Food Prep 101

And by 101 I mean, 101! I am leaning so much about nutrition and foods right now that I am FAR from being an expert. Let me tell you though, I have a good system down right now. As long as I know the macro-nutrients of the foods, I'm doing okay. I've screwed up a bunch the last few weeks and I'll delve into that in a minute. For right now, I want to show you how easy it is to prep for a few days so that you can ensure you are eating the right foods. First, let me say that you need to know your own macro-nutrient needs for your own personal goals. Do not use the macros I use. With that being said, here we go.

I weigh out all my food. I know the exact measurements but don't want to bore you with that. Lining the pans with tin foil and drawing boxes on them is a trick an online friend gave me and I love it! With things like sweet potatoes, you can't cut the exact amount of potatoes each time so cutting into smaller pieces and just pile them up in that box works great! I always put a lemon pepper seasoning on my fish. It's yummy and I stick to what's good. The potatoes I did spray with spray butter, more for it not drying out than any other reason. I'm fine with plain ol' potatoes but it gets tough sometimes when baking them.

Once baked, you put those little boxes worth of food into some Tupperware. And this is truly about it. If I had more time, I would have made a few more just so I don't have to do it again in 3 days but time with the kids is few and far between so I voted to do it again later.

Eight meals that will last me two training days. It's not much but 8 meals of the same thing, you get tired of it by the 6th or 7th meal so it's time to mix it up anyway.

Only thing missing is my fat intake.

I measure these out what I need and it's easy to just grab a bag with the meal and go. (Yes, boss man, I checked, same as plain almonds :)) BUT, with the meal I just prepped, I like to have almond or peanut butter on my sweet potatoes... Have you tried it?? You should, you'll be introduced to a little piece of Heaven!!

So I have my MEASURED out peanut butter on my sweet potato and enjoy!

With all this being said, I'm going to jump up on a soap box for a minute. "Eating healthy is sooo expensive!" Ya, I've said it too. Problem is, 1.) I was buying the wrong things. 2.) I didn't do the math!

Well, with what little spare time I had today, I did the math.

Peanut Butter- Has 26-8g of fat portions for me... that = $0.13 per meal (sometimes I have 16g and so $0.26, still don't see a problem do you?)

Those SO expensive almonds- $0.39 a meal. Ya, it's worth the splurge.

I haven't checked almond butter but I'm guessing, I could say it's worth it too. BECAUSE IT SO IS!

Fish- at about $1 a fillet (I think it was $2.89 a pound) and using less than 1 fillet per meal, I'm GUESSING it's about $0.75 per meal. I did get the tilapia on sale, but even if it wasn't on sale, it's still not that bad.

Don't like fish? Chicken- at $5.99 per bag (on sale but you can get it for $4.99) and 12 servings in a bag, your looking at $0.50 a meal.

Sweet potatoes, I didn't know the exact price so I was over guessing at $1.29, I know I've gotten it for like $0.69 a lb. But going with the higher price, that makes it $0.66 per meal.

Another healthy option, brown rice. $0.75 a BAG! That makes 6 meals at $0.13 per meal!!!

So this meal I just showed you that I'm eating for the next several days totals to be $1.54 per meal, times that by 5 (not counting a no-carb meal) and you get $7.70. If you think that's expensive, then go for the cheaper options, brown rice, chicken and peanut butter, $0.76 a meal, times by five, $3.80 a DAY.

Don't tell me that eating healthy is expensive. No, I don't eat many veggies or fruit. Sure they are a bit more, but if your measuring out the right amount of carbs for your activity level then my guess is, it's not much more. So sure, splurge on an apple or grapes if you want, just count the carbs and do the math, it's not that much!!! No, these prices do not count the seasonings or the price of the electricity to bake them but your going to have to use those anyway to eat whatever else you would have eaten.

Now, getting off that soap box, I want to explain why I say I am so very new at this and leaning sooo much myself. I had no idea that ground turkey was the same % of fat as ground beef!!! That is, unless you buy the specified 99% or 93% or whatever lean ground turkey. So for the last several weeks, I have been eating twice the amount of fat I was supposed to. This I believe, is 100% the reason I didn't see the results I was hoping to for the last 3 weeks. Now that I know, I'm doing it right and I'm excited to see the results again. There is so much about nutrition that I don't know but I'm leaning and love learning about it. Just wish I learned before I did!!!

I hope you enjoyed this and I REALLY hope it will help someone else with their personal nutritional goals. It is so much easier to eat healthy and not snack on the wrong foods when you have meals ready and waiting for you in the refrigerator.  Trust me, I still fail. Mac and cheese is still one of my biggest enemies and what did I make for the kids the other night??  Luckily, one bite won't hurt too much of progress but it was still one bite and I knew better.