Cooking More and Eating Healthier: Part 523,345

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have jumped on the "I'm going to try to cook more/eat healthier" bandwagon just to fall right off and face plant.  Probably more times than I would like to admit to. My biggest issues excuses:

• When I get home from work, unless there is a meal planned with all the ingredients ready to go, I tend to come with excuses not to cook.  
• Even when there is a meal planned, Hubs or I will decide that it no longer sounds that great.
• I always tell myself that I will wake up a little earlier in the morning to pack my lunch.  After hitting the snooze button 5 times and running around like a batshit crazy woman to get out the door for work, my lunch becomes nonexistent.  
• When I do buy fruit and vegetables for lunch and dinner it sometimes goes to waste because I forget that it is there.  Or when I do remember that it is in the fridge I don't feel like/don't have time to cut it up.

As we can see, the root of my problem is:

1. Lack of preparation
2. Laziness

So, I finally put my foot down and said that I am going to change my ways!  Hubs and I created a few excel spreadsheets to help us.  Spreadsheet #1 - we wrote down every meal we have made in the past (let me tell you, that is a pretty short list). Eventually we will go back through and categorize every meal so that we can sort the list by different criteria.  We are AWESOME HUGE NERDS!  Spreadsheet #2 - we then picked out four meals that sounded good for the week ahead.  Only four you ask? Baby steps people! Baby steps! Plus, we always go out to dinner with my parents one night a week.  Under each meal I wrote down the ingredients I would need for said meals. Spreadsheet #3 - my grocery list. 

While grocery shopping I also picked up an assortment of fresh fruit.  As soon as I got home I started cutting, cleaning and dividing all the fruit into individual containers that we could just grab a container out of the fridge for our lunch.

 Doesn't this look yummy!?  Watermelon, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

 All my containers prior to putting them in the fridge.

So, how did Day 1 of cooking more and eating healthier go?!? GREAT!

For dinner last night I made lemon pepper chicken, rice, and Irish potatoes. I put the leftovers in a container for lunch today.  This morning I grabbed the leftovers and a container of fruit to take to work with me for lunch.  I EVEN did all the prep work for tonight's dinner last night (Shish kabobs, corn on the cob, wild rice, and Gorgonzola bread.....mmmmmm)! Who is this girl?!?  

Hopefully this trend continues......fingers crossed! :-)

Have a fabulous Tuesday!