Meal Planning

Good afternoon my fitness friends!! Today's post is going to be about meal planning. I say meal planning because this isn't dieting. I'm not cutting you short of what you need to intake. There is no special secret. This is not in any way harmful to your body. This is good for you and will help you reach your weight loss goals! So let's dig deep and I will show you what each meal should look like, I'll give an example meal plan, and all the ins and outs of it ALL! 

So, I get so many questions about meal planning, exercising, etc. But the main one I always get is "what should I eat?" Well I'm so glad you asked! 

Now, depending on your exact goal, this will definitely vary. But I'll jus do basic information on just losing weight and getting in shape. First thing is eating small portion meals every 3 hours. And by small portion I don't mean celery and a cracker. I mean a small portion enough to feel satisfied but not super full. Eating small meals every 3 hours helps keep that metabolism working which is exactly what you want it to do, to help lose weight! Now, if you're on the go and always running around, that's fine. Prepare. There's no excuse for not eating every 3 hours. I've worked 36 hour shifts at work and ate every three hours. You can do it! 

So, the next question is "what do I eat in those meals?"  You must always have a protein, veggie and a good carb! I will make a list that shows what proteins, veggies, and carbs I mean. 

Protein: 

Chicken

Steak

Lean ground turkey

Tuna

Tilapia

Eggs

Low fat cottage cheese

Protein powders 

Low sugar yogurts 

These all are great proteins that you should eat a serving of in your meal plans!  For women, 4-5 oz is perfect for the top 5 proteins. The last 4 you will see in my meal plan what serving to do. As each one is different! For men, you should eat 6-8 oz of the top 5. Men need a lot more protein because of their metabolism and testosterone! So for any men reading this, whatever meal plan I post for the women, double the serving size. 

Now on to the delicious carbs! :) ah, how we love carbs! So, little side story, my wonderful boyfriend Aaron Cox recently got into a discussion with some folks about carbs. The people he was talking to said that our bodies don't need carbs or sugar to function. Baha! Uuum, yes we do! Our bodies use carbohydrates for energy. The key to carbs is how much you take in! If you take in too much carbs, whatever your body doesn't use will store as fat as a survival mode. Same for sugar! So keep it to where whatever your body weight is or whatever you goal body weight is, do 1g of carb per pound body weight. So for example, if you're 120lb then do 120g of carbs a day. If you cut out carbs completely to lose weight, and you do that for a period if time, it will do so much harm to your organs, brain and body function. It won't last long. Trust me. Why do you think the Atkins diet didn't last? People were getting sick from it and harming their bodies. Plus, people put crap carbs Into their bodies half the time(I.E. Breads, pasta, crackers..). You need good clean carbs to fuel your body and muscles! Here are good clean carbs to eat:

Sweet potatoes 

Yams

Oats (instant or old fashion is fine but not the packages oatmeal that has flavor. Way too high in sugar)

Rice (brown or white) 

Rice cakes 

Notice how there isn't bread or anything that has refined sugars or gluten in there! These are carbs that your body will use as good energy to fuel your muscles and your daily activity! For serving sizes, again it depends but usually 1/4-1/2 cup for these will be about 18-25 g of carbs. So remember to just calculate out your carbs for your body weight! If you want to lean out a little bit, drop the carb Intake by 20-30 g but not much more than that. Otherwise you will feel ill and we don't want that! We want you to be happy healthy and feeling good! So, just keep that in mind!! 

Now on to vegetables!!! Haha! You either love them or hate them. There really is no in between! :P but regardless, veggies are absolutely amazing for you! Packed with nutrients and healthy benefits. As your fitness motivator, I demand you eat them! (How's that for bossy, haha) but really, there's so many veggies out there that reap so many healthy weight loss benefits. That after I tell you, you're gana be ready to eat them! 

Broccoli- high in fiber which helps the intestines, natural thermogenic (which helps lose weight), negative calorie food, which means takes more calories to digest than to actually intake, high in Vitamin A, K, and C and helps keep you fuller longer. 

Asparagus- is also a natural thermogenic, negative calorie food, high in Vitamin A, K, C. High in potassium which helps from your muscles cramping. 

Spinach- extremely high in Vitamin A, as well as Iron and calcium! Darker green leafy veggies have more nutrient benefits for you, jus as an FYI. 

Zucchini- high in vitamin A, C, and K. High in potassium, calcium and magnesium. This veggie is my favorite!! 

Each of these veggies and then some have so many benefits so my suggestion is a cup of veggies per meal with your meal plan will be ideal for getting the nutrients you need! 

So now, my wonderful friends, here is your example meal plan you can follow! Try it out, let me know if you like it, if so we can personalize it more and go from there! 

120 gram carb day 

30 min morning cardio

Drink protein shake during 

7:00am

1/2 cup oats (27g)

4 egg whites

10:00 am

4 oz chicken

Cup broccoli

1/2 cup rice (25g)  

1:00 pm

4 oz chicken

Cup of spinach with Olive oil 

3 rice cakes (25g) 

4:00 pm

5 oz extra lean ground turkey

3 oz sweet potato (22g)

Cup of broccoli 

7:00 pm

5 oz turkey breast

1/2 cup rice (25g)

Cup of zucchini

10:00 pm

Cup of low fat cottage cheese before bed 

Obviously you will want to workout somewhere through out the day but make sure you eat! Fuel that body with food that has come from the ground or took a breath of oxygen! No packaged foods or chemical processed foods. If you can't pronounce the ingredient, your body won't know what to do with it!  Now, this meal plan may look super plain jane but you can find so many ways to spice up the meat, veggies and salads so it tastes good! Believe me, I've found tips and tricks so do some research! A couple of my favorites is sprinkle cinnamon on the sweet potatoes, or sugar free jelly with my oats or cottage cheese. Honey mustard is my go-to dressing for salads and chicken. There's ways to make it tastes good! So make it happen!! 

Please try this meal plan and let me know! If you wana move forward do more in depth work with me, let me know! Email me, find me on fb, anything and we will move forward! Remember, everyone starts somewhere! And you build up! Keep up the hard work! 

Subscribe and I will keep posting health food recipes, workouts and much more!! Until next time my friends! 

Quote of the day: "if it were easy, everyone would do it."