Meal Prep

This is going to be a long one but hopefully you think its worth reading! TJ and I are always asked how/what we eat and how we prepare our meals so I figured I would do a post about it for anyone who is interested to reference.
 

Before I start with the actual prep there are a few things I want to go over about dieting and meal prepping.

1. What works for one doesn't work for all- I cannot stress how important it is to figure out what works or you. Even though TJ and I prep together and live together we do not eat the same amounts or kinds of foods. I CANNOT live out of Tupperware. I have to have hot, fresh meals. He is perfectly fine with cold or microwaved food & he has to eat about twice as much as I do. If you do not prepare food you like or in a way that you like you will not stick to eating it. Diets are temporary, lifestyles are forever so pick a way of eating that you can maintain without being terribly miserable.  

2. It will seem tedious at first but it is worth it- My first time meal prepping it seemed to take me all day and I made way too much food. Stick with it. After the first couple of weeks, you get the hang of it and figure out how much food you actually need. My meal prep now takes me about 2 hours and we never have left overs.

3. It does not have to be expensive- This is the biggest argument I hear from people when discussing eating healthy. Our grocery bill is between $100 and $200 dollars a week. That may seem high but that includes diapers, formula, dog food, and any miscellaneous household items we may need. It also includes 4-6 meals a day for TJ and 3 meals and 2 small snacks a day for me...That's alot of food!

Things to do before you start:
1. Come up with a plan: Take some time to sit down and write out what you expect you will be eating at each meal so you know what to buy.
2. Tupperware: It doesn't have to be the expensive kind. Wal-Mart has decent quality containers for less than $5 a set. Grab some Zip Lock bags as well, they're a life saver.
3. Clean out the junk: GET RID OF THE JUNK FOOD. By "junk food" I mean everything not on your meal plan. By the end of the week your pantry/frig should be down to bare bones. You do not want anything lying around to tempt you.

TJ's Meal Plan:
Breakfast: 4 scrambled eggs with 1 can of tuna and a grapefruit
or
1 cup oatmeal with either chocolate protein powder or cinnamon and a grapefruit

9:00 Break: Apple

Lunch: Chicken or Fish
Salad
2 Boiled Eggs
Broccoli
Steamed Veggies
Rice or Sweet Potato
Almonds

Pre Workout: 2 Turkey Patties
1 banana with PB2 peanut butter

Dinner: Grilled Chicken or Fish Salad
or
Grilled Chicken or Shrimp with Bell Peppers


Reagan Meal Plan:

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs or 1/2 cup oatmeal
Coffee

Lunch: Grilled Shrimp or Chicken with Bell Pepper
or
Tuna and salad

Dinner: Grilled Shrimp or Chicken with Bell Pepper
or
Tuna and salad

Snacks Options: Almonds, Bananas, Bell Pepper, Apples

We each drink 1 Gallon of water a day and try to limit other drinks.

 

Meal Preparation

 

Protein

Protein is probably the single most important part of our diets. Your muscles feed off protein so the more muscle you have the more protein you need & also the more fat you burn!

We typically rotate weeks between chicken or fish for TJ and chicken or shrimp for me. This week is a chicken week. We season ALL our food with Ms. Dash seasonings because there is no sodium. Sodium makes your body hold on to water.

I prefer to bake TJs chicken breast rather than grill it because baking it keeps it moist and it gives me the ability to cook all of the chicken at once without having to monitor it rather than standing over the grill. I also do the same thing with fish. Referring to number (1) above: I cannot do reheated chicken. So, I package my chicken in ziplock bags either the full breast or a full breast cubed so all I have to do is stick it in a pan at and cook it. I also do this when its my shrimp or fish week. If I do shrimp I buy the small shrimp because they cook quickly and I will put 1.5cups of shrimp in each ziplock.

 

In addition to chicken, fish or shrimp, I prepare turkey patties weekly. These are super easy and really nice to have when you have to grab something quick. We use 2 pounds of  97% lean ground turkey meat, Ms. Dash seasoning and 2 raw eggs mixed together to make our patties. Spray your skillet with pam or olive oil to make sure they don't stick.

 

 

The next protein element in our diet is eggs. We buy 6 dozen eggs a week. This may sound ridiculous but each of us have 3-4 eggs for breakfast, 2 boiled eggs at lunch and sometimes 2 at dinner or for a snack. I boil 20 eggs on meal prep day and store them for TJ so he can grab how ever many he wants for lunch. I, again, cannot do cold eggs so I boil 2 when I come home for lunch or right when I get home from work to hold me over till dinner.

 

The last bit of protein comes from tuna. TJ will typically have a can of tuna every morning (he mixes it with his eggs...gross). I like to use tuna as a lunch possibility or dinner possibility depending on when my workout will be that day. If I am working out late I will have my large meal at lunch and tuna at dinner and vice versa. If you are not a fan of plain tuna I suggest the sweet and spicy tuna or the lemon pepper tuna.

 

Veggies and Carbs

 

We eat a ton of veggies! I prepare a salad a day for each of us on meal prep days. Our salads include: spinach or romaine lettuce, cherry tomato's, cucumber and carrots.

 

We love bell pepper. We buy a couple of each color and cut them up so that they are ready to be added to our eggs or sautéed and added to our chicken, fish or shrimp. I also tend to snack on them when I am between meals and feeling hungry.

 

 TJ takes raw broccoli with him to work every day. It is a good low calorie option with lots of nutrients to help you fill up. I like to separate the broccoli into grab and go bags before I store them in the frig.

We buy a large bag of the Normandy Blend frozen vegetables every week and I steam them. Super easy; just put them in a pot add a little bit of water, put it on the stove with the lid and let it do its thing. I package the steamed veggies with a carb. Typically, TJ alternates between baked sweet potatoes and a brown rice/ground turkey mix. To make the sweet potatoes all I do is wash them and stick them in a pan in the oven on 350 degrees until they are easily punctured with a fork (save time and adjust your stove racks so you can cook the sweet potatoes and the chicken at the same time). For the rice, I cook 1 pound of brown rice and add 1 pound of browned 97% lean ground turkey. We only eat a 1/2 cup of the rice/turkey mixture at a time so though it may seem like its a decent helping of carbs you really only end up with about 1/4 cup of rice due to adding the equal part of ground turkey meat. In the containers below there is 1 cup of steamed veggies and 1/2 cup rice/turkey mixture in one and 1 cup of steamed veggies and 1 sweet potato in the other.

 

I forgot to take a picture of our oatmeal but we both like to eat whole grain oatmeal for breakfast. We usually do this 2-3 times a week.

 

I always make sure to keep enough extra salad stuff on hand so that we can have grilled chicken salads or tuna salads for dinner if we feel like it.

 

Fruits

 

We both love fruit but due to the amount of sugar in fruit we try and limit our consumption to the earlier part of our day. TJ often has a sliced grapefruit with his breakfast. Grapefruit is one of the best fruits for you so if you can stand the taste of them (I cannot) you should consider adding it to your morning meal. We use apples and bananas as snacks.

 

Misc. Items

 

We always have raw natural almonds on hand. They provide a good source of the 'good fats' your body needs.

 

PB2 is one of the greatest things on the face of the earth as far as TJ is concerned. He LOVES peanut butter, however, the amount of fat and sugar in peanut butter pretty much made it taboo. He used to go through a jar of peanut butter a week and when he made the switch to PB2 we could both tell a huge difference in his stomach. It comes in chocolate or regular flavored. Just add water and it is the consistency of regular peanut butter or add the powder to your oatmeal and it is really good!

 

Meal prepping I something I have become very passionate about and it makes my life so much easier throughout the week. I would highly encourage anyone interested in changing their lifestyle to meal prep. Please email me if you have any questions.