Healthy lunches… even when you don’t feel like eating. I have days where I am busy, and can’t/don’t think I have time to eat. I have days were I am just not that hungry. However, I know if I don’t eat I will be hangry later, and may make bad decisions. So its best for me to eat something healthy and protein rich instead. It seems to help and I can then make better decisions. I also know that I am working out a great day 5 to 6 days a week.
Today I am going to go run a 25 minute HIIT run, and then do a superset weight lifting workout.
“A superset is a form of strength training in which you move quickly from one exercise to a separate exercise without taking a break for rest in between the two exercises. ”
Alright its cold outside, and we are having a winter snow storm here. Being snowed in is no reason to not eat well. Some people get snowed in and just throw their hands up and eat anything. Believe me it is tempting to just make some cinnamon rolls and coffee. Wrapped up in my electric blanket… But I had to stay strong. =)
This protein packed avocado toast was my breakfast. It is so tasty and filling.
I have here two pieced of whole grain toast. Two eggs I cooked, 1/2 of an avocado, and about 12 slices of cucumber.
Protein packed avocado toast
Ingredients:
2 whole eggs
1/2 avocado
12 slices of cucumber or about 33 grams
2 slices of whole grain toast
1/2 tsp of oil to cook eggs in
Direction:
Cook eggs, slice veggies, and toast bread. Assemble with avocado first, it will glue things together, then cucumber, and place a fried egg over top. Enjoy!
I prepped only three lunches this week for myself, because I
knew I would have time to make food for myself at lunch time on Tuesday and Thursday.
I wanted to make one of my favorite meals.
It has 10.9 grams of protein in it and is so flavorful. It is made of whole foods except the soy sauce. That can be left out if you wish, and substituted with just a pinch of salt. Not only is this super tasty but is so pretty to look at.
This is quick and healthy fast food. =) You don’t need a culinary
degree to make this, just a pan, and a few minutes.
One of the rules in culinary school you learn is that you
eat with your eyes first, then your nose, and you mouth. What that means is if
the meal looks appealing to you, you will enjoy it much more. Just take a look
at those garish colored foods. They do not automatically make you think mmm I
want to tuck into that.
Anyway, here is what I made, the recipe and the stats for food:
Fried Egg on an Avocado half, and tomato cucumber salad
Recipe:
Yield: 1 serving (to scale up just multiply by the amount of people you have)
201 g heirloom cherry tomatoes sliced in half ( I used approximately 10 tomatoes
155 g cucumber, chopped into bite size pieces ( I used approximately half of an English cucumber.)
9 g of green onion chopped (I used one whole green onion, green and white parts)
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp soy sauce (alternately you can use a pinch of salt)
1/4 tsp of Olive oil (I used an EVVO that had garlic in it as well)
1/4 tsp lemon juice
Lemon Zest to taste
I large egg fried
1/2 tsp veggie oil
Directions:
Cut avocado in half, and score avocado, and sprinkle with sea salt if you wish
Cook egg, with a 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil
Cut heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion, add to a bowl.
In another bowl assemble, the balsamic vinegar, soy, olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
I hope you get a chance to enjoy this recipe. I have also alternately just made the salad and had a boiled egg with it or, eaten two avocado halves with two fried eggs on it. Change it and make it yours. Enjoy and keep eating well. Let me know what you think.
Tips:
Acidulate the other half of the avocado, and put it in a ziplock bag. You can use it the next day or later for a snack and the acid will keep it from turning brown.
Score your avocado before placing egg on it. This will make it easier to eat if it is just under ripe.
This meal was only 300 calories and it did not meet my protein requirements for this meal so I added another egg. As with any recipe alter it as you need for your body.
Where to start? That is pretty much always the question. When you start something new, it can seem daunting and overwhelming. Here is how I started meal planning for myself and my husband. It does help that I am a chef and know about nutrition in the capacity of a professional chef.
Change only one type of meal for 3 weeks then add on. Whether its snacks, breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the meal only matters in whatever is easiest for you to stick to. For me I started with lunches.
I looked at what I wanted to do or what my goals were. There are so many people out there that will tell you their way is the best way, and it may be for them. But here is a tip, you’re a biological animal, and as such you are a complex creature. That means what works for one person does not always work for another. I wish it were so. I teach cake decorating and Baking and Pastry, and I often tell my students, that I wish I had a magic wand that I could wave and they would all be able to decorate a cake like a pro. However, what is required is experimentation and practice. The same goes for meal prep, and getting into the groove.
There are several ways to meal prep, but here are a few core
things I focus on.
Decide if you are going to count your calories
only, watch/count your macros, or just eat intuitively.
Get yourself a food scale if you are going to
count your calories or macros.
Decide what your goal is: Bulking, leaning,
maintaining or something else
Choose a protein, complex carb, and veggie/fruit
Learn to prepare those things/gather recipes
Get your Tupperware/lunch containers ready.
Weigh and write down what you put in the
containers, so that food entry into a tracker is much easier.
Now to count calories, macros, or eat intuitively. If you
are newly embarking on a fitness journey, you may not be familiar. I will touch
on these subjects to give you an base understanding, and tell you what I do. But first if you are going to count calories
or macros you are going to want to calculate how much your body needs to eat to
function. Here is a great website that will do that for you. It has a calorie
calculator on it, that will give you your total daily energy expenditure or (TDEE).
This is the amount of energy it would take your body to just lay in bed all day
long, respirating, and living. Not getting up and mowing the lawn much less
going to the gym to pump out a few sets.
Here is my recommendation: If you are just starting out. Count your Calories and Macros. The structure will be good for you. I have been doing this for years so I can eyeball some things.
Counting calories, has been done for many many… so many years. It is just that. You log your food, and figure out that a large boiled egg is about 75 calories. The calories in a medium apple is about 95 calories. Add those two together and you get 170 calories consumed for that snack. Simple right? Yup! There is more to nutrition than that of course but that is a good way to get your toes wet as it were. Counting calories alone though falls short, in that you can eat 300 calories of grapes, and 300 calories of doughnuts and it would be basically the same from a numbers standpoint. However, the nutritional value of 300 calories in grapes and 300 calories in doughnuts is extremely different. “
“DOES IT MATTER WHERE MY CALORIES COME FROM? Human metabolism is complex, and gaining or losing weight takes more than hitting your calorie goal. Fat, protein, and carbohydrates all have different nutrient functions in the body, and an effective diet will include at least a little of all three macronutrients.
Protein builds muscle and maintains other body tissue. Fat provides energy, regulates hormone production, and keeps you full. Carbohydrates also provide energy and help you sleep at night.
Theoretically, eating fewer calories than you expend can help you lose weight, but the type of calories you eat influences your results. For example, if you eat very low-carb and have trouble sleeping, your hunger levels could rise and you might struggle to keep your calorie intake low enough to lose weight. Or if you don’t eat enough calories from fat or carbs to power your workouts, you could end up burning fewer calories than you think, because you’re not giving it your all in the gym.”
I could not have said it better. So we know that calories
count and where they come from counts. So now we go to learning what our macros
are. Macros is a over view of what your body needs to run. Macro Nutrients are the
carbs, proteins and fats your body needs. Just as I said earlier the kind of
calorie you take in is important. While bacon is fun to eat and tasty, its
protein and fat content are completely different than say the equivalent amount
of chicken breast.
These are the Macros I need to hit every day to meet my
goals. So not only do I need to make sure I eat enough calories, but I need to
make sure I get this much protein in, and this much carbs in and this much fat
in for my body to function like a well oiled machine.
👇 WOO! YOUR
MACROS ARE BELOW 👇
MY MACROS
2337CALORIES
155PROTEINS
238CARBS
85FATS
Last kind of eating change would
be intuitively eating. It sounds ridiculous at first, but eating when your body
tells you that you need it. It sounds stupid but, we (especially Americans) are
very bad at telling when we are hungry or when we are just having cravings. Do
you want that piece of cheesecake cause you are hungry and skipped a meal, or do
you want it cause you are craving sugar and your body needs protein and healthy
fiber. That is usually my problem I don’t get enough protein given my own
proclivities. I will eat more plant based. I will dedicate a blog post to what
your cravings may mean you need later.
Now you will need a scale, and this is the one I use all the time. It is inexpensive and does what I need it to do. It is call Ozeri.
Now to the meal prep I did… This post has been long enough.
I prepped Sunday night for both myself and husbands,
lunches. Lunches are the hardest meals for both of us to get in. This is the
meal that helps us most to have prepped.
Protien – Chicken, black beans
Carb – brown rice, black beans, veggies
Fat – Chicken, black beans, and oil used in cooking
Southwestern Chicken
Yield 6 servings
Ingredients:
5 x Chicken breast
1 tbs – Mrs. Dash Southwestern Chipotle seasoning
2 tsp – ground cumin
2 tbs – vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder to taste
Brown Rice – (Cook as directed on package)
1 can – Black Beans
6 cups – Broccoli and Cauliflower mixed veggies
cherry tomatoes
Directions:
Cook your rice as the directions tell you
chop chicken in to bite size pieces, heat pan up with two tbs of veggie oil. Season chicken and cook till chicken is done.
Cook Broccoli and Cauliflower mixed veggies
Open can of black beans and heat up in sauce pan. I added some garlic powder and a pinch of salt.
Assemble into lunch boxes, I measured each item and wrote it down for easier entry into food tracker.
And last but not least, you will need a food tracker. I use the one that goes with my FitBit watch, but there are free ones out there. One of the best I have heard about is My Fitness Pal.
I track my macros, and this is what I prepared for myself and husband this last Sunday for lunches. I hope this helps if you are just getting started and if you have already been doing this. I hope this gives you an idea of what you can put into your lunches. Its simple just make things you will like to eat.
This has been a long post. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day!
Alright… diets and dieting are a sensitive subject for most
people. I have done my share of dieting, yo-yoing up and down. Trying out each
new fad. I even tried that grapefruit diet. Do you remember that one? Maybe I am
just showing my age. If you want to read
more about it. You can find it on Web MD.
I know some of my friends have done keto and have gotten such
great results. Other friends have gone paleo, and had some great results. If
you have something that works for you I say keep doing it. However, if you feel
like your diet is not sustainable than maybe look into what makes your body feel
good.
I prefer to try to eat whole foods now. The emphasis is on
whole minimally processed foods. For instance if you look at the ingredients in
a package of chips and there are more than 3 ingredients and many that you
cannot pronounce that is something to avoid. Cooked or raw your body processes
those whole food nutrients much more efficiently than it does those foods processed
with chemicals.
Nutrigenomics
There is some interesting research going around nutrigenomics.
The New York Times has a great article about it. Where scientists and doctors
are approaching peoples diseases based on genetics and what they eat.
“There is a buzz around nutritional genomics at the moment, which is partly a matter of timing. A sea change is under way in the approach scientists are taking to disease — they’re looking less to nature or nurture alone for answers, and more to the interactive symphony of ”systems biology” that nutrigenomics epitomizes.
At the same time, chatter around this new science has been amplified by a controversy. The idea of the biological relevance of race — even its very existence — is hotly debated. And the assumption of real genetic markers that distinguish one ethnic group from another is at the philosophical heart of nutrigenomics.
At the same time, chatter around this new science has been amplified by a controversy. The idea of the biological relevance of race — even its very existence — is hotly debated. And the assumption of real genetic markers that distinguish one ethnic group from another is at the philosophical heart of nutrigenomics.
Here’s the most familiar example: If you’re of Northern European ancestry, you can probably digest milk, and if you’re Southeast Asian, you probably can’t. In most mammals, the gene for lactose tolerance switches off once an animal matures beyond the weaning years. Humans shared that fate as well — until a mutation in the DNA of an isolated population of Northern Europeans around 10,000 years ago introduced an adaptive tolerance for nutrient-rich milk. The likelihood that you tolerate milk depends on the degree to which you have Northern European blood.
”That, essentially, is the model — a very dramatic one,” says Jim Kaput, the founder of NutraGenomics, a biotechnology company. ”As humans evolved, and as our bodies interacted with foods on each of the continents, we sort of self-selected for these naturally occurring variants. And certain populations have variants that, when presented with Western-type food — which is usually fatty and overprocessed and high in calories — pushes them toward disease rather than health.”
I have noticed based on just experimentation, my body does better with more plant based foods, less animal proteins with emphasis on fish and seafood, and avoiding lots of dairy. I am half Japanese and I am lactose intolerant. I still like pizza though!
Eat Whole Foods, Don’t Starve Yourself
I strive… to eat using only whole foods, but I still allow myself to enjoy life. Do I eat things that are not whole foods. Yes! Do I do it all the time? Nope! During the holidays you should let yourself have fun. What is life without celebration? Eat whole foods, don’t starve yourself.
I am the kind of person that can be strict enough with myself to limit myself to 500 calories a day. Please don’t do this. It is not healthy and really messed up my metabolism for a long time. It messes with your hormones and many other body processes. I can tell you it feels painfully boring. It is going to a party and saying nah I can’t even take a bite of anything because I had my apple, boiled egg and saltines I have already allotted for this meal. Its feeling left out. Its the constant guilt about food. When I feel guilty about food, I know I began to resent food. However, if you snack, and eat everyday with health in mind. You can indulge occasionally. It is good for the soul and good for your spirits.
With that said I will stop rambling and get on with the healthy snacks. Eat these nummy things on a normal day and feel like you are treating yourself. Then when a special celebration comes around let loose and have fun.
Banana Almond butter and Grape
Yeild: 1 bowl
Ingredients:
1 banana sliced
2 tsp of almond butter
10 grapes
1 tsp of desiccated unsweetened coconut
Directions:
Slice bananas, and place all ingredients in a bowl and enjoy.
Smash the bananas, mix in the oats, and then rest of the ingredients. Roll the mixture into a ball and then place on a greased parchment paper lined pan. Bake for 15 minutes.
Thinks with Spinks 