I’ve based the following lesson on being able to cut your time in the kitchen, reducing food prep, while still being able to create meals that support your fat loss efforts and help boost your metabolism.
Going over your questions in VFT’s survey, being able to keep up with a busy lifestyle and planning meals is something you say you struggle with.
I could feel your frustration, not to mention how disappointed that you felt with yourself for not being able to stay organized.
First up!.. Don’t be so hard on yourself. That’s probably your biggest mistake. No one gets their eating plan perfect. No one is 100% organized all the time.
So quit beating yourself up, get up, dust yourself off…
…Because I’ve created a plan B for you to use below!
Y’know I love helping you… this will make a huge difference to your food prep – while ramping up your fat loss efforts…
Head on over to the blog to learn these simple, yet effective steps, for helping you get your food prep on track.
If you love today’s lesson… PLEASE leave your feedback BY CLICKING ON THE COMMENTS box below!
VirtualFitnessTrainer.com
VFT – Fun, Hot, NO B.S. Fitness!
So you have your week planned out, you know which day (or days) you want to carry out your food prep. You’re browsing through yummy clean eating recipes, you bookmark them and with all good intentions you tell yourself you’re going to get organized with your eating plan, cook awesome meals for you, your partner and your family…You’ve made your shopping list and you pretty much have all the ingredients in the fridge and pantry etc.
Even though you’ve got all that food in the fridge, the days fly by, no food prep gets done, time catches up with you and once again you end up in the same situation… you have no idea what you’re going to have for lunch or dinner. So you eat something you either don’t enjoy, it doesn’t support your fat loss efforts… or fast food ends up on the menu again.
You get frustrated (because you don’t have 2-3 hours every few days this week to spend on chopping up food) and it seems like food prep is so time consuming – surely there must be an easier way.
Well there is…
This is the great part about eating healthy… you don’t have to go “gourmet”, and do fancy food prep stuff to ramp up your metabolism. In fact, it can be made much simpler.
1. Get your fruit and veggies Pre-Chopped
Whether you’re purchasing your veggies at the super market, farmers market, organic market or home delivered… make things easier on yourself and purchase your fruit and veggies pre-chopped.
Whether you do this all the time or just when you know you’ve going to have a week that’s going to be even busier than normal, have veggies and fruit that are “ready to go”. And if they don’t have that option. Then ask them for that option.
2. Purchase Salad packs.
I’m NOT talking about the AWFUL pre-made potato salad and pasta salads that are 70% mayo – that won’t do a thing for helping you with your fat loss efforts. YUCK!
Go for lettuce, capsicum, cucumber, tomatoes, onion etc salad packs. Or lettuce, carrot, cabbage that’s grated or chopped. Baby spinach leaves. There are so many options.
Oh, and if you see a dressing sachet in there, don’t use it! I’ll give you some other options for that below.
3. Get Frozen Veggies…
If you’re stuck for time… then frozen veggies are quick and handy. Don’t purchase the mixed packs of pre-made meals, full of flavourings and sauces. Give them a miss.
Purchase your frozen veggies in their own separate packs.
For example: box / bag of frozen spinach, bag of frozen broccoli, bag of frozen cauliflower etc. This will also give you greater flexibility as to what you can do with them.
4. Keep your meals simple, but tasty…
– A snack… All you need is natural Greek yoghurt, some frozen blueberries and a splash of organic agave. That’s hardly time consuming.
– Soup… too easy… Pre-chopped veggies, some frozen veggies, 2 x bay leaves, can of red kidney beans (rinsed and drained), cayenne pepper or garlic or ginger (something to add some bite or flavour), salt reduced vegetarian chicken stock cube and hot water to dissolve the stock cubes. (I use Massel stock cubes). Bung the whole lot into the slow cooker and come back when it’s cooked.
– Light Meals… multigrain Wraps and sandwiches – if the salad is pre-chopped all you need to do is add the protein. And that can be as easy as tuna in spring water, drained.
– Salad Dressing… lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, splash of olive oil and ground black pepper
– Main Meals – if the veggies and or salad are ready to go, then it’s simple to just add whatever else you want to that. Such as… Free range / organic meat, eggs, seafood. Keep it simple and tasty. If you’ve got a grill, then it’s easy peasy. Eg.. Olive oil, thyme, ground black pepper, sprinkled over fish or chicken and it’s ready for the grill.
5. Make your Protein Easy
The same as when I make soup, I make heaps of it and then put a whole batch of it in the freezer. I do the same with protein… make extra to save time later.
– When I boil eggs, I do 1 dozen at a time. From that I can have eggs in salad.
I can put the eggs in a bowl, add curry powder and a squirt tobasco to the eggs, mash with a fork and I’ve got quick curried eggs which can be added to wraps, sandwiches, salad.
– Meatballs, meatloaf… anything with meat, I’ll make extra – enough for left overs for the next day and extra to put into the freezer for another meal.
– Grilled chicken, make enough so you’ve got extra for lunches or another main meal. The chicken is already cooked and can be added to whatever you want.
– Beans, wash and drain them and put them into the fridge, so you can pull them out as you need them. You can pretty much make a quick easy meal consisting of beans.
Eg… red kidney beans, and another favourite bean of your choice, chop some red onion, add some baby spinach or parsley and you can add the dressing I mentioned above to this as well. Wulla!
– Have organic nuts in the fridge that can be thrown into salad.
– Smoked Salmon, always tastes great with salad. Straight from the pack and onto your plate!
In most cases, food prep is the most time consuming part of a meal. So always aim to make it easier for yourself to have healthy, metabolism boosting food that’s supportive of you and / and your family’s healthy eating regime.
Always be thinking ahead – rather than kicking yourself for those times when you’re not organized.
For sure, having a structured routine is great… but let’s face it… when you’re flat tack… it just doesn’t always fall into place, no matter what your roster / routine is… stuff happens and things get knocked out of whack.
Don’t get down on yourself. Just make a plan B… And now you have one! 🙂
VirtualFitnessTrainer.com
VFT – Fun, Hot, NO B.S. Fitness!
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