Meal Prep

A little prep goes a long way!!!

Meal prep makes the practice of clean eating as efficient as possible. Cooking, preparing, and storing large batches of food to use throughout the week saves time and allows for convenience that leads to successful implementation of clean eating practices!

Here are few examples of what I cook on a weekly basis, along with, a few other common options:

Veggies: carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, beets, squash, asparagus.

Protein: chicken, salmon, turkey, hard boiled eggs, burger, steak, pork, cod, haddock

Carbs: sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, pasta

You want to ensure that whatever you choose to cook can tolerate being stored and heated back up for a week.

The way in which you store the food once it’s been cooked it completely your preference. You can store each food separately (all the chicken, all the veggies, all the rice separately) and package them up into a meal on the day you need them, or you can store the food as a meal (chicken, veggies, rice all mixed together like a stir fry). Having meals prepackaged for the week does save time, you just grab and go. However, if you work from home saving that step might not be as important for you. You will need a good selection of containers when meal prepping. Here is a link to my favorite containers!!

There are other foods that might not need to be cooked, but still need to be prepared and packaged, some examples would be raw veggies, lose fruit like berries, or nuts. Here’s another example, once a banana has ripened, peel, break into 3 pieces, put into a zip lock baggie, and place in the freezer (I do bundles of bananas at once). I make smoothies every day with a banana, so this saves me so much time in the moment!

The ultimate goal with meal prep is to plan meals/do the work for those meals once per week and have options ready to go for the entire week. Convenience leads to consistency which leads to success!!!

5 Habits For Weight Loss

Five years ago, I began my weight loss and overall health & wellness journey that resulted in my 75-pound weight loss!! I have kept the weight off since and my body has been completely transformed!!! I’m sharing the 5 Habits that will lead you to the same success here!

By 2018 I had gained a whopping 85 pounds since my post-pregnancy weight from my third pregnancy. I weighed 220 pounds and was wearing a size 18. I was at the heaviest weight I had ever been, even during any of my 3 pregnancies. I was struggling with anxiety & depression and had no motivation or confidence. Multiple times I had to awkwardly correct people who asked when I was due, because they assumed I was pregnant…I hated to be in public because I was so ashamed with how I looked!!! I knew I wanted something different for myself, and as a mom of two, for my kids. However, the thought of making a change was so overwhelming.

I finally found my motivation in 2018 after running into an old friend at the grocery store and being completely embarrassed by how I looked. At that moment I decided I was going to make a change! I have lost 75 pounds and have successfully kept it off for more than 2 years!!! I have so much energy, I feel great, I love how all of my clothes fit and my confidence is the highest it’s been in years!!!

In this blog post I will share the 5 habits that helped me lose 75 pounds and keep it off!!!

The 5 habits that completely transformed my body:

-Drink Lots of Water

-Eat Whole Foods

-Move Your Body Every Day

-Create Small Goals

-Track Your Weight

So if you are ready to lose weight and regain your energy, confidence and your life, then you are in the right place! I am going to share how I lost 75 pounds and the steps to follow so you can do it too!!! Your body transformation story is waiting…so let’s get started!!!

Drink Lots of Water:

Drinking lots of water is essential to weight loss and it’s one of the easiest habits to start! All you have to do is drink more water!! Water is what keeps everything moving, it increases energy, flushes out toxins, and boosts the immune system! Drinking lots of water also helps you feel full.

Start drinking water as early in the day as possible. I recommend drinking a bottle of water (at least 8-12 ounces) before you eat or drink anything else at the start of the day. Drink water with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bring a water bottle with you everywhere you go, it’s an easy way to help reach your daily goal. If you always have water available and in front of you will drink more. Now you’re probably thinking, “but if I drink all this water than I will have to pee all the time!”. Yes, you will, lol! But drinking this much water keeps your body hydrated and promotes weight loss!!

Eat Whole Foods:

When I say eat whole foods, I mean anything that has been made in or by nature, nothing man made. However, eliminating anything processed is not possible, so you eliminate as many processed foods from your diet as you can. Focus on eating a variety of fruits, veggies, proteins, healthy fats, and whole grains. At the beginning of this journey, it might seem overwhelming. A helpful tip…buy most of what you eat from the perimeter of the grocery store. That is where you find most of the whole foods that your body needs for health and weight loss.

The most important thing to get straight when you are trying to lose weight is eating properly. Eating properly does not require starvation or deprivation. You just need to find the right balance of all food groups, at the appropriate portion size, and practice moderation. When I started my weight loss journey, I incorporated a cheat day once a week, a day that I could indulge a bit more, it helped keep me on track and motivated throughout the week.

Determining appropriate portion sizes can also be very overwhelming at first, but I take the guess work out for you in my nutrition course Nutrition For Weight Loss and Overall Health & Wellness (4-week live course held for an hour 1 time per week) . In this course you will learn what foods and how much of each to eat to achieve your weight loss goal!!!

I also go into more depth around whole foods in my blog post Eating For Weight Loss.

Move Your Body:

You need to move your body daily…this is a non-negotiable!!! At the beginning of my weight loss journey, I made the mind set change to view moving my body as a non-negotiable just like showering and brushing my teeth. I made it something I did every day, no excuses!! There were days that I was less motivated and I had to remind myself that I always feel better after I move my body. Like with all of this, small, manageable steps are so important. You need to meet your body where it is at and set small goals as you progress towards your ultimate goal.

For me I started with a 30-minute low impact workout program that only required my body weight. If you have an idea of what fitness activities you like then start small and build up with that activity. The most important thing is to find something you love to do and then moving your body becomes a treat and not a chore. I have realized over the past 5 years that I absolutely hate HIIT cardio training, so I stay away from programs that incorporate a lot of it. Lifting weights, Pilates, yoga, hiking, and walking are what I gravitate towards. If you have no idea where to start, I have added a link with some suggestions.

I go into more depth around fitness options in my blog post Fitness Options For Weight Loss.

Small Goals/Track Weight:

As mentioned above, setting small, manageable goals for yourself is the key to sustained weight loss. When I started my weight loss journey, I set a goal of losing 2-3 pounds at a time. Focusing on and achieving small goals, builds confidence and motivation!! Set a small goal, crush it, and repeat!! Be consistent and you will reach your ultimate goal!!! Some of the first goals you make might not even be around losing weight. The goals might include starting and being consistent with your new habits. It may also seem too overwhelming to start all five habits at the same time, and that’s ok. I started by choosing 1 new habit and added another new habit each week after that.

Scheduling weigh-in days and tracking the data is another necessary habit in any weight loss journey. Weigh-ins and tracking serve two main purposes, motivation and accountability. On the days/weeks where you feel defeated (they will happen) you will be able to look at the data you’ve collected, see the progress that you have made, and it will keep you motivated. The data you’ve collected also provides accountability because it confirms what has been effective and/or not effective and allows you to make changes accordingly. Choose a paper or an electronic tracking system, it doesn’t matter, jut set your goals and don’t stop until you reach them!

Give yourself grace, creating new habits is a challenging process, but is attainable as long as you keep trying!! These habits completely transformed my body, my health, and my mind!! Find your why, your motivation and create the body and the life that you deserve!!!

So if you are ready to begin your transformation story and feel better then ever click here to get started!!

Weight Loss: Essentials For Success (Online Course)

Nutrition For Weight Loss and Overall Health & Wellness (4-week live course held for an hour 1 time per week)

In both courses I cover the specific steps I used to lose 75 pounds. I want you to achieve the transformation you are dreaming of feel as great as I do now!!!

Nutrition For Weight Loss and Overall Health & Wellness (Online Course)

Free weight loss tracker printable set!!!

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RELATED POSTS:

Meal Prep

How I Overcame Emotional Eating and Transformed My Body

Eating For Weight Loss

Clean eating is essential for weight loss and overall health & wellness. Clean eating helped me achieve a 75-pound weight loss!!! The two main components of clean eating, in connection with weight loss, is knowing what to eat and how much of it to eat. I will cover these components with a brief overview in this post. But first a little about my story…

After my 2nd child was born, I started to be more conscious about what and how much food I was putting into my body. Studying various resources raised my awareness about healthier, whole foods. I realized I could have larger quantities of food at each meal if I chose healthy whole food options, versus processed food options.

But it wasn’t until 2018 that I really started to learn not only about whole food options and appropriate portion sizes, but about how each food group fuels your body in a different way. And it all started to make so much sense!!! Transforming your body is a result of 80% clean eating and 20% movement (the exercise). Eating whole foods in the right amount at the right time is how I optimized my weight loss and health!!

Once you know what to do it’s so easy!!

What to Eat:

At 80%, clean eating (eating whole foods) is the biggest piece to the puzzle! Although for many of us that 80% is the most overwhelming piece when we are just starting out. Put in the simplest terms, whole foods are foods that are grown, harvested from nature, food that comes from plants or animals.

The basic categories of whole foods include proteins, carbohydrates, healthy fats, veggies, and fruits along with some fun extras like seeds/dressings, and oils/nut butters. Most whole foods are located around the perimeter of the grocery store because, unlike processed foods that have a shelf life of months, or even years; whole foods require some form of refrigeration and/or expire after 1-2 weeks. There is the exception of whole foods such as rice, lentils, nuts of any kind, quinoa, whole grain pastas and oatmeal that do not require refrigeration and have a longer shelf life. Your job is to eat a variety of foods from each category every day.

Organic whole foods are the cleanest way to eat because they have been grown or harvested without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other artificial agents. When buying foods to lose weight, whole foods that don’t have an organic label will work just as well and are typically less expensive. Organic whole foods just eliminate as much processed elements from foods as possible.

I have tried many new things since starting to eat clean, incorporating healthier substitutes when possible. I also like experimenting with foods/snacks that allow me to feel like I’m “cheating” when really, I’m not.

Once I got the hang of what I should be eating, I started to practice meal prep for the week. I realized that I will always gravitate towards whatever is convenient (typically unhealthy processed foods), so prepping food to be available was key to staying consistent with my clean eating throughout the week. Please click the link to see more details around meal prep.

How Much of it to Eat:

How much food you should be consuming each day depends on your weight, height, age, and activity level. There are also national serving size suggestions for each food group. Once you’ve determined how much you should be eating to reach your daily goals, there are a couple ways to monitor what you are eating . Two common methods would be to count calories or track macros (food groups) . When I first started my weight loss journey I found that counting calories was the easiest method for me.

When I started to eat only whole foods the weight came off consistently. I hit plateaus and had days or weeks that were harder for me to stay consistent and motivated, but I never stopped. I kept researching and trialing various strategies that would help me reach my weight loss goals. By 2022 I had finally reached that goal weight and size for me!!!

Click to join my course: Nutrition For Weight Loss and Overall Health & Wellness (4-week live course held for an hour 1 time per week) where you will learn exactly what to do to reach your weight loss goals and feel great!!

The following are additional courses that are available to help you reach your goals!!!

Weight Loss: Essentials For Success (Online Course)

Nutrition For Weight Loss and Overall Health & Wellness (Online Course)

If you struggle with emotional eating…I share my own journey with emotional eating in my blog post How I Overcame Emotional Eating and Transformed My Body.