Meal Plans and Portions

Meal Plans

Here's how the discussion of "what's for dinner" goes at my house:
5ish
Me: "Brandon, what do you want for dinner?"
B: "I don't care."
Me: *inward sigh- why am I always coming up with ideas AND cooking them?*

6:30PM
B: "I'm hungry. What's for dinner?"
Me: "Tell me what you want."
B: "I don't care."
Me: *LOUD SIGH*
B: "Do you wanna just go somewhere now? It's already 6:30."

Without a plan in mind, most of us will opt for option B: eating out. There is a plethora of great restaurants around our house but there are several drawbacks to that decision:

1. Dining out on the town hurts your bank account. Brandon and I have dined out so often that we are tired of all the places around us (and trust me, there's A LOT). Typically a dinner costs us (with tip) around $50 a pop. So let's just say you eat at restaurants 4 times a week and there's $200/ week or $1000/month and that's JUST dinner. Brandon typically buys breakfast and lunch when he's working too so that racks up as well. 
2. When it comes to eating clean... not all restaurants meet that standard. Have you ever looked up the nutritional value for popular restaurants around you? You will be amazed that even the "light" meals are packed with calories, fat, sugar and salt. I noticed this when I started tracking what I was eating through Lose It (app on iPhone or log online at www.loseit.com). Here's a homework assignment for you: Take a moment, navigate to your favorite restaurant's website and locate the nutritional facts (some do NOT have this so that makes ya think!). 
3. If you don't prepare it, there's no guarantee it's cooked the "cleanest". Cooking at home is the best way to ensure that your food is prepared with no additives you don't want. I'm sure you all have encountered that ONE time that a food service worker put mayo on your sub although you said not to... UGH, I hate that! 

Solution? 

Meal plan. I like to meal plan for an entire week and grocery shop from there. When you're trying to eat clean, you're shopping the perimeter of the grocery store- fresh fruit, veggies, etc. Due to the shorter shelf life of fresh food, you don't want to over buy and waste so a week's worth is a good time frame.

I am a bargain shopper so I do NOT like wasting money and that includes throwing food away. I stick to my meal plans and proper portions so I do not overeat. Keep reading for more information on proper portions. Also, if you buy something with a nutritional label, check the ingredients. I avoid anything with ingredients that are un-natural (pretty much anything you can't pronounce) as well as a lot of salt, fat or sugar. Salt is in pretty much everything on a shelf so be wary of how MUCH salt is in those products. 

Note: If meal planning for several meals a day sounds like too much, start with just dinner. Try it out! Plan one week of meals for just dinner and see how it goes! Here's a dinner/shopping planner for you that I adapted from something I found on pinterest! 

Portion Distortion

In order to maximize your metabolism as well as reap the benefits of a stabilized system (no drops in blood sugar and more), you should aim to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. We're aiming for about 300 calories each meal. You want to eat a lean protein about the size of your palm- that means girls, probably about 4-6 ounces and guys, a bit larger. In addition, you're looking for two cupped hands of veggies and one cupped hand of complex carbs (grains or starches). 

You gotta start some where. Why not start now? Go plan your week's worth of dinners. :D

Think. Work. Achieve. The choice is yours.