It’s Monday again, time to get your weekly Fit Mission assignment.

This weekend I went to a wedding in Atlanta, where I was hoping I would get a taste of some good Southern cooking.  For the most part, we did great eating wise all weekend.  I had some pumpkin pancakes with turkey bacon and maple syrup for breakfast one morning, and yogurt topped with the BEST homemade granola I’ve ever tasted from a little shop called Full Cup another day! We went to Whole Foods and enjoyed their buffet twice (I had a soup and salad each time).  But, being in “Hotlanta” I just had to get a taste of some Southern cooking.  Well lo and behold my prayers were answered!  The wedding had some good down home cooking with a fancy twist, like fried green tomatoes with goat cheese and a red pepper coulis sauce. It was delicious!  So yes, that night I admit I had my fill, and today I’m back to my better eating habits.

I share this with you so you can remember that I, like you, am NOT PERFECT.  I don’t eat 100% clean, organic, or fat free all of the time.  I believe that I can indulge in something yummy,  as long as I don’t indulge in it daily!  I read a good little book on the plane called “Dump the Junk for Parents” by Dr. Joseph Christiano and one thing he said stuck in my head, “Your goal is progress, not perfection.” This little quote should really help some of you (I know it was encouraging to me).

My parents grew up in Mississippi, and my mom cooked a lot of Southern food.  We had a lot of fried chicken, fried catfish, smothered pork chops, fried shrimp, meatloaf, you get the picture.  My dad did not believe a plate was worthy to  be set before us if it didn’t have meat on it.  He’d say, “Where’s the Meat???!!!!”  You couldn’t go to a restaurant that just gave you pancakes, he’d have to order a big side of bacon, and sausage, and eggs to go with it!  Or, we’d just go to a place where he’d order a 4×4.  Which was 4 pancakes, 4 sausages, 4 slices of bacon and 4 eggs!  He LOVED these types of combos, but these types of meals are what contributed to his untimely death a few years ago.  And, this is why I’m trying to retrain myself, and teach my family to eat differently.

From now on my goal is to have every Monday to be the day of the week that we go MEATLESS.  I will call it Meatless Monday.  I’d like to challenge you to do the same.  Let’s start to retrain our minds.  We do not need to eat meat everyday ladies.  There are other alternatives to get your protein in.  Give your digestive system a little break.

Dr. Oz said that “women who eat large amounts of red meat more than once a week actually have 50 percent higher chance of dying of heart disease. They also have higher cancer rates”.

The Mayo Clinic website says “sure, a healthy diet can include an occasional steak or chop. But people who eat mainly plant-based diets generally have lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels and a reduced risk of heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.”  Cutting out meat once a week can be a good start for some of you. Check out this link to expand your knowledge on meat free meal alternatives.

Here’s a very important fact to remember “The average American eats around 75 grams of protein per day, but most women need just 50 grams,” says Walter Willett, M.D., chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School for Public Health.  And that protein doesn’t have to come from meat.”   Check with your doctor for how much you need.

Who’s with me? We’ d love to hear some good meatless meal ideas below!

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

My friend Jen in front of a mound of chicken she diced

16 burritos, 8 for each family from our OAMC "Big Day"

This Mission Monday is a little bit different in that you are mostly doing research this week.  On what you ask?? Once A Month Cooking! What is it?  Once a month cooking, or freezer cooking as it is sometimes called, is a great way to save you both time over the month and money!  What could be better than that, saving you both time and money??  The day you decide to do your OAMC you cook all of your meals in 1 day for the month!  Yes, you read that right, all of the meals for the month will be cooked in 1 day!  Some of you may be overwhelmed just reading this.  It is a lot of work, I won’t lie, but it’s worth it!

September 9, 2010 I did my first OAMC day!  Was I scared to death? YES!  Was I afraid I would spend a crazy amount of money buying all of the ingredients in Southern California?  YES!  Did I think I may not make it?  YES!  But, all of my fears went away because I found a great website, that gave me a step by step plan!  You see this website has a monthly menu, and step by step instructions for you and a friend to make meals for 2 families of 4 for a month!

Our ingredients for the OAMC "Big Day"

Was it hard?  YES!! But, as my husband says, “what’s so bad about hard”.  I triumphed, I proved that I could do it, even though it was hard.  If I didn’t have a plan I think it would have been impossible!  You NEED a PLAN!  The site we used gave us a shopping list too, so we didn’t have to multiply the recipes, the work was done for us.  We made 20 dinners, 8 lunches, and 6 breakfasts for 2 families of 4 in about 12 hours!!! I will be using the “lunches” as dinners, so that gives me 28 dinners for my family of 4.  So, what does that mean for me this month?  It means that because I got over sitting on my couch thinking that it’s going to be “hard”, it  just got me 28 nights this month FREE!  Let me say that again, I won’t have to slave over the stove and come up with meals for 28 NIGHTS THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!!  If you ask me, spending 12 hours to cook, and lets say 2 hours of shopping (we divided our shopping in half to spread the responsibility) will now give me 28 nights FREE!!!!  Yeah, I highly recommend that you research Once a Month cooking this week.

Some of our meals from the day!

Why do I say you should “research” it?  Because I found a great website to help me, you need to find a site or book to help you.  Find recipes that you like.  Ask a friend to join you!  This made it fun, and we shared the work.  Make it a goal to try this in a couple of weeks, which will give you time to prepare.  Decide on your recipes, and start shopping for sale items now!  I thought we were going to spend over $500-600 total (so $250-300) each on groceries.  We didn’t!  Because we shopped for sale items and used some of the things we already had in our pantries (like soy sauce, baking soda, etc..) we only spent about $350 total!! That’s dirt cheap for Los Angeles!  Fit Moms we spent $350 to feed 2 families of 4,  34 meals ($150 each for 28 dinners, and 6 breakfasts)!!! I still can’t believe it!  I usually spend $150 or more a week!!! This is a huge savings for our family!

Ham and Cheese Pockets

So, are you going to give it a try??  If, you are with me, or if you have questions, comment below.

This is the best site I’ve found so far, and the site I used.  I made the August menu.

Below is the August menu I made.  Why did I make the August menu in September?? Because I wanted to.  LOL!  It sounded delicious!  She has archived menus dating back to 2009.  Did I mention you get a menu, grocery list, cooking day step by step instructions, and even printable labels with reheating instructions on them!!!  This is a FREE site!! I’ll be interviewing Tricia from Once A Month Mom soon!  NOTE:  Not all of the recipes are the healthiest, but you can change any recipe to suit your dietary needs, likes/dislikes, etc.. We thought a lot of the recipes had too much cheese, so we just omitted it in some, and put less of it in others.  Always remember this journey Fit Mom is about your health and that of your families, you can make anything healthier, it’s up to YOU.

Breakfasts

• Homemade Pop Tarts
• Berry Baked French Toast
• Oatmeal Raspberry Scones

Lunches

• Ham & Potato Pockets
• French Dip Sandwiches
• Taco Roll-Ups
• Zesty Chicken Burritos

Dinners

• Johnny Marzetti
• OAMM’s Favorite Beef Pot Roast
• Chicken Divan
• Teriyaki Grilled Salmon
• Slow Cooker Ham & Green Beans
• Country Captain Slow Cooker Chicken
• Island Chicken
• Italian Stuffed Peppers

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

I hope you were able to keep up the mission last Monday, and NOT DRINK SODA!  I know that had to be hard for some of you, but just think of the 1000+ calories you saved yourself from not drinking soda pop!  This week’s mission may be a chore for some of you, but I want to help you make it a little more fun!

You are going to plan your meals for the week, but this time you are going to get your kids involved!  If you are a food plan novice, and meal planning seems like too much work, let me share with you my plan that made life so much easier!  I got my kids, and my husband involved!!! A lot of times we as moms think we have to do it all!  Well you don’t!!  That’s what family is for!  To help and support one another.

Ask each family member to give you their top 5-10 meals that they like to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  For example, in my family that would be 20-40 meals in each category!!  Remember that you are planning healthy meals for your family, so cut out the “bad” choices!  You are the mom, and you are in control of what comes in the house, and what goes into your families mouths! I try to plan our meals to look like the chart on the left.  Different people have different ideas, but this is what we choose to do.  We make protien our “side dish” and fruit and veggies our “main course”.  After, I edit their lists I compile them together and type it up (keeping meals in their categories).  Whenever I need to make the meal plan for the week, I pull up the list and simply chose 5-6 in each category (from the 20-40 we came up with) and I’m DONE!! I keep a day open for eating out, or for a left over day.  When I find new recipes that I want to try, or my kids think of something else to add to the list it’s great, because I just type it onto the master list, and our options just got larger!!

Helpful Sites:

Below are a few sites that will do the planning for you, some for free, and some for fee. (I found these by doing a google search, I haven’t used these sites, nor am I getting paid for mentioning them. )

But first, check out this link from our site to read more about meal planning, and to get a FREE meal plan log, and a FREE healthy grocery shopping list!!! Lots of good info, here!  I learned a lot from it! Click here!

www.dinnerplanner.com- Fee

www.thescramble.com-Fee

www.orgjunkie.com- FREE!!!! My favorite word FREE!! This site has Menu Plan Monday every week, where people have links to their menu for the week!  Now, of course a lot of them are not healthy, but you can get some ideas!! (some monday’s have as many as 300+ links to people’s menu for the week.)  I use sites like these to spark ideas when my list gets old!

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Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

Hi Fit Moms!  I was traveling over the weekend and my plans changed due to unforeseen circumstances.  You see I was in Cincinnati this weekend playing in the final Pro Beach Volleyball event of the season (The Championship Event).  We played extremely well, even beating one of the 2 time gold medalists, and her partner who was in the last Olympics Nicole Branagh.  When that happened it put us into the finals!  It was exciting and I am thankful to have come in 2nd, but the finals and my flight were at the same time, which meant I missed my flight.  I didn’t get out of Cincy until Labor Day.  Due to travel and spending the entire day with my wonderful family (which is what it’s all about right?) I didn’t get to put up the Mission Monday post.  Please forgive me.  I’m back and ready to rock and roll Fit Moms so here’s your new mission!

As I was on the airplane ordering my free beverage I overheard people ordering soda, or pop as some of you in other parts of the country call it.  Then my mind went back to having breakfast Saturday morning and noticing the lady across the aisle from me drinking not coffee, not milk, but soda!?!?  What the heck???  So, I thought to myself I’m sure she’s not the only one with a soda issue in America.  A lot of us drink soda or pop, and way too much of it.  I was watching the movie King Corn, the movie Lori Rivas our organic mama mentioned a couple of weeks back, and a guy in the movie used to drink liters of soda a DAY!  By just cutting out the soda he lost tons of weight.

Just think about this…every time you drink a can of soda you are drinking about 140 or more calories, not to mention the sugar and other crap in it!  If you cut that out, you could be saving yourself almost 1000 calories a week!!! Let’s say you are a 2 can gal, and you drink 2 cans of soda per day.  You’ll be cutting out almost 2000 calories a week from following today’s Mission!  Ladies, you can do it.  Your Mission for you family is to cut out soda for an entire week!  Drink more water! You can do it Fit Mom, and double dog dare your kids to do the same!

If you haven’t taken the pledge to be a Fit Mom with Fit Kids, do so now!  It’s FREE!  Tell the world your intentions to have a healthy family starting NOW!