I REALLY wanna compete in July. And this blog is designed to help to hold me accountable && help you guys learn new, healthy recipes, see what I'm eating, how I prep my food, etc. I'm also going to be posting my workouts, progress photos, and other ramblings along the way.
So, this all started when I posted a pic of my food for tomorrow... and it turns out that a lot of people were really interested in it!
pictured above: m1 (top left) 50 g old fashioned oats with cinnamon and stevia and 6 scrambled egg whites. m2 (bottom left) 2 brown rice cakes & 1 oz of roasted almonds. m3 (bottom middle) 4 oz ground turkey- seasoned with Southwest Chipotle Mrs. Dash, 1/2 c white beans, 1/2 c quinoa (measured cooked), and 10-15 spears asparagus. m4 (top middle) protein shake with 1 c almond milk, 1/2 banana, 2 scoops body by vi protein powder and ice. m5 (top right) 100 g broccoli, 75 g sweet potato, 3 oz extra-lean ground beef seasoned with Extra Spicy Mrs. Dash and sriracha (OMG) and finally, m6 (mostly cut off on the bottom right) 1 scoop casein protein with enough almond milk to make it pudding-texture.
Tomorrow is a leg day for me, which means more calories (1600), more carbs (45%), and what appears to be a whole lot of yummy food!!! I do plan my meals around my workouts, and what I am going to be doing that day in general. If i know I'm going to be having a rest day, I plan for about 1300-1400 calories, with about 35% carbs. This is what works for MY body, and isn't necessarily the best meal plan for everyone. However, it WILL give you meal ideas... and hopefully inspire you to plan ahead, even if it's just few meals each week!
My shopping list for the week:
1 banana
1 zucchini
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow onion (although I only used half)
2 bunches of asparagus (I REALLY like asparagus... you can always buy other green veggies)
1 lb of broccoli (yes, I actually weighed mine in the store)
1 avocado
3 bags of spinach
1 lb of sweet potatoes (~2-3)
3 dozen eggs (in retrospect, I wish I had just purchased the egg whites in a carton + 6 whole eggs)
1/2 gallon of unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 lb ground turkey breast (only used half, froze the other half for next week)
1 lb ground beef 96/4 (only used half, froze the other half for next week)
1 lb chicken breast
1.5 lb white fish: this week I purchased 8 filets of tilapia, 8 oz of shrimp
1 can of beans (I usually buy black beans, because I make a lot of mexican-flavored foods... but forgot to buy beans this week and my momma had white beans in the pantry...so white beans it is!!! gives me a reason to experiment!!)
Mrs. Dash seasonings
Pam (or other non-stick cooking spray)
Annie's Naturals dressing of choice
a package of brown rice
a package of quinoa
old fashioned oats
brown rice cakes (you could buy the Quaker ones, I actually found that I needed MORE calories/carbs than those had & I didn't want to eat 4/day)
and yes, that's food just for me! YIKES! nobody said this was gonna be cheap (I had some things on hand, but still probably spent about $60)... but in the long run, it saves me from spending money going out to eat, and eating healthy, to me, is important. I not only want to look good, but I want to feel good and be healthy from the inside out!
So... once I get all of the good stuff home, I start on my food prep...
1. Bake chicken: foil-lined baking sheet, Pam, chicken- 350 for about 25 minutes, depending on thickness... I leave mine plain, then season once I portion it out into a meal so I can have several flavors throughout the week :)
2. Chop veggies: I chopped the zucchini, 1/2 the onion, 1/4 of each bell pepper, and the sweet potatoes. While the chicken is baking, I heat Pam in a skillet over medium heat and saute all but the sweet potatoes. I'll typically add these to quinoa or my egg whites later in the week. I place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet, coated with a little olive oil, and after the chicken is done, roast them at about 400 degrees for 25 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, I add the asparagus to the tray, and everything is done at the same time! Again, I leave everything plain (unseasoned) until I put it in my Tupperware for a specific meal- that way my sweet potatoes can be sweet (with stevia & cinnamon) or spicy (cayenne, chili powder) and I can put an Asian, Mexican, Italian, etc. twist on anything!
3. While veggies are still in the oven, I bring 2 pots of water to a boil- one for the brown rice and one for the quinoa (this cooks MUCH quicker than brown rice). Of course, if you own a rice cooker, you can use that too... but I'm old school with my cooking, and have never really had an issue with the texture of rice (apparently I should consider myself lucky??)
4. Finally, while the quinoa and rice are boiling, I brown my ground beef, and then my ground turkey. I do it in that order specifically because the ground beef has a little extra flavor I like on my ground turkey... if that makes any sense at all...
5. Sometimes if I'm really motivated (or trying to be extra honest with my portions), I'll put my almonds in baggies for the week, instead of doing it just one day at a time. For some unknown reason, I always run out of almonds before the end of the week if I do them one day at a time... hm... maybe it's those "bites" that sneak into my mouth as I'm bagging them...
**I do not pre-make eggs or fish until the morning before because the texture grosses me out.
(PICS TO COME... NEXT WEEK! sorry, all my prep is done for now)
I usually freeze about half, and keep half in gallon size baggies in my fridge (which my mother LOVES). Then I make "meals" the night before by weighing & measuring yummy combinations into Tupperware, adding seasonings, and voila! delicious, healthy meals with plenty of VARIETY to take with me wherever I may go.
Hope this helps someone out there! Keep me posted on meals you're making :) I always love to see clean, healthy meals!
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