Sunday; Not Necessarily a Day of Rest

Sunday is my normal "off" day from training. However, don't discount off days. Rest is equally as important to the growth and development of your muscles as the actual weight training. When muscles are asked to do more work than they are accustomed to, they suffer minor ruptures. You'll feel these "micro-tears" as muscle soreness. Your body needs time to repair this muscle tissue so that's why we incorporate "rest days" in with our training schedule. This is also why your muscles grow larger. The resulting muscle is slightly larger than before, better able to handle the stress that caused the initial tears.

As a busy working mother of two, Sundays are far from a day of rest and relaxation. Sundays are my day of planning, preparation and organization. I use the day to prepare for the week ahead. This includes all household chores, grocery shopping and meal preparations. We tend to stick close to home, with the exception of early morning grocery shopping (we were lucky this week in that we didn't really need to restock anything so we were able to skip the trip to the stores). Marty and I split chores and we work diligently to get our house in tip top shape so that we can survive the busy week ahead. Anyone with small children can agree that cleaning house with them home is like trying to contain the Tazmanian Devil (times 2!), so we've been thankful that the weather has been nice enough to keep them outside and happy. Often times, Marty will end up having to entertain them while I get the housework done.

My son thankfully still naps, so I use naptime to focus on meal prep for the week. This week, I've already grilled tons of chicken breasts and organized all the essentials for our daughter's and my lunches. Our refridgerator is neatly organized with properly portioned meals and snacks in tupperware and ziploc bags so that each morning we can quickly grab everything we need for the day.

Here are some tips for organizing quick grab meals: (always have a menu and know what you're planning on packing all week)

• Grill Meats and place in large tupperware so that you can quickly grab to top salads, place in wraps or put in between bread
• Wash and cut all veggies/fruit and porportion them into individualized bags or tupperware.
• Wash all your fruits that you can quickly throw in your lunch (apples, bananas, pears, etc) Store them in a bowl that is close to your prep area.
• Hard-boil a dozen eggs and place back in container; you can grab these fast for snacks or salad toppings
• Measure out Oatmeal (1/2 c portions) and place in ziploc bags. I throw a bag in my lunch box and this makes a great mid-morning snack, just add water and blueberries!
• Measure out whey protein and place in ziploc bags. Again, throw these in the lunch box and I've got a great mid afternoon snack. Just add it to my water while I'm on the go.
• Measure out dressings, humus and/or dips in small tupperware so you can toss them quickly in with your lunch.
• Buy individulized yogurts, cottage cheese, cheese sticks/babybels or measure them out in tupperware so you can quickly grab the right portion.
• Measure out snacks into ziploc bags (goldfish, cereal, healthy crackers/cookies)

Once your prepped on Sunday, you don't have to think about it for the rest of the week. Its done. One less thing you need to worry about and if you have a plan, you're more likely to stick to eating what's good for you! Have you ever gone grocery shopping and bought all this healthy food and then it just rotted in your fridge because you never got around to eating it? This won't happen again, if you just prepare yourself and plan on eating it throughout the week. It might take up an hour or so of your day, but at it will save you money, time and frustration!

Another thing that I plan for on Sunday is my schedule. I know what meetings, events, and commitments that I have and I'm able to look at the schedule and make adjustments with my training days. In the ideal world, I would always stick to my training schedule, but because life has a funny way of taking over, I need to be able to make changes when I recognize a day is just not going to have enough time for my training. This goes back to my post about MAKING TIME; if I know that there just aren't enough hours in the day on Monday for me to hit the gym, I'm going to have make Monday a rest day and plan my other days accordingly. I do whatever is necessary to keep myself on my training schedule.

Prepping for the week doesn't take me all day. Sure, it takes up a chunk of the day and it takes an organized mindset and a level of dicipline, but without it I just don't feel that I would be able to successfully execute my goals and commitments for the week ahead.