This is a nice "how to" & "lessons learned" type of summary.
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These are my random musings, light-bulb thoughts, and lessons learned, recorded as I
Weekly meal prep
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| Typical shopping cart. |
Every weekend I prepped meals for the coming week. It (usually/ideally) looked like so:
- Grocery shopping list (I put this on notepad in iPhone, pretty much permanently accurate):
- salad veg (carrots, celery, cauliflower, bell peppers, peas, greens)
- second head of cauliflower
- asparagus or Brussels sprouts
- 3-4 avocados
- a LOT of sugar snap peas every single time they are on sale
- couple fruits, usually apples & whatever was on sale (toward the end: bananas)
- almonds
- chicken breakfast sausage
- eggs
- giant bags of jerky or normal-size bags of sale jerky - if I could find it
- Larabars
- can or two of coconut milk
- bottle kombucha (for the drive home!)
- Saturday noon-ish
- Put a whole chicken or a couple roasts into the slow cooker, sprinkle on some spices, walk away
- Sunday AM
- Cook 2 packages chicken sausage in big pan; put all into one container in the fridge
- Chop a head of cauliflower into a 9x13 pan along with an onion, drizzle with olive oil, bake at 350 for an hour
- Put tinfoil on a baking sheet, add yams to oven w/ cauliflower
- HOT TIP: if it was too damn hot for the oven, I'd time them to finish just before leaving the house for a long while OR put them in the slow cooker
- Set out 6 containers and chop up salad veg, evenly distribute among containers, stack in fridge
- Dig out stir-fry-type veg from the CSA delivery, chop 'em up, put into finished chicken sausage pan, sprinkle on some spices, turn to low
- Portion out closed handfuls of nuts into snack-sized bags, and 2-ish oz jerky into snack-sized bags; divide between pantry stash and work bag (for desk stash)
- When yams are done, pile into one container in the fridge (or just onto tinfoil)
- When meat is done (in my world,slow-cooker meat is done at 24 hours - then you can EAT THE BONES), divide meat equally into proper portions (6-8 containers, depending on meat size and [I'll be honest] hunger while dividing) add a scoop of the finished stir-fry veg, stack in fridge (if this turns out blah: add Tabasco)
- DONE. Get on with my life!
- Breakfast: 2 eggs, 3 chicken sausage links, few forkfuls cold kraut, a cubed or mashed yam, ~c asparagus or Brussels sprouts or cauliflower, several c coffee w/ coconut milk or coconut oil
- Post-workout snack (if I did class): banana, apple, yam, or Larabar
- Pre-workout snack: handful nuts
- Post-workout snack (unless straight to lunch, which is more common): banana, apple, yam, or Larabar
- Lunch: chicken w/ seasonings, tuna w/ mustard, or pork w/ seasonings; stir fry, steamed veg, or snap peas; yam, apple, banana, or Larabar
- Snack (only if truly hungry, or pre-emptively if a late supper or another workout before supper): handful nuts
- Supper: salad w/ .5-1 avocado; turkey pepperoni dipped into TC guac, tuna w/ mustard, or jerky; serving of fruit
With this, the only meal I'm actually cooking each day is breakfast,
because it's my absolute favorite. Lunch effort involves pushing buttons
on a microwave. Supper involves, at most, cutting up an avocado
and opening a can of tuna. Eat and get on with my life!
Lessons learned
Not making paleo-fied junk food really kills the cravings. When my meals are simple standards, I am plenty satisfied nutritionally, and the cravings begin to fall away. When I'm baking or even just making more complicated recipes, I find myself struggling not to over-eat. I do better to make my meals all at once on the weekend (except breakfast) and eat the same damn thing every damn day.
I do really well with a black-and-white "food is fuel" mantra. I don't care that some may think that's not healthy. It keeps me from obsessing, and that IS healthy. Sure, there's probably a balance where I can eat to celebrate, or whatever, but after nearly 35 years spent being an emotional eater, I am finding a lot more peace at the opposite end of the spectrum. I think it's best FOR ME to let the balance "pull" me from this end rather than trying to jump to the middle and struggle struggle struggle not to return to the emotional end. Sort of like it's easier to simply NOT BUY a jar of coconut butter than it is to buy it but moderate intake. At some point in my life, I'll be able to moderate. Now is not that time, so there's no point in even trying.
Relatedly, I am doing fine with eating-while-doing. Whole9 folks want you to stop and focus on your meal, eat until you feel full, truly experience it. Forget that - for me. I don't have time, I don't want to make time, I don't benefit from this. Food is fuel, so hork it down and get on with my day. Not healthy? Well, it's healthier than stressing about how I'm supposed to find two hours for a workout + lunch break.
I had plenty of energy for my workouts - really began to notice a difference around the 4/5-week mark. In my entire 50 days, I had just THREE full-rest days. In the past, this was a recipe for adrenal burnout, injury, or both. With the boost in calories (I estimated in my 6th week, and I was coming in at 2000-2200 average), this didn't happen.
It's really easy for a person who's fine eating the same meals every single day. My husband makes his own food, though he operates on a similar basis: cooking up a big meal for week's worth of lunches, but enjoys grilling when he gets home, so he does get some variety. Kids? I really have no advice. Sorry, visit Google for that one.
Lessons learned
Not making paleo-fied junk food really kills the cravings. When my meals are simple standards, I am plenty satisfied nutritionally, and the cravings begin to fall away. When I'm baking or even just making more complicated recipes, I find myself struggling not to over-eat. I do better to make my meals all at once on the weekend (except breakfast) and eat the same damn thing every damn day.
I do really well with a black-and-white "food is fuel" mantra. I don't care that some may think that's not healthy. It keeps me from obsessing, and that IS healthy. Sure, there's probably a balance where I can eat to celebrate, or whatever, but after nearly 35 years spent being an emotional eater, I am finding a lot more peace at the opposite end of the spectrum. I think it's best FOR ME to let the balance "pull" me from this end rather than trying to jump to the middle and struggle struggle struggle not to return to the emotional end. Sort of like it's easier to simply NOT BUY a jar of coconut butter than it is to buy it but moderate intake. At some point in my life, I'll be able to moderate. Now is not that time, so there's no point in even trying.
Relatedly, I am doing fine with eating-while-doing. Whole9 folks want you to stop and focus on your meal, eat until you feel full, truly experience it. Forget that - for me. I don't have time, I don't want to make time, I don't benefit from this. Food is fuel, so hork it down and get on with my day. Not healthy? Well, it's healthier than stressing about how I'm supposed to find two hours for a workout + lunch break.
I had plenty of energy for my workouts - really began to notice a difference around the 4/5-week mark. In my entire 50 days, I had just THREE full-rest days. In the past, this was a recipe for adrenal burnout, injury, or both. With the boost in calories (I estimated in my 6th week, and I was coming in at 2000-2200 average), this didn't happen.
It's really easy for a person who's fine eating the same meals every single day. My husband makes his own food, though he operates on a similar basis: cooking up a big meal for week's worth of lunches, but enjoys grilling when he gets home, so he does get some variety. Kids? I really have no advice. Sorry, visit Google for that one.
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