Monday, August 19, 2013

Preparing For a Week of Clean Eating

The best thing that you can do for yourself in your fitness journey is to be prepared with clean food.  If you have healthy choices on hand you will reach for those instead of something quick and unhealthy.  Take time either on Sunday night or Monday night to get ready for a successful week.  I will make sure that I have food for two snacks, one can be a protein shake or green smoothie, two meals.  Breakfast is always easy for me, I eat (pretty much) the same thing every day, eggs, sprouted grain Ezekiel nuts and seeds bread and some berries.  I have one cup of coffee with a little coconut milk creamer.  Here are some meal and snacks you can prepare ahead of time, and some ideas of what you can grab if you are out and in a pinch!

Meals
Lunch or Dinner:
Grilled chicken breast, quinoa, mixed veggies (broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach)
 -Make 4 or 5 grilled chicken breasts (approx 4 ounce servings) for the week
-Cook enough vegetables to eat at 3 or 4 meals
-Make quinoa to have 4 or 5 1/2 cup servings
Baked Salmon, sweet potato, salad
-Make enough salmon for 3 or 4 5-6 ounce servings
-Bake 2 or 3 sweet potatoes
-Make one large salad to eat during the week, load it up with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, add in lots of mixed leafy greens and spinach.  Choose your dressing wisely: red wine or balsamic vinegar and evoo, or an organic vinaigrette (I prefer the Organicville brand)
* The key here is to prepare enough meals to have 5 days of lunch and dinner.  You can make 2 or 3 different meals, depending on how much variety you need.  When I am in goal mode I can eat a lot of the same meals throughout the week. 

Snacks:
-1/4 cup raw almonds
-Cut up veggies (carrots, celery, snow or snap peas) and 2 tbsp hummus
-1 tbsp organic peanut butter with Sprouted Grain Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread
-Apples, pears, peaches, plums, etc
-Mixed berries, 1/2 cup organic full fat yogurt, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I use Sun Warrior Vegan blend, or for those of you who prefer whey, J Robb Whey is a good choice)
-1 organic mozzarella cheese stick
-Green Smoothie- you can make this in the morning to take with you, make sure to keep refrigerated (will keep up to 24 hours)
-Protein Shake- again make in the morning to take with you.  You can also purchase a blender bottle to keep with you, add water and your protein shake and drink.  It's easy and will keep you from grabbing something bad.

On the go or in a pinch:
If you are able to make it to a grocery store pick up any of these:
-Kind Protein bar
-Apple
-Banana
-Portioned out unsalted nuts
-Frozen Amy's meal (if you can get to a microwave)
-Premade salad- skip the dressing and stick with red wine vinegar and evoo

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water (half your body weight in ounces per day) as sometimes you will mistake hunger for thirst.
If you need more ideas check out my approved foods list here.

 Please share any healthy meals or snacks that you eat to stay lean and clean!
As always, thanks for stopping by! 

4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing your story in your comment on my blog- we went through the same thing. I'm doing the same thing this week with our meal plan. It can seem boring to eat the same kind of things over and over, but I love the results and will look forward to a dinner out on Friday! :)

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    1. Well as a woman and a mom, it is great to not feel alone during and after pregnancy. I felt like I was the only one that got that big, all of my friends and family were tiny with a cute bump (how I envisioned myself). However, I feel stronger and am happier now with my body than I have ever been. For heavens sake we made babies, we should feel proud and strong!
      Thanks again and I look forward to reading more on your blogs in the future!
      In health and fitness,
      Angelena

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  2. These are great suggestions! I love the Ezekiel Cinnamon raison bread - just tried it this week!! Thanks for another great meal plan idea!!!

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    1. Nikole, I am glad you find them helpful! I love that bread it is my favorite with peanut butter, almost a treat when you are cutting out white bread and sugar!

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