Look at any well defined, lean, fitness enthusiast in the gym and they will tell you, food intake is key. No matter what meal plan they’re following, they carve out time in every week to organize their food intake. For the average person who’s not used to doing this, it can be a daunting task. I’m here to tell you that it gets better with time, practice, and all of the right fitness tips. Once you’ve absorbed all of these meal planning hacks, read an free excerpt from our newest program below.
Meal Planning Hacks
1.) Plan out your meals ahead of time (or use our fitness programs to help you). This can actually be a fun thing to do and it allows you all the control! No more guessing what’s been added to your food or where your food is farmed from. You do the planning, and you reap the rewards of better health! I like to search popular cookbooks, websites, and Pinterest in my free time.
2.) Prep your snacks ahead of time (usually 1 – 2 times a week).
3.) Buy enough for the week and freeze extra meats OR make 2 trips to the stores. Plan this out and make it an appointment. Shopping appointment today, less doctors appointments tomorrow!
4.) Make more than one meal at a time. This lessens the amount of cooking days and clean up!
5.) Use a “Food Saver” to keep foods fresh longer. This has personally saved me! Now I can rinse, chop, and prep food and it will stay fresh in the fridge or freezer for double the time (or more). It’s made cooking so much faster! I do this every 2 -3 weeks and chop up my most commonly used fruits and veggies. You can also get creative by cooking meats, cooling them, then freezing them in food saver bags. Just open the bag, reheat, and BAM you have a healthy meal.
6.) Pick a Your Hardest Meals (if you can’t plan all your meals) – Most people struggle with lunch and dinner. If you don’t think you can prep every meal, try to focus on the meal that lead to over eating. Also, try to pick recipes that are simple. You can save the fancy long recipes for the days when you have more time to cook!
Here’s an excerpt from our newest program, The Body Burn 28 Day Quick Start.
Prepping For The Week Ahead
If you’re like me, you won’t want to be in the kitchen everyday making meal after meal and cleaning non stop. For this reason, I’ve thought ahead and created a quick overview of how to prep your food ahead of time.
In order to make this work best, you will need to buy the items on your Body Burn shopping list before prepping meals for the week. You’ll also need to add in your snacks (from the snack list) and any ingredients for a sweet treat (optional).
If you only want to make ONE trip to the store, you may need to freeze some of your meats for the week then defrost them the day before.
• Make sure you add the snacks you’ve chosen for the week to your shopping list. I don’t do that for you because I want you to choose which ones work best for you!
* For this example I am using Meal Plan – Week 1. Use this same layout for the following weeks ahead.
Day 0 (1 day before your week begins) – this is usually done on Sunday but can be done any day of the week.
1.) Prep all of your snacks and package them for the week ahead. Make sure the portion sizes are correct and put them in plastic bags so you can just “grab and go!”
Jumpstart Your Morning:
• Cook your breakfast option. Make enough for 2 days.
2. ) Prep your lunch for days 1 and 2 For week one this would require you to boil at least 2 chicken breasts and dice up your avocados and mango (I prefer to buy my mango already chopped).
• If you decide to do a protein shake – there is no prep for this and you will need to do this every morning before your day begins.
Prep your dinner for days 1 and 2 (Chicken Marsala), then package and store for your successful week ahead.
Day 2
You can choose to continue using the simple omelet, make a shake daily, or choose the protein and fruit combo. Just make sure you are opting for one of the Body Burn recommended proteins. This could be no nitrate chicken sausage, no nitrate bacon or turkey bacon, a chicken breast, fish, or grass fed beef.
Whatever you decide, make sure you prep enough for the next 2 -3 days.
You will also need to prep your dinners and lunches. In this case, the next dinner is walnut crusted salmon over greens (lunch for 3 days) than Avocado Pasta (for 2 days).
Day 4 – You’re on the homestretch so stay strong.
Again choose your breakfast and prep enough for 3 days. You will still have one serving of lunch left, but I would encourage you to prep the last bit of your meals on this day.
Next, prep your next 2 lunches (chicken salad) and your next 3 dinners (Easy Beef Tacos).
Alter this plan every week to make sure you are using these days to prep every week.
These are my inside fitness tips to help you tackle your goals and create a healthy routine that could last a lifetime. I hope they help you as much as they’ve helped me!
If you’re interested in an extra helping hand, check out our newest program, The Body Burn 28 Day Quick Start! I’ve done all the work for you just shop, prep and lose!
Adria
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