Spending so much time at home and no restaurants to go spend time in should mean I am cooking and eating well right?!
I don’t know about you but being home so much has definitely challenged my meal prep and snacking habits. My “normal” food habits included major meal prep to help manage my crazy coming and going schedule. I would cook mass amounts of sweet potatoes, chicken, ground beef, rice and veggies all separate and then mix them together in different combos with different spices to create balanced meals. I would use a food scale to measure out my meals into my beautiful set of all matching glass containers with durable lids! (The key here is matching glass containers and no missing lids. Yes, when I started meal prepping, I recycled all my random old plastic containers and invested in a nice new shiny set. It was thrilling!)
With being home all day, I seemed to be just…winging it and telling myself, “I’ll meal prep tomorrow or while I make dinner for tonight.” When “tonight” would hit I was too tired (or just lazy) from working all day. I generally still needed to work out and do other adulting, which makes the idea of ‘ordering in’ very tempting. When I did manage to dodge the ordering apps on my phone, I would end up putting together “the least amount of work” meal with what was in the fridge. Let’s just say it didn’t result in quality or balanced meals. #allthecarbs Does any of this sound familiar to you?
There are a couple reasons I decided to reflect on this and make a change:
1. My “eating out” budget was getting crazy. (And I was not even getting the atmosphere experience that normally would go with this type of spending.)
2. As a nutrition Coach I am hyper aware of how nutrition impacts my entire well-being, and what I was doing was not fueling me well. (How did I know? The way I was feeling and my pants, my pants told me!)
3. I am not moving as much as I would like or would be under my old routine. Which makes my fuel even more valuable of a tool to keep me healthy and working towards my fitness goals.
If any of this resonates with you, here is a summary of what I did to change the trend I was on:
1.Find a couple recipes or decide a couple meals that sound good for the week.
Try to plan things that are easy to make in bulk. For example: Crockpot chili, casseroles, Quiche.
It’s also budget friendly and saves on prep time when an item can be used in multiple meals. For example, sweet potatoes. I roast large amounts of them and use for breakfast, lunch and dinners!
2. Create a grocery list based on the above.
3. Set a time to go buy ONLY what is on the grocery list.
Avoid straying away from the plan. This is how one of two things happen, either 1) things go bad in the fridge and get wasted because you don’t use them (might as well light your money on fire) or 2) you buy things that don’t meet your current goals, easy things like candy or high processed foods.
4. Prep everything.
Wash, chop and cook everything! Make it ready to eat. With everything washed, pre-cooked and in containers organized in the fridge, when it comes time to eat you will simply have to portion it out and heat.
Tip: Hate microwaved food? Reheat in a pan on the stove top. It will take a couple extra minutes but will take away the microwave.
5. Delete or move food ordering apps.
I wasn’t ready to delete them, but I did move them to their own screen way back on my phone so that I would have to make an effort to get to them.
The idea here is to create no excuses for eating well. By doing the heavy lifting (planning, buying and cooking) up front, no matter how tired or busy I am I have no excuse. Now the million-dollar question, did it help?
100% it did! My energy is better, my pants are starting to feel less tight, I am getting in more workouts because of my well fueled energy. I am feeling more organized, eating more balanced and having way less stress about food. Last month’s food bill looked less scary and bonus, I haven’t had food go bad in my fridge in a few weeks! #winning
All the fitness,
Coach Megs
Are you looking for more ways to improve your nutrition? Let’s chat, book a ‘Bite Sized’ intro with us.
