out what to eat for dinner), so it is best for me to have some “go-to” items in my kitchen, or on the go that I will eat and not be tired of it. Some of my easy meal prep ideas for lunch are listed below.

  1. Greek Yogurt – I tend to pick up the singe serve packages. I like to catch them on a sale at my local supermarket when they are 10 for $10 when I can, or I usually pick them up from the membership store (i.e. Costco, BJ’s, Sam’s). In addition, I get the smaller tub of plain Greek yogurt so I can add fresh or frozen fruit to them. I also add granola to my yogurt for a nice crunch and additional sweetness.
  2. Fruit/Cut Veggies – These are easy foods to add on to leftovers from the fridge, or to pair up with some cold cuts or rotisserie chicken.  My fave fruit to have on hand – apples, oranges, clementines, melons, peaches/nectarines, plums, berries, pineapple, mango, grapes, cherries. My fave veggies for snacking – cucumber, bell peppers, celery, shishito peppers, grape/cherry tomatoes, carrots.
  3. Rotisserie Chicken – Whether I’ve prepared chicken at home or I’ve bought chicken from the supermarket, I love to have this on hand so that I can eat it warm or cold with veggies. I pair it with cut veggies, with a fruit salad, or I make a chicken quesadilla.
  4. Cold Cuts – I love to have cold cuts on hand to make quick sandwiches with either whole wheat bread, rolls, croissants, pita bread or tortillas. I also will roll up the meat (turkey or ham) with cheese to pair with my veggies or fruit. It is an easy way to get in some protein with your meal.
  5. Chips/Crackers/Pretzels – I love to have a salty crunch with my meal, and in moderation, it is fine to have chips or crackers or pretzels. I always portion out my snack and put it on the plate with my meal, or in a small bowl to pair with my lunch. This helps with my portion size, and when I have finished that portion, I ma not as likely to go back again to fill this container again.

These are some of my choices to regularly have on hand in my kitchen. I can easily put a meal together either to go to work with me or to have for lunch over the weekend while at home with the family. This helps relieve me of something I call “food choice exhaustion/indecision”. The less I have to think about what I have to eat, the more I can make effective food choices to support the life that I am working to build for my health.

Working out While Injured

Foot Brace to hold my toe in place.

I broke my toe. I stubbed my toe on my 10-pound weight while going to open up the window so I can get air to finish out my workout hour at home. I didn’t pay attention to where I was walking, and I stubbed my index toe (the toe next to the big toe) on the 10-pound weight. I heard a crack, and I KNEW that was not a good sound to hear.

Now that that is out of the way, I want to let you know that I still worked out right after the stubbing happened – I had a 15 min stretch of workout left.  Yes, I was working out while injured. It hurt, but I figured that the pain could dwindle down by the nights end. Please know that this is not the right thing to do, and I advocate halting all activity if you feel an injury occurred that is outside of your pain threshold. The pain in my toe did not dwindle down by night’s end. I visited urgent care the next morning for an x-ray to confirm what I was dreading – I have a toe fracture.

How do you workout when you have a toe fracture? You workout intentionally and carefully. There are many upper body workouts that can be done: bicep curls, tricep extensions, shoulder press, and variations of the aforementioned. You can even perform pushups (modified by using the wall instead of pushing your body up from the floor). But, what do you do when you want to do lower body workouts? We look for exercises that would not require weight placement on the foot that is injured. One main exercise that I am looking into placing into my rotation – leg lifts. Outer leg lifts, inner leg lifts, diagonal outer leg lifts and diagonal inner leg lifts. All of these lifts I will complete on the floor. In terms of squats, there is an opportunity for me to start doing one legged squats, lifting the leg that is injured in the air, and holding on to a pole or the back of a chair (the same side of the injured foot that is lifted). These are some of the exercises that I am looking to incorporate into my regimen while my toe is mending.

In visiting the foot specialist, it has been determined that the healing of the toe would be approximately 4 to 6 weeks. This can occur given the boot for my foot is worn the majority of the time, I tape up my toe according to how the foot specialist showed me (which was not the way I was advised to tape up the toe from the urgent care doctor), and I minimize the movement of my toe. 

Key takeaways I have learned as a result of my injury –

*Always listen to your gut/inner self

*Listen to the advice of medical professionals

*Work within your means

*Have GRACE with what your body can do

Workouts I can do with a foot injury –

*Leg lifts (outer leg)

*Leg lifts (inner leg)

*Fire hydrants

There are definitely modifications that I can find for additional leg exercises, but I am going to keep it simple for the next week and focus mostly on upper body workouts and core exercises.

The one thing I know for certain that I will do is to keep going. I will find ways to workout my body, which doesn’t add stress to my foot. Although I will miss my go to lower body workouts, I know that I will not have to avoid doing these workouts forever and this is what needs to be done now so I can heal by toe as best as I can.