5th Week Using Mommy Meal Planner

This week I had to go to the tracking portion of the my pyramid website. I finished with clearing out the meal planner for a couple of weeks and thought I would take the next step and go to the tracker. You need to devote 10 minutes a day to this and do it after dinner. If you forget when you login you need to select the day that you are entering for before you go to food intake. Once you have entered your food you go to the analyze step and you select the my pyramid option and it will show you where you are lacking for the food groups. I felt comfortable with this since the prior three weeks in the meal planner I never went over my calorie intake. I see that I just need to switch to eating better foods. The main 2 things for me were the lack of veggies and meat in my diet. I found that is I followed my meal planner I barely got all my food groups in and had to eat veggies for snacks to fill that food group. In this process it has cut out all the junk. Next week is Christmas so I am going to skip all this and know that by default I will choose better food choices. For the new year I am adding my 2.5 year old and my husband and we will continue from there. Thanks for reading this and I am excited for the Meal Planner and the success it will have in your family just like it did in mine!

Forth Week Using The Mommy Meal Planner

Here we are in week 4! This week I was so busy with getting ready for Christmas that I did not input my food intake. I found this actually to be a good thing in my progress. I was able to stick to my plan and keep track of all this myself without inputting into the computer. I found myself adding veggies to my meals without even thinking about it. I found myself preplanning my meals for the day and trying to get all my food groups in. I also used all the tips and ate the healthier snacks that I had in the house. Someone was telling me about a good recipe and I also found myself altering it to fit into my pyramid that we have created. When I did have time to sit down at the end of the week, I pulled up my week before since it was very similar. I pulled the reports on the days and I found that I continue not to meet my veggies. My Pyramid gave this list of helpful hints that I will use next week.

	Snack on celery sticks in the afternoon.
	Add a green vegetable like broccoli or bok choy to dinner.
	Stock up on frozen vegetables for quick and easy side dishes.
	Try a main dish salad for lunch. Go easy on the dressing and toppings!
	Buy pre-washed bags of salad greens, baby carrots or grape tomatoes.
	Keep a bowl of cut-up veggies in a see-through container in the refrigerator.
	Grill vegetable kebobs as part of a barbecue meal. Try tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions.
	Include a salad with dinner.
	Include cooked dry beans or peas in mixed dishes such as chili or minestrone soup.

I will apply these next week and make it a part of my pyramid to hold me accountable. The week after that I plan to add my husband and my 2.5 year old to my plan and expand this to the entire family.

Third Week Using Mommy Meal Planner

Wow! I am so glad that I set these small weekly goals for myself and I am really seeing and feeling the difference and so is my family. I had never thought about food groups as much as I do now. This week I made the veggie chili and the shrimp and orzo dish on Monday. I ate these through the week as my meals. Both were great and my husband loved them both as well. This week I also had the turkey sandwiches with TURKEY BACON. I thought I would never do or like this item and I love it. This week I used the menu planner option on the website. This is allowing me to see how many of each food group I am eating. It has helped me with adding additional meats and veggies to my meals and snacks through the day. I see that my extra calorie intake is too high each day. Next week, I am going to look at my menu planner this week and make a menu for the next week and stick to it. I feel that this will help with my extra calories as well. I already see a difference in my mind set when it comes to eating. Just this morning I had to choose between fruit and a cookie. The old me cookie all the way! The new me ~ 1/2 cup of fruit, that I put on my planner right when I got home with a smile. I had no idea that this was going to feel so good and be so fun. This is a daily exercise that I am building a new pattern for my eating patterns. I will reach out to Ellen this week so we can discuss the high calories before I create me meal plan for the next week. Thanks~

Second Week Using The Mommy Meal Planner

Well here we are in week two and I am still following this plan and I am thrilled! This week I was able to do at least two meals a day since I used some meals that I froze from the week before. I also had a cooking day on Monday and made the lasagna and the lentil stew and ate those through the week. My husband did like the stew. I add a side item for him with these meals so they are a starting point for the entire family. I am going to add my healthy snacks to the mix for next week and then maybe desserts the next week. I do feel better. I also have seen the difference when I work out, that I do get hungry faster than I did before. I guess I am running through the good nutrients that I am getting. I did pair this with a workout from my friend that is helping me with personal training. I know that I am on my way to success to a healthier life. I am still using the online shopping from Harris Teeter being that I am still trying new items. After I finish this week I would have used all the recipes from the book and will pick my favorites and start seeing where the best place to get these items for the best value will be. Thanks Ellen~

First Week Using The Mommy Meal Planner

Wow! This is a total lifestyle change for me and my family. I have never been the cook and have no idea how I have gone so long living like I have. Ellen gave me my meal planning guide this week. At first I decided I was going to try to follow this plan for all three meals. Then after a day I realized that maybe aiming for one meal a day would be more realistic. She encourages you to go at your own pace and trust me you will find this fast~ I decided that I would use the Harris Teeter Express Lane to get my grocery list completed that she provided. I have a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old and trying to find 50 new items in the store may be a challenge. If you go to our website you will see a coupon that will allow you to use this service for free. I completed my list and was very pleased when I was unpacking the groceries to see all my new items.

I looked at my weekly meal planner before each meal and decided what I had time to make and went from there. At lunch two days this week, I made full recipes and divided the servings and froze the ones I did not eat. This means two days next week I already have lunches done. One evening I was able to save a serving as well and will eat this for lunch this week. My week was packed with dinners out. Even though I was not eating exactly what was on my list I found myself making such an effort to cut out little things that normally I would not even have noticed on my plate.

Since I am breastfeeding it is very important for me to have access to healthy snacks during the day. A huge bowl of apples was a great way for me to meet this need. I am not a huge breakfast person, but I find I do have time for breakfast in the morning. So I have started eating a good breakfast and find that I am less likely to eat junk for lunch because of the lack of time.

On my list was soy milk and creamer. I thought there is no way. This is one thing I will not do. Well. well. well. I love soy creamer! In her helpful hints for me and my diet she recommends me cutting down from 4 cups of coffee to 2 and then having green tea instead in the afternoons. I am going to aim for this next week. I may surprise myself and get to three meals a day from the planner and then aim to use the meal tracker the next week!

Helpful hint - When using online shopping use few words to get more results. Example instead of whole wheat english muffins, use wheat english muffins.

***My husband has been very impressed with the meals so far and eating them with me:)

Welcome!

We are so excited about coming together and creating this network for mommies in the Charlotte area. After having two children of my own and surrounding myself with mommies, I have come to see that there is a need for The Mommy Pod!

We are here to help you conquer the daily activities required in being the best mom you can be! We are going to be your helping hands by offering services that you can afford. We found that at the end of our days of running around we never really get done what we set out to do.

So we need goals and we need someone to hold us accountable to these goals and help us reach these goals. We are in the process of negotiating special deals for all the members of The Mommy Pod.

We know that being a mom is a 24 hour job, especially with new ones that are up all night. What a better time to focus on your goals. We offer everything electronically through email and questionnaires. This way you can do this on your time and not ours.

We are also sponsoring Trunk Shows where we are going to showcase products from other moms. We are also going to use this as a hub to purchase other product offerings as well.