Meal Plans Using Macronutrients

 

Making an meal plan can be hard.  Hell, many people find just thinking about good nutrition as a hard task.  This is the main reason why so many people go towards the "next best thing".  Products like fat loss pills, fad diets and "lose weight without needing to change" products are everywhere.  People know they need to make changes, but they do not know how to focus it around their lives, so they need it done for them and easy.

The problem is, is that these "sexy" meal plans and products that promise to get crazy fast results are not sustainable.  Instead, people needing results can make their own meal plans that are focused around their own lifestyle by using Macro nutrients and myfitnesspal (click here to learn how to set up MYFITNESSPAL).

 

THE RULE OF 2'S IS LIFE

 

We keep breakfast pretty consistent for our meal plan.  You generally always have time for breakfast or you need something super fast and easy.  Either case, breakfast can become pretty consistent and it should stay that way as part of your plan.

We will then pick two of each macro nutrient (protein, carb and fat) plus two veggies for lunch and dinner.

For Example:

Lunch Becomes:

Dinner Becomes:

TIME TO MEAL PLAN

 

Time to bust out your food tracking app of choice (My fitness pal, Fat Secret, LoseIt!...We prefer MFP).  We have got a game plan on WHAT we will be eating....But how much?  What about snacks? Post Workout?

Start by logging protein at every meal:

Then Carbs:

Then Fat:

Then Veggies:

You should now have a full day planned in your tracking app of choice...SWEET!!!  In MFP, scroll to the bottom of the food diary and click "Nutrition".  You should see current macro totals (make sure you select "nutrients" up at the top).  Keep adjusting entries until numbers match up with macro goals.

 

HOW TO ADJUST YOUR MEAL PLAN

 

Need More Protein?

Need More Carbs?

Need More Fats?

Just remember, these are just examples.  The important thing is to look at your day and adjust your meal plan so that you can live your life while still getting results.  The difference between using myfitnesspal and counting macros and strict meal plans is control.  Strict meal plans and programs like Weight watchers and Jenny Craig give you something to follow, but they do not give you control.  When you are done with those programs, the direction is gone and many people do not know what to do.  Following the examples above will give you an idea to get the control that everyone needs to make sustainable nutrition a part of their life.

If you wish for some help to make your own unique nutrition plan.  CLICK HERE and we can jump on a phone call to come up with your nutritional blueprint

Committed to your success,

Derek Ledwidge

 

 

Meal Prepping

Meal prepping sucks!!  There is no debating that.

It is a huge first in the path to getting results, but it is also one of the most time consuming steps.  Meal Prepping is also one of the most common trip ups when it comes to changing one's lifestyle.

I hear this all the time and I myself even have weeks where I just don't want to do it.  Some of the most common complaints are:

  1. Making a mess out of the kitchen and then having to take even longer to clean up.
  2. Spending hours on Sunday (most common) just to meal prep food.
  3. Making huge batches of the same food that you don't even want to look at anymore.
  4. Making too much food and in the end, just throwing most of it away.

We agree that you need to have a plan and be able to prep your healthy food in order to have control of your life.  So what steps can you take to counter the above complaints?

  1.  First, no one likes a kitchen that looks like a bomb went off.  Clean as you go.  Rinse things off, put dishes in the dishwasher, hand wash quickly before you start the next recipe or meal.  Even better would be to start cleaning while the next meal is currently cooking.

Meal Prepping Time

2.  To counter the hours spent meal prepping, simply make a time limit.  If you don't like meal prepping for hours, then don't.  Set the limit for 1-2 hours.  Do this 2-3 times a week and meal prepping won't be so time consuming and you won't feel like you are wasting an entire day.  I myself really struggle getting my veggies in.  I know this is an issue so I spend 2-3 nights prepping a head of cauliflower (or two) and some broccoli.  The prep does not take too long (about 30 min each), but I always have veggies at hand each day.

Meal Prepping Burn Out

3.  To attack the meal prep burn out issue, you really just have to realize that meal prepping does not mean you have to eat chicken, broccoli and rice at every meal.  Mix things up, add different spices, and make smaller batches of each.  Try picking a different recipe each week (or every two weeks).  This way you can have your fast and easy recipes at your disposal but you can still have some more elaborate (and tasty) meals that you can treat yourself with.

4.  Create meals with specific problems to solve.  For example, if breakfast is your most challenging meal to eat healthy, plan and meal prep 5 breakfasts rather then prepping for all meals.  My biggest problem (outside of veggies) is always lunch.  My breakfast is a fast and easy super shake and I am home for dinner.  During the day, I am at our Strive Fitness and Performance facility and have nothing for food except take out.  In order to counter this, my only focus is on getting a great lunch planned and prep for the week.

 

[EXPERT TIP]

One of the first steps to success is to figure out if you want CONVENIENCE, ELABORATE RECIPES or A MIX.  I 100% hate meal prepping.  My vote is for Convenience.  I break up my meals into macro nutrients (protein, carbs and fats).  If you don't know what these are, feel free to drop us a line and we can have a consultation.  Basically, I break up each meal into these three component and (with my goals in mind) I make my meals.  I pick one from each category and prep.

Maybe you want to make legit recipes.  Go for it!!!  Just make sure you are making good ones.

Others may want to mix this up.  Maybe you go for convenience for when you are busy and make elaborate meals when you have a bunch of time or are with your family.

The point of this expert tip is that whichever you choose, it needs to fit your lifestyle.  No one really wants to be making 3 different meals for 3 different people, each time you cook (all the mothers out there are shaking their heads right now in agreement).

 

Committed to your success,

 

Derek Ledwidge

How To Make Your Own Effective Meal Plan For Fat Loss

You need a Meal Plan for fat loss.  You are on a diet. Whether you think so or not, it’s true. Your diet could consist of chicken nuggets, nachos, and diet soda. Or maybe it's a Muscle Milk for breakfast, pad thai for lunch, and frozen pizza for dinner. Whatever goes into your mouth on a regular basis is literally, your diet.

More often than not, people think that a diet is a resolve to all their health issues; that a 30-day challenge Detox or Strict Diet is the thing that is missing.  Many people believe that these challenges will finally get them the body they want (Read More HERE On Why This Is Not True).  They may survive this Detox or challenge and get the quick results. But what happens when the diet ends? If you are like most people, when the diet ends....The plan ends. You gain the weight back, you feel like shit, and you’re right back to where you started. I hear this same sad story over and over again. Most diets are just quick fixes. Limiting your food intake to grapefruits, high amounts of fat, or portion sizes that couldn’t feed a newborn, are unrealistic expectations and do nothing but set you up for failure.

Reaching your goals requires more than just a diet you practice intermittently when you feel like losing a few pounds. It requires an entire LIFESTYLE change, commitment, and most of all CONSISTENCY.

Watch the video below and read through this post to learn some helpful habits that you can instill easily into your lives and get the results you want without restricting yourself to insane limits.

 

1. Focus Your Carbs Around Your Workout

The Best Nutrition Meal Plan, starchy carbs

 

Over the last thirty years, the average American diet has increased by 500 calories per day, with nearly 80% of those added calories attributed to simple carbohydrates or sugar starches. The simple reason; packaged and processed foods are more easily accessible than ever and it’s cheap. Donuts, fries, pastries, pie, sodas, and chips flood grocery store aisles and provide a quick fix to your hunger.

So what should you do? Eat the right carbs is what.

Carbs can be distinguished into two main categories, simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates are simply sugar and come in the form of glucose and fructose. Glucose raises blood sugar quickly and foods that are higher on the glycemic index (GI) has a greater impact on blood sugar.

Complex carbohydrates are the type of carbohydrates you should be eating. As opposed to simple carbohydrates, which is simply glucose and fructose, complex carbohydrates are composed of multiple sugar molecules that keep you fuller for longer. Foods like sweet potatoes, brown rice, whole-wheat grains, whole-wheat pasta, and butternut squash provide you with the proper nutrients you need to keep you satiated. When you’re full, you eat less.

Carbs help us have the energy for some awesome workouts and help with recovery after workout.  They are great for people looking to get that lean full look for summer.

2. Add More Quality Protein

The Best Nutrition Nutritonal Plan, Protein

 

Protein gets a lot of play in the media, for good reason.  Today, you are going to explore how protein is your friend when it comes to weight loss.

Protein helps you lose weight for a few main reasons:

3. Eat Less Starch And More Whole Grains

The Best Nutrition Meal Plan, Carbs

Starch is found in carbohydrates like white rice, white bread, and pasta. Starch is made of long chained sugar molecules, held together by a weak chemical bond. Once digested, they’re absorbed more quickly and will cause your blood sugar to spike, creating a roller coaster like we talked about earlier. The simple solution - replace them and eat more whole grains, complex carbs, vegetables, and fruit. Produce contains a ton of essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber to help your body function at a more optimal level. The average American intake of vegetables consists of just two well-known culprits; potatoes and iceberg lettuce. You need to diversify. Go to a local market that has fresh fruit and vegetables and try new things. You’d be surprised at how many pounds you can drop, by just cutting back on your starch intake and replacing it with quality sources of organic produce and whole grains.

4. Eat Your Veggies!!!

The Nutritional Meal Plan, Veggies

Greens, meaning any kind of “leafy” vegetable like spinach, kale, and lettuces, are awesome but you probably already know this.  Its our job to simply remind you 🙂

Greens are well known for being some of the healthiest foods on earth -- and there is good reason for this!

Studies show that eating 7 servings of these veggies a week can decrease your risk for cancer by 50%! While many nutrition experts disagree about which exact foods may be the healthiest, eating a lot of greens is the one thing that nearly all nutritionists agree on.

So with each meal, your focus should be on adding in a variety of vegetables (2 fists worth).  You may want to think about throwing extra greens in! Simple, right?

Greens...

 

Greens are high in VOLUME, but have a very LOW CALORIE DENSITY, so you can eat loads of them.  This means you can eat large portions of greens without consuming too many calories or gaining weight (which is ideal for any effective meal plan)

Greens (and all vegetables) help to “crowd out” other foods, especially junk food. For example, picture number of fries you could have for 100 calories versus the amount of kale you could have for the same calories.  Now, consider how full you would feel after eating each. This is an example of how your stomach responds to the feeling of “filling up” on high volume, low calorie foods. Your stomach works with your brain to turn off your hunger signals based on volume consumed, allowing you to eat fewer calories overall.

Greens of all kinds are definitely your friend. If you miss everything else in these lessons about nutrition, remember this: eat more greens! Add them to omelets and soup, toss them in a stir-fry, make big salads using them as a base, or cook them down and serve your other food right on top of them.

5. Fat Does Not Make You Fat 

The Best Nutrition Meal Plan, Fats

Out of all the macronutrients, (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) fat is the only one that does not cause insulin to release. Despite its villainous name, fat is only guilty by association. Most diet meal plans restrict fats and carbs all together (among other things).  Fat does not make you fat, carbohydrates and added sugars do. But with all the different types of fat, it can be confusing which ones you should include in your diet and which ones you should stay away from

Why Fats Don’t Make Us Fat?

One thing you may not know about fats is how they affect our energy, especially if we are training hard.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also considered a good or healthy fat as they help with inflammation, boost brain function, help fight heart disease, and even decrease signs of aging. Fish, walnuts, and avocados are great sources of omega-3 fatty acids. The easiest way to get your essential Omega 3 fatty acids is through supplementation. Opt for Fish Oil Or Krill Oil.

The Takeaway

Creating a healthier life to look good and feel great is more than just temporary change. All diets work to a certain degree short term. But the reality is that no diet is sustainable unless you make a complete life change. With so much misinformation on TV, the internet, and from misinformed friends it can be hard to pave a path through what’s good information and what’s just plain disinformation.

Rule Of Thumb:

  1. Protein and Veggies at every meal
  2. Try and Eat 4-5 Times a day
  3. Carbs After Your Workout
  4. Fats spread out through your meal....But watch the portions

If you want to know how to create your own EFFECTIVE  meal plan that is right for YOU!!! Watch the video below to create your own

Strive Fitness is a Customized Training Program designed specifically for people over 30 years of age. A Personal Training Gym in Clinton Township, Michigan
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