Prep Week Module 5

Plan Your Week/Practice

This part of the program takes more effort initially. You will not “get it” right away, and you are not expected to. This is a learning process. You are not handed exactly what to eat every day. Everyone has different goals, different tastes, and different food preferences. You will need to learn how to eat the foods YOU like to eat to make them work for YOU.

Additionally, if you are given exactly what to eat every single meal of every day, how are you to learn how to eat on your own? How will you go on vacation, go out to eat, and live life just sticking to the things that someone has told you to eat. That is not realistic or a long term solution. Please keep this in mind as you go through the first couple weeks. You WILL make mistakes and you will learn from these mistakes. That is part of the learning process. This is not a quick fix, it is a jump start to a lifestyle change. Be patient and trust the process.

Blank Planner Pages

You may use these blank planner pages to help you plan your week.

Step 1- Look at your schedule for the week. Decide which days will be your workout days and write these down. Remember, there is no specific order you have to do these workouts.

Step 2- Write down your nutrition goals for each day of the week, especially if you are carb-cycling. Your nutrition will differ depending on your workout of the day. If you have been given only one setting to follow, then your nutrition is the same every day.

Step 3- Choose 1-2 recipes of your own or from the recipe library to prepare. Remember, you can double recipes to give you plenty for leftovers. This will save you time during the week. Write these down on a few of the days that you will eat them. The recipe library is divided into high carb recipes and low-moderate carb day recipes which gives you some guidance on what days would be best. If you are not carb cycling (you have the same goals every day) then you should look mostly at the low-moderate carb recipes. However, you can have the higher carb recipes, you will just need to adjust your snacks to work in the higher carb meals.

Step 4- On one or two of the days you will use a certain recipe, practice filling out the rest of the day’s food. I find that this is typically too overwhelming for most. I would stick to 1-2 days to practice with at first. Login to your My Fitness Pal App and put these foods in for the day. See where you end up. If you are close to your macro goals, great! (You most likely won’t be.) Remove some foods and try some others until you get closer (within about 5-10 grams over or under your goals). This will give you some practice in logging in foods and you will already have 1-2 days planned for next week!

Use the tools that have been provided for you earlier in your nutrition guide and on day 3 of prep week. Here they are again…

example week

Macro Cheat Sheets

Kitchen Prep

Purge your pantry of the things you do not want to be tempted with during the program. If you have kids and you have to keep some snacks, put them toward the back behind other items.

Create your grocery list for the recipes you would like to prepare for next week as well as other food items that you will need.

Here is a list of items I keep in bulk to always have on hand and items that I purchase routinely.

kim's grocery lists

Be sure you have good storage containers with tight seals for food to be stored safely. I am a fan of the Snapware glass containers. I get them at Costco.
Canned goods... Keep some stocks and broths, tomato sauce, flavored spaghetti sauces, beans, chickpeas, diced tomatoes, minced garlic on hand. These can be used for many different recipes.
Purchase fresh produce each and every time you visit the store. Keep in mind, you can freeze most vegetables and fruit for future use. Don’t forget garlic, onion, and peppers that can be used to add flavor.
Purchase protein each and every time you visit the store. You can freeze any meat, fish, poultry if you do not cook it right away.
Nuts and nut butters are great nutrient dense food items to always have on hand. Don’t forget you can use nut butters for baking, and you can use nuts as toppings for cooking and salads.
Dry items like beans, brown rice (or any rice), quinoa, chickpea pasta, rice based pasta, and edamame pasta are good to have on hand to make a variety of dishes.
Already frozen foods are great to buy because they are already frozen and ready to go for when you are ready to prepare them. Frozen meat of all kind, fruits and vegetables are things that you should have stocked in your freezer.
Have a good stock of butter, cooking oils, dressings, sauces and spices in your fridge and pantry. Having these on hand will give you many more options to vary the same food items with different flavorings. Don’t forget about minced garlic and peppers sold in jars.
Keep some baking supplies on hand. I like to keep almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot flour, baking soda, baking powder, coconut sugar, maple syrup, and honey on hand at all times. These items allow you to bake most paleo based recipes
Eggs are a great food item to have on hand at all times. Keep in mind most milk can be frozen safely but shelf stable milk or evaporated milk are some items that you can keep in the pantry.
Avoid purchasing junk food. These can be temptations to mindlessly snack on when you are at home. If you don’t have it, you can’t eat it.

Meal Prep

Put aside about 90 minutes to prepare some meals ahead of time. People always seem to think that meal prep is super complicated and daunting. It really isn't. You don't have to cook a lot of these super elaborate meals that take a lot of time.

I typically will cook ahead of time 1-2 recipes for the week ahead of time, that is it. I just double the recipe if they are meals that my whole family will eat.

For the rest of my food, I prepare what I call “separates.”

I prepare 1-2 grain or carb items (rice, sweet potatoes, etc.)
Bake or cook on the skillet some chicken breasts (I cut them in half to cook them more quickly)
Hard boil some eggs
Brown some ground turkey or beef with a seasoning
Steam 1-2 veggies
Wash and prep fresh fruit and veggies
Pre-measure some nuts in single servings

I will then combine these separates with other items in the fridge or pantry to make multiple different meals using the same foods but in different ways. As long as you have some pre-cooked protein, you are good to go!

For example: If you have pre-cooked chicken breast you can… throw it in a salad, put it in an omelet, put it on some chickpea pasta with some tomato sauce, throw it back in the skillet with some veggies for a stir-fry, add some Mexican rice, guacamole for a fajita dish, etc.

Tips

Every lunch and dinner NO MATTER WHAT DAY IT IS should include a protein and vegetable. That is your starting point. For those who are eating the same everyday, you should look at Low-Moderate Carb Days. As I mentioned previously, you can do higher carb items and adjust the foods you eat the rest of the day.

Low Carb Days- Stick to the basics. Protein (can be high in fat) and Vegetables. Add some fat sources in your meals like avocado, bacon, nuts in your salads, cook with EVOO. Snacks should be low carb high fat (refer to the cheat sheet) like nuts, jerky, nut butter and veggies etc. Avoid fruit, protein shakes and bars because they are higher in carbs.

Moderate Carb Days-Should be similar to Low Carb Day but you can work in some lower carb fruits for snacks (refer to the fruit cheat sheet) like blueberries. Or, its okay to do some lower carb protein bars or shakes. You may work in a bit more carbs on this day in your snacks or in one of your meals (some fruit in a salad, or some sweet potato with dinner).

High Carb Days- Think of these days as LOW FAT Days. Protein should be LEAN choices. Vegetables can be higher carb choices. Each meal should contain a carb. Add quinoa to your salad, sweet potato with your dinner, brown/black rice, fruit in your salad, etc. Your snacks should be low fat/high carb like fruit, protein smoothies, overnight oats, etc. Avoid nuts, cooking with oils, avocado (any of the higher fat foods that you eat on low carb days).