Ugh meal planning… It’s the start of a new year and I know you ladies are trying to get fit for the new year! I know I do this every year! And I succeed in having a beach body ready by summer, but half way through summer I give up and start putting weight on again. OBVIOUSLY the best way to go into the new year is to not give up half way through the last year!! Be that as it may I am going to go over how I get back my beach ready body every year! First off I’m going to throw it out there that I am an Advocare distributor!! Wooo I love my Advocare and I stand by all their products! Here is a link to my website! And if you think you would like to join my team feel free to email me at lacijean31515@gmail.com and we can talk about everything Advocare can do for you! https://www.advocare.com/160224437/
Ok back to my topic, how to meal plan! I have a budget, who doesn’t these days right? that has to be one of my favorite things about meal planning, because it can really help keep you on budget while helping keep you on track and healthy!! So this is an example of my meal plans. If this is something you are just trying out might I suggest starting with your lunches? You can still plan all your breakfasts and dinners for the week but it can be a little overwhelming on a Sunday night to have all that food piled up in the kitchen ready to be made. Lunches and snacks are a good place to start because carrying that food with you will keep you from running to McDonald’s mid day. My biggest issue when I fist started meal planning(I also started with my lunches) was making sure that I packed enough food!! I am active and I have a fast metabolism, I need to eat a lot of food to stay satisfied. And I am a terrible cheater! So I had to find a healthy substitute for something sweet. You will also see that all of my dishes lack dairy. I am allergic to milk proteins and I can’t eat cheese yogurt or any other dairy products. You are more than welcome to add and or subtract whatever you want in this plan.
Also know the type of diet you are going for! There are so many and it is not a one size fits all system! There are gluten free, dairy free, liquid diets, there are also commercial types like the whole 30, or the advocare challenges, going vegan, trying vegetarian. No matter what kind of diet you are planning on it is important to do your research! It is easy to become nutrient deficient if you don’t know what you are doing. Another alternative is to pay a coach(like myself) for a specific breakdown of what you need to eat every day. Coaching is an asset, in all aspects of life it frees up time you need for other things while still getting the information and success you desire. Heath and fitness can be difficult things to learn about, people literally spend years in college and researching why our bodies need certain things. While blogs like this can be good places to start there is more to meal planning than just knowing the structure of the plan.
I get really bored eating things all 7 days of the week, so normally I do a little bit of searching for 2 different recipes. One for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, one for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sunday is my cheat day. I absolutely WILL NOT SURVIVE if I don’t have a cheat day… I call it a cheat day but it’s really just a day I totally wing what I eat, even though it still usually in healthy standards.
Here is a brief outline of how I eat in a day. This is not the only way!
Breakfast
I live my life on the go! Being a college student and a full time mommy I’m on the run constantly! So for breakfast I make myself a smoothie! Usually 2 cups fruit, 2 scoops pea protein (again the milk allergy prevents me from whey. Also these days I’m getting closer and closer to vegan because my body just feels better) and an all natural orange juice.
Morning Snack
For the morning snack I like to do something light. Grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Coupled with nuts!! I love walnuts! But any nut as long as it isn’t coated in sugar or salt will do! Another great snack is the little packages of nut butter! I love them! Or to save on money buying a jar of your favorite nut butter and using small Tupperware! You don’t need more than a tablespoon, they are super rich packed with protein so that is plenty for a snack.
Lunches
I am a grazer! I like to have lots of little things to snack on for lunch. Smoked salmon with crackers, sliced cucumber, seaweed, baby carrots, humus, celery… things like that… if you don’t have a milk sensitivity than nice slices of turkey wrapped around GOOD QUALITY CHEESE! if its yellow then it has dies in it… milk is white… cheese should be white, that’s all I have to say about that.
For those of you that don’t have a problem with reheated food, you can also cook a very large helping of 2 meals on Sunday and separate them into daily portions for lunches! A good measurement for your foods is 1 palm full of protein, 2 palms of veggies, and 3 of a grain. Some great examples are
Protein:
Lean beef
Chicken
Pork
Salmon or your favorite fish
Beans
Tofu
Or if you like liquid lunches then protein powder! If you are vegan there are GREAT Pea proteins out there!
Afternoon Snack
Ok here is where I like to get a little fatty!! Usually an avocado… Yes a whole avocado. Lightly salted. again for this snack nuts are great!
Dinner
I am a very happy follower of Facebook groups that are dedicated to delicious recipes!! It is your job to sort through the ones that are healthy. My Favorite is the fajita bowl! In each dinner container would go A FULL CUP(again I eat a lot, if you need less please put less if you really NEED more than add more) or veggies, for this dish it’d be colored bell peppers, onions, garlic, mushrooms. And 2/3 of a chicken breast. To make 3 days you can use 2 chicken breasts. Salmon is a nice healthy alternative, any white fish. And for the off days spaghetti squash baked with sautéed cherry tomatoes and spinach as a sauce.
As for drinks! I try to drink as many ounces of water as pounds I weigh… So right now I’m at about 120 oz of water a day… I am also just getting started this year! When I did this last year I lost 10 lbs in 10 days. Paired with my Advocare 24 day challenge. I also drink coconut water, which is a natural diuretic and helps… keep everything moving. And of course my all time favorite thing to drink is my SPARK. It is a #1 seller on the Advocare website. I call it my happy mommy juice! I replaced my morning coffee with it over a year ago and I would never go back!!
I hope this was a helpful template on your journey to your meal plans!
Lyfe of Laci 