Nutrition: Meal Prep 2

This is a continuation of the previous meal preparation blog and mixes in a little bit of calorie and macro management. Here we will talk about meal timing and quantity.

Calculating Number of Meals Conventional wisdom suggests to eat 5-6 small meals a day. I generally agree with this but do also recognize that there are various types of dieting and caloric intake methods. Whether it is intermittent fasting, carb cycling, Atkins or Shakeology; as long as you are accountable to some sort of system, I believe you will have results. Beware of gimmicks or "fad dieting". Try to find something that is maintainable for you and make a lifestyle change. I dropped about 10lbs since that post last year and am going to stay lean since summer is approaching (between 180-185lbs). It's purely a personal decision on how to split your calorie count up. Everyone has different daily schedules so certain methods may or may not apply well to your lifestyle. I work a desk job with access to a refrigerator and microwave. I can also choose to workout at lunch or after work if I get busy. Due to my work situation, I can be pretty flexible with my meal count and timing. My method of calculating meal count is based on my protein macro (instead of fats or carbs). Since I'm focused on bodybuilding/aesthetics, it's one of my most important macros to hit. It also is a macro that is hard to exceed. I often find myself trying to limit fats and carbs, looking for foods that are low in these categories. For protein, if I'm being strict and counting every gram, I often have to try to make up protein at the end of the night. So I like to figure out how much protein I need daily and try to split that between 5-6 meals. For those of you trying to drop weight, your total caloric intake is likely the most important macro. Track that and split it in between your chosen number of meals.

Meal Timing Below is the timeline of a typical day of eating and a brief look into the activities between those meals.   Meal #1 8:00am *** Woke up, walked dogs. 1 pinch of Almonds (1/4 cup) 5oz Salmon fillet 2 cups steamed veggies   Meal #2 11:17am *** At work, just out of meeting. 5-6oz Ground Turkey 1-2 cups black beans   Snack #1 2:00pm *** Finished workout during lunch. Protein Shake (Whey mixed with water)     Meal #3 3:16pm *** Still at work. 5oz Salmon fillet 1-2 cups black beans Additional: Nuun tab in water   Meal #4 4:45pm *** Wrapping up at work. 5-6oz Ground Turkey 2 cups steamed veggies Additional: Green Tea in water   Meal #5 8:15pm *** At home or out and about. Bowl of Ramen w/ an egg and a can of tuna added. Example Alternate Dinners/Lunches Repeat Meal #1 or #4 (low carb meal) Meal from my girlfriends prep. Generally some type of tofu dish w/ veggies. Large Texas Tuna Sandwich Lean Lemon Turkey Chicken bowl, stock velvet w/ double veggies instead of rice   Snack #2 10:30pm *** Optional meal, before bed. Boiled Egg Pinch of almonds If short on Protein that day: Protein shake w/ Almond Milk

Considerations This style of eating is not for everybody. Depending on your fitness goals, it may not be ideal for you to use this meal timing. This is just an example of what works for me and my specific goals. I encourage people to research various styles of eating habits and explore what works best for them. Whether it is counting all macros or just carbs or "points". Once you become familiar with your chosen diet system, I believe that you can transition to "free eating" and become less strict with your bean counting. That may not be ideal for those trying to lose lots of weight however. The more you eat your meal prep, the better your results will be. Not everyone can eat steamed veggies and fish all the time so I do like having "cheat" meals. Just don't turn a cheat meal into a cheat day. On weekends if I have some drinks or dinner out, I still will have eaten at least two meals from my meal prep. It's all bout finding a sustainable balance between living life and being healthy. As long as you are eating healthy and exercising more often than you are not, you should still be moving toward a fit physique. Of course the higher percentage of meals you prepare and control yourself, the better your results will be. If you are just starting out with eating healthy, do not try to drastically change your eating habits immediately. Maybe just switch out your lunch for a healthy option initially and slowly expand from there. Read more about that in our Getting Started Blog.

Check back for additional advice and browse our posts regularly for ideas on workouts and nutrition. Good luck! Submitted by Bars

Nutrition: Meal Prep 1

Another popular question I receive is about how to eat healthy. This is an attempt to jot down a simple process to prepare meals.

Basic Steps 1 - Plan Ingredients 2 - Shopping 3 - Prep 4 - Cook 5 - Plate

Advanced Steps

1 - Plan Ingredients I usually start out by planning what ingredients I need to acquire to prepare meals. I prep meals 1-2 times a week so I start by checking the fridge to see if there are any leftover ingredients from my last prep. This prevents me from overstocking ingredients and helps keep the fridge clean! My prep is broken down into three basic sections: protein, veggies, and carbs. Protein My usual protein options include: chicken, turkey, fish, and egg whites. Although I don't eat them, lean beef and cottage cheese can be thrown in this category too. For vegetarians, protein sources can include: tofu/tempeh, quinoa, beans, and meat substitute products (i.e. seitan, veggie burgers, etc). Some of the vegetarian protein options could technically be considered a carb too. Be mindful of that if you are carb conscious. Veggies The vegetables options are almost endless. I like to always include leafy greens, but it is best to "eat the rainbow". My usual leafy greens include: spinach, kale, bok choy, and collard/mustard greens. I also mix in: broccoli, asparagus, green beans, snow peas, carrots, and various peppers. Carbs Carbohydrate options are similarly numerous, but I like to be healthy with my carbs. You don't want to go around eating a bunch of bad carbs (i.e. french fries). Quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and whole-grain breads are acceptable. Most beans or legumes can be used. Oats, sweet potatoes, and yams work too. My favorites are: black beans (unsalted), sweet potatoes (boiled/baked), whole wheat pasta, and brown rice. Snacks Snacks are not necessarily included in my prep, but since you are headed to the store anyway, you might as well try to set yourself up for success by keeping healthy snacks around. I put fruit into this category. Usually with my breakfast or a protein shake, I like to include fruit. Yogurt, boiled eggs, canned tuna, snack packs of lightly salted popcorn, and oatmeal are frequent purchases of mine. Nuts like almonds, cashews, etc are good snacks as well. Sliced cucumbers or similar veggies can even be quick and healthy snacks. The best method to measure your portions is to use an actual food scale. This is a little hardcore so for times when I'm just free-eating, I just eyeball my portions. I "guesstimate" my portions by comparing it to the size of my palm. For men, it's about 6-8 ounces. For women, it's around 3-4 ounces. Depending on your eating schedule, you want to add one "palm" of protein and then either one "palm" of veggies or carbs. I go "either/or" with my veggies and carbs, eating carbs only around my workouts and not too late in the evening. That's just my regimen, it's ok to mix in the carbs w/ veggies, but I suggest to not go too crazy on the carbs. Veggies are fairly safe to eat in excess. I write down what I might need and then proceed to go shopping for the ingredients.

2 - Shopping Eating healthy may seem expensive, but it actually is way cheaper than eating out. You don't necessarily need to go non-GMO, all organic with your purchases either. Organics are worth looking into though, but I won't go into that here (google "Monsanto"). You want to primarily stick to the edges of the grocery store. Not saying you don't need to visit any of the inner aisles, but the outer aisles usually contain all the fresh produce. Anything fresh needs refrigeration and thus the outer edge of most grocers keep their coolers there. It's just easier to run them there. I do visit the inner aisles for things like my condiments (Mrs Dash!), canned beans/tuna, brown rice or whole wheat pasta. All my proteins, veggies and eggs are around the outer edge of my local grocery store. To make cooking easier, you could go with pre-cut or bagged ingredients. They're sometimes not as "fresh" as raw ingredients but it does save a bunch of time. Pre-cut meats and fish are usually also available in the meat or seafood department. Here is an example of what I bought for my most recent meal prep:  Two 1lb packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts Two packages w/ 2 salmon fillets each Two cod fillets Two ground salmon jalapeno burgers Container of pre-cut melon A dozen brown eggs Two heads of broccoli One bunch of collard greens One package of pre-cut matchstick carrots One package pre-marinated asparagus One medium sweet potato One 14oz can of unsalted black beans

3 - Prep My prep is fairly simple. I usually don't marinate anything, I just season as I cook. If you want better tasting meals, you can cut your meats (tenderize if needed), season them in a ziplock bag and refridgerate them. This helps the meat turn out more juicy and flavorful. It does require a little more foresight and time however. I like to use low sodium options to season my meals. Lower sodium diets help prevent cardiovascualar disease, high cholesterol and obesity. Sodium is important for fluid regulation and other bodily functions. So you want to still keep sodium in your diet. My low sodium seasonings are any flavor of Mrs Dash and Braggs Liquid Aminos. Mrs Dash can be found almost anywhere, but I can only find Liquid Aminos are more "natural" grocers like Whole Foods or Sprouts. I just cut my meats and sprinkle Mrs Dash all over them before baking/pan-frying them. I don't add anything to my veggies except maybe some minced garlic while steaming. For the carbs, I add cinnamon to my oats or sweet potatoes. Everything else is pretty plain. If you are just starting out with meal prep, I find it totally acceptable to sneak in some more conventional condiments with your food. Not everyone can just eat a bunch of steamed broccoli plain. I suggest trying to see if you can just use the Liquid Aminos or Mrs Dash with them. Test it out with a single serving before prepping a bunch of meals that you don't like and won't eat. If it still isn't enough, try to add a light amount of butter or ranch or whatever you need. In my opinion, it's still better than eating a side of french fries. Gradually try to wean yourself away from the unhealthy condiments though.

4 - Cook Cooking is the fun part! Cleaning dishes is the not-so-fun part lol. I generally grab everything out of the fridge and stack it on some counter space. I am not a Cordon Bleu graduate line chef. I'm just you're average guy so the order that I do things may not be the most efficient but it seems to work. A - Bake: Baking things usually take the longest so I like to pre-heat the oven while I'm pulling ingredients out of the fridge. I like fish a lot and the easiest way to cook it is to bake it. Sometimes I bake chicken or sweet potatoes too. In this example, I had plenty of fish. I placed foil on a flat pan, greased it will non-stick and then placed my fish down on it. For salmon there's no need to remove the skin, it comes off easier when cooked. Sprinkle whatever seasoning you need on it & place in the oven. I cook it at about 350 degrees, which is low. But I will be busy doing other things so I don't need the fish done right away.

B - Skillet/Grill: Stuff that is pan-fried usually requires a little bit of cutting. After I get the baked stuff started in the oven, I go to prep stuff for the pan. Things that I normally pan fry are any type of burger, chunked meat, tofu or ground meat. In this example, I had some salmon jalapeno burgers and chicken to cook. So I opened the package of chicken, cut away a bit of the excess fat and sliced it into chunks. In place of using a skillet, I could use a few "Foreman grills". I used to do that, but cleaning the ones I have is a nightmare. Usually the meat I buy is really lean anyway, so I'm not too worried about fat drippings. A good replacement for pan frying is grilling. Right now I lack a grill, but a propane grill is easy to get going fast (although I do like charcoal better, sorry Hank Hill). Once cut, I fired up two burners & greased two skillets. I placed the salmon burgers in one & the chunked chicken in another. The burgers already had seasoning so I only threw Mrs Dash onto the chicken. I cook them on medium since again, I will be doing other things and not exclusively watching them.

C - Steam: Vegetables don't take long to steam so I save them for last. Plus they are low maintenance since they just sit in a pot. This allows me to check on the baked items and stir/flip the skillet/grill items simultaneously. I'm not super particular about my food touching so I use a large stock pot with a colander to steam all my veggies at once. I place the colander at the bottom of the pot. Fill it with water up to just below the colander. Place on the stove with the lid on and heat high. In this case I had collards, asparagus, broccoli and carrots. I threw the carrots in first since they were pre-cut. I washed and ripped the collards into smaller pieces and placed into the pot (w/out the stalk). Cut the asparagus and broccoli into small chunks and place into pot too. Leave covered. Once the water gets boiling, I like to drop the heat down to medium. I like my veggies slightly crunchy so I leave them in for about 10 minutes. Adjust time based on your needs.

D - Boil: This step usually includes whatever random stuff I may need to prep. Snacks and other odd bits that would be be convenient to have already cooked get done here. In this example I cracked open my can of black beans and cooked that. After that was done, I boiled about six eggs to keep in the fridge. I had some already baked sweet potato left over from last weeks meal prep so I pulled that out here. During this step I usually have the fish done, finish up any grilling and start looking for my tupperware containers.

5 - Plate A cheap tupperware set costs only a few bucks from almost anywhere. I like to get a few sets that all use the same top so it's easy to match them. I use a set of medium size bowls so I can fit an entire meal into one. While everything is finishing and/or cooling off, I lay out a number of empty containers.

Once I have everything laid out, I grab my various protein sources and start "plating" them into different containers. I try to switch it up and not place 4 containers of fish right next to one another. Spread it out so you get a variety of different food. This also helps prevent you from getting too "tired" of eating the same thing all the time.

After plating my protein sources, I move into plating my carb sources. Due to my diet, I have way fewer carb sources than veggies so I like to spread those out before handling the vegetables. I have carbs in 2-3 meals per day so I plate that first and space them off. The veggie steam pot gets moved over and then I add veggies to the remaining containers that do not contain carbs.

Once plated, I like to let the food cool a bit before placing the tops on them and moving to the fridge. Anything that is leftover, I place into other tupperware and use that for dinner or my next meal prep.

Tips / Advice Start slow. Do not attempt to prep an entire weeks worth of meals off the bat. Try to monitor your existing meals or eating out while introducing your prepped meals slowly. Maybe prep lunch or breakfast for a few days to start out. Once you have the routine down and have figured out what you like, step it up and prep more meals. Get comfortable with the process. Meal Prep does take some time but as you get more familiar with doing it, you become faster. I can knock out about 12-14 meals w/ leftovers in under an hour now. Find a balance that includes speed, efficiency, and taste. Protein, veggies, and carbs are the three basic things I need. Often times I just "wing it" and head to the store after work and pickup my raw ingredients. Make sure you switch it up often and try other combinations of food so you don't get tired of meal prep. I introduce 1-2 "cheat" meals or semi-cheat meals into my meal prep. For this example it was the salmon jalapeno burgers. There is salt and cheese packed in the burger patty so it's not totally "healthy". It's really tasty and I like it though. It gives me something to look forward to. Save fridge space! Prepped meals take up a bit of space, so clear out the fridge. Be mindful of roommates or significant others. Look for inspirations on social media or blogs (like this one!) for ideas and techniques.

Check back for additional advice and browse our posts regularly for ideas on workouts and nutrition. Good luck!

Submitted by Bars

Nutrition: Black Bean Pancakes

Recipe 1-2 scoop of vanilla/chocolate protein powder * 1/3 cup of drained, unsalted black beans ** 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder 1 tablespoon of dark cocoa powder 1 egg white 1/3 cup of Unsweetened Almond Milk ***

Substitution Items * I suggest sticking with vanilla/chocolate protein because flavors like "Tropical Punch" taste weird in a pancake. ** If you don't like beans, replace with Whole Wheat Flour *** You can use soy/dairy milk if you wish

Directions Add 1-2 scoops of Vanilla or Chocolate Protein Powder to a mixing bowl. *** I use Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey - Extreme Milk Chocolate flavor. Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder Add a tablespoon of dark cocoa powder Add 1/3 cup of drained, unsalted black beans Add 1 egg white Add a 1/3 cup of Unsweetened Almond Milk ***Optional: Unsweetened coconut flakes ***Optional: A couple pinches of Stevia ***Optional: Ground psyllium powder for extra fiber Blend all ingredients well Heat a pan coated in olive oil or non-stick spray Cook pancakes using your normal method Makes about 3 large, thin pancakes Enjoy.

Review Black beans are high in fiber, protein, vitamin B6 and antioxidants. When eaten with brown rice, its a complete protein and extremely useful for vegetarians. The pancakes hold together well and taste like normal flour pancakes. If you like your pancakes sweet be sure to add Stevia. You can also alternately play with your black bean to flour ratio.

Easy Protein Pancake

What you will need:

1 Cup of Liquid Egg Whites

1/2 Cup of Plain Oatmeal

*1-2 Scoops of Protein Powder

**Syrup(optional)

 

 

*I used Muscle Milk Light. For this version I used 1 scoop of chocolate and 1 scoop of vanilla to switch up the flavors a little.

**Syrup, I found a sugar free syrup. You can put in on top after you have cooked the pancake or just mix it in as I do.

***I find it easy to put in the liquid egg whites first and whip it a little with a fork.

****I used a little spray Olive oil to keep it from sticking to the pan.

 

 

 

All the items measured out

All items mixed together

Cooking in the pan

Easy Protein Pancake ready to be Enjoyed!!!

Feel free to play with the ingredients to make it your own

Submitted by Miles

 

Nutrition: Calories and Macros

1 - CALORIE CALCULATION

I don't usually track my nutrition year-round but when "cutting" (or trying to drop weight in general), it is by far the most effective way to manage your diet. The are many methods out there to calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which is basically just a minimum amount of calories your body needs to run. Too many factors go into each method to discuss at length but the system I use is just "guess-timate" at my daily calorie requirements. The way I confirm my estimates are by tracking my nutrition for a couple weeks and seeing how my weight fluctuates. If your weight falls, then you are burning more than you ingested (deficit). If you make gains, then you are in a calorie excess. Cals Per Pound Base calorie per weight calculation. 12-14 kcal/pound - Healthy adult w/ little extra activity 14-16 kcal/pound - Healthy adult w/ moderate activity 16-18 kcal/pound - Healthy adult w/ high activity 18+ kcal/pound - Athlete level Activity Modifier Activity outside of your workouts. x1.2 - Sedentary, no exercise x1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active, light exercise x1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active, regular exercise (3-5 days/week) x1.7-1.8 = Very active, demanding daily routine x1.9-2.2 = Athlete level Weight Direction *** To GAIN weight (bulk): Add 10-20% calories to your total *** To LOSE weight (cut): Subtract 10-20% calories from your total My Maintenance Calculation My weight average is 195lbs. I workout 4-6 days a week (moderate activity). I'm employed as a web developer who sits at a desk all day (sedentary job). BASE CALC: 14-16kcal x 195lbs = 2730-3120 calories MODIFIER CALC: 2730-3120 x 1.2 = 3276-3744 calories Use your judgement to take into account other factors that may modify your calorie estimate (i.e. age, current health, body fat%, etc). As for myself, i'm in my thirties but I still have a somewhat high metabolism so I use a middle ground estimate on my calorie count of 3500cals. Thats about the total amount of calories it takes to maintain my current weight. I generally like just maintaining a healthy, lean weight year-round but the past two winters I did "bulk" on purpose to make some quick size gains. I still ate clean a majority of the time but I didn't allow myself to get hungry at all. I was eating 7-8 meals a day. I calculated my calories for a typical day and it would regularly exceed 4.1k calories. Eating like this during the winter, I put on about 10 lbs of size (peaking at 197lbs). This made sense because I was eating well over my maintenance calorie count. I also cut out cardio during this time. Unfortunately some slop came along with that size too. Since it's summer now and time for the pool, I figured I would try to drop weight as best I can while trying to maintain a little size. I'm at a higher weight and accustomed to eating everything in sight. My first action was to try and break that habit & space out my meals. Moving from about 8 meals a day down to 5-6 meals. I also had to modify the type of nutrition I was consuming. I was eating clean while bulking but I was ingesting a lot of carbs. While dropping weight, I am more carb conscious and tend to go low (or no) carbs from my later meals. I eat a majority of my carbs pre and post workout. And I also aim at a lower overall calorie count of course. My Cutting Calculation I use a median between 10-20% for losing weight to allow myself some wiggle room. 3500 (total) x 15% (cut percent) = 525 calories 3500 - 525 = 2975 calories So for now my target total calories are 3k cals. For my off days (sat/sun) I ingest 90% of my training target (~2.7k).

2 - MACRO CALCULATION

Protein I generally use a standard of 0.8-1.5 grams of protein per pound. To gain muscle, you want to ingest at least 1g/lb or higher. MY PROTEIN CALC (standard based): 195lbs x 0.8-1.5g/lb = 156-292g protein There is also an alternate standard of using a percentage of your total calorie goal to figure out protein. Somewhere between 15-30% of your total calories should be protein. 1g of protein is 4 cals so divide the percentage by four. MY PROTEIN CALC (percentage based): (3200 x 15-30%) / 4 = 120-240g protein I personally aim for about 255g protein per training day (about 1.3g/lb) and try to make sure to eat my current body weight at the very least. Fats I use a standard of 0.4-1.0 grams of fat per pound. While most people try to avoid fat at all costs, your body does need fat to survive. You just don't want an excess of it so I place my ceiling at a gram per pound. Just make sure to not exceed it. MY FAT CALC: 195lbs x 0.4-1.0g/lb = 78-195g fats Carbs This is a really controversial subject for everyone trying to manage their weight. There are many different systems and gimmicks but like with anything you have to ultimately discover what works for you. I use an estimate of 2-3g per pound for carbs. This is for someone that is moderately active. If you are an athlete or someone with an extremely physically taxing job I would go 3+ grams. For people that are not as active you would want to use 2g/lb as a ceiling. MY CARB CALC: 195lbs x 2-3g/lb = 390-585g carbs Since i'm currently cutting, I use 2g/lb as a ceiling and try not to approach 390g of carbs per day. When i'm bulking, it's usually no problem to hit the higher end of this as i'm cramming pasta and rice in my mouth all day.

3 - TRACKING The hardest part of calorie and macro maintenance is tracking your food intake. Some companies (i.e. Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem) make a lot of money by simply making it easier to track your intake or doing it for you. I admit that it sucks. Until you get to your goal weight and fall into a routine of eating that you can upkeep unconsciously, I recommend tracking your nutrition. I personally only do it while cutting and during the summer months just to maintain my abs. While bulking I just eat like crazy. Although I bet that if I tracked my diet while bulking I would likely make cleaner gains instead of having so much slop. I use an iPhone App called: My Macros+ (by Jason Loewy). It's a couple dollars and has a pretty clean interface. The first couple weeks of using any app are a little difficult as you have to enter in the nutritional data for foods that you commonly eat. Once you have most of your regular food items in, it's fairly easy to track each meal. Some apps have large amounts of pre-loaded data for popular foods and restaurants. My goal is to always "eat boring", meaning that I consume a lot of the same foods most of the time during training days. On my off days (weekends) I do open it up a bit and have a cheat meal or two and allow myself to drink alcohol. Whether you use technology or a paper and pen, try to make your best attempt to accurately track your nutrition. Most store or restaurant bought items have nutrition info readily available but home-cooking can be tricky. For home cooked meals I just google search the item and use the nutritional info for the closest recipe. It will give a best guess as to what's in your meal. So it's not an exact science but an educated guess is better than not tracking it at all.

I will post again when I reach my goal in a month or so and also review the workout and supplement changes that occur while cutting. As with anything, this is just advice and it's up to everyone to find out what works for them. Good luck!

Submitted by Bars