Fitness after 50. Week 7. Meal Plan AND a Giveaway.

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This is my new series about fitness. I am certainly no expert. Posts will be about what’s working for me. There will definitely be running plans, flexibility, and basic weight lifting. You can also expect nutrition ideas, recipes, and, well, ~~probably lots~~ maybe a little bit of whining. 😉
I hope I have the courage to tell you about the failures.
If you’d like to read the premise for all of this, take a look at these previous posts.

Rest and Heal
Week 1. Book Review
Week 2. Plan for Stair Climbing
Week 3. Basic Workout from a Trainer
Week 4. Weight Loss Challenge
Week 5. Breakfast Recipe
Week 6. Walking Strategy

Week 7. Meal Prep

I want to talk about cooking dinner most days. Don’t get me wrong. We like going to restaurants, but consider that to be once a week treats for the weekend, not a daily habit. Sometimes you’ll see us drive thru a burger joint, but only in a pinch.
Handsome Husband and I share kitchen duty. Sometimes he cooks, sometimes I cook. Other times we cook together. There’s something very sexy about cooking together. I love being in the kitchen with him working side by side, occasionally brushing against him. He’s such an attractive man. Oh, wait. Where was I? Food. Right.

(Any photos of him generate beard care questions. He shops HERE)
You might remember I’ve had two surgeries this past year. When I was in physical therapy, I would be completely sapped of strength afterward. I got to come home to a lovely plate ready to eat. He’s a really good guy! 😉

About a year ago, though, we were in a strange rut, tired of all our favorite recipes. Neither of us wanted to cook or go grocery shopping, and both of us were being pretty dang grouchy about it. Local restaurants were seeing us more and more. One of my co-workers had tried Blue Apron, and had some free meals to give away, so we gave that a shot and liked it!
Here’s what happens. You go on their site and choose your menu preferences. Then they overnight a box that’s sort of like a cooler with all the ingredients you need along with detailed recipes. If you need one carrot, you get one carrot. If only one egg is needed, only one egg is sent. Sometimes we receive ingredients we’ve never even heard of before which is pretty cool. It’s always fun to try something new! Over time, you “earn” free meals to share with friends. Our favorite neighbors like Hello Fresh, very similar to Blue Apron, and we swapped free meals. We enjoy Hello Fresh now, too! When the meal kits first began, we requested weekly deliveries until we started missing our longtime family favorites. These days, we alternate weeks. One week we get a delivery which reduces shopping time by quite a bit. That’s nice. The next week, we go to the grocery store and pick up items for our standbys. Any leftovers land in our lunch boxes. We are definitely back in the habit of cooking most evenings.
I said all THAT to say THIS.
While eating out can be fun (and you don’t have to clean up afterward, which is great) nutritionally, it can be quite the land mine. It’s important that we plan and cook our own meals, knowing the ingredients and controlling the amount of salt, sugar, fats and portion size that lands on our plate. We do not eliminate any food groups, as boredom can be a big problem around here. Not everything we cook is super low calorie either.

No matter how much we exercise, we have to eat well to maintain a healthy weight range.
Giveaway

If you live in the United States and would like to try the delivery boxes, I have a few free meals I can give away. Just message me below that you’re interested. I’ll need your name and email address so please send that to me at
Stone (dot) Cottage (dot) Adv (at) cox (dot) net
If you’re not in the US, or just don’t like the idea of groceries being delivered, here are some