Make A Plan Monday {3}

Welcome to a new week!!

I am happy to report that I got my butt off the couch this weekend and am definitely reaping the rewards.  It's crazy how important it is to get moving, especially at this time of year when the winter blues come crashing in.  Check out this post from Peace, Love, & Oats about fighting the winter blues!

Cody is due home today, as are his Dad and brother who are coming down for a snowboarding trip and visit.  I am keeping my expectations of myself low this week as I know I'll feel busy with visiting and hostessing, so just want to focus on a few things:

• Keep healthy options available, and choose them over snacky/socializing foods
• Try to get out for walks or do some yoga (see below for my yoga discovery)
• Keep the house tidy and laundry caught up to help me feel calm and organized

And that's it!  Other than that I plan on visiting and hopefully going out for dinner one night.

Instead of structuring a menu plan for this week's dinners I just came up with a list of ideas and bought the ingredients, this way we can go with what everyone feels like that night:

Dinners for the week of January 27-31

Root Beer Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Quinoa Crusted Sole in Chili Lime Marinade

Barbeque Bacon Burger

Pedal and Tap

Butternut Squash Chipotle Chili

Quinoa Bowl with Tofu or Prawns

Remember to check out Food I'm Loving Friday for my fave eats from that week.

Source

In exercise news, although my week seemed off to a horrendous start I finished on a positive note.  

Saturday I got out for a great walk in the community forest with my pals Danielle and Kirsten which felt so great!!  Fresh air and conversation with friends is the best!  We walked for around an hour and then parted ways.  I then went to my parents house and they were just headed out for a neighborhood walk, so I joined them for another 45 mins or so.  It was icy on both of my walks which translates to some sore inner thighs from trying to hold myself up!  Luckily I managed to not bail, which is pretty rare for me :)

Sunday I had big plans of doing something but by the time I finished cleaning and organizing it was evening and I was beat!!  Danielle and  Kirsten had been talking about yoga the day before and that thought sent me to old faithful (Google) to see if I could find some sort of online class.  I found a great website called Do Yoga With Me that allows you to filter skill level and class length so I completed my first yoga class and loved it!!!

I hope your week is off to a positive start!!

XO - Michelle

Food I'm Loving Friday {3}

Well, this week.  What a doozy!  I think the winter blues are setting in because boy oh boy there was not a lot of activity going on this week for me!  Food I’m Loving Friday is a one recipe Friday this week as I didn’t get nearly as much food making in as I had hoped, but that’s ok.

Butternut Squash Chipotle Chili with Avocado

I didn't even take a picture, oops.  This recipe from Cookie and Kate looked amazing, and I am so glad I made the decision to choose this chili instead of the other gazillion options out there.  Peeling a squash sounds like a huge pain in the butt, but it actually was quite easy.  I followed these instructions and it was no big deal.  I couldn't find a butternut squash when I was at Save-On so went with an acorn and it was really good.  Definitely try this recipe!!!

I didn't work out this week at all either, and that is something I really want to rectify next week as well as actually cooking some food.  I have my Rip:60 plan ready to go, but would be happy even just getting away for a walk.  Gotta start somewhere.

Happy Friday!!