More on Meal Planning: Finding Aloha in Food Freedom!

I have had so many people ask me about my diet and meal plan since my blog on the subject, I thought it would be fun to sort of update where things are now.  I cannot even tell you how many people have confessed to similar issues that I was dealing with-- sheer lack of time-- and desperately want help!

I have been working with Katie of Own Nutrition now for 6 months.  Still the best decision I ever made.  I highly recommend it.

My week looks like this as far as prep:

I usually try to print out my weekly plan before Sunday so that I can make my grocery list as concise as possible.  Each week I receive a daily plan, recipes and a shopping list with EVERYTHING I need for the week.  (This is awesome, btw!) I double check that I have all the spices I need, rice, quinoa, black beans, etc.  In the beginning I was buying pretty much everything on the list.  Now, my pantry is fairly well stocked so I mostly shop for produce and fresh meat/ fish.

Sunday:  I usually shop in the afternoon.  This takes about 45 minutes of my time MAX.  And that's if Sprouts is really crowded.  I'd say on average I'm spending about 30 minutes, but I do love to dilly dally once I'm in there.

I try to buy as much organic as I possibly can, and then non-GMO on top of that.  Sprouts (which is a small chain-- similar to Whole Foods but without the price tag) has a really great selection of organic options.  I realize organic and non-GMO are controversial topics, but it's important to me so I'm sticking it out.

Sunday afternoon I spend about 2-3 hours meal prepping.  This includes:

1.  Grilling.  I preheat the grill, prep all the meat/ seafood for the first half of the week (Sunday pm- Thursday afternoon) and then grill in batches.  I make enough for my meals as well as whatever my husband is going to take to work.  For me this might be a salmon fillet (usually enough for 2-3 meals), beef (usually filet- approx 2 servings) and sometimes pork.  Whatever I'm not eating on Sunday night gets cut up and stored for the BIG ASS SALADS that I eat throughout the week.  I invested in some nice glass tupperware so there's no odor when I store salmon in the fridge for a day or two.

I used to be really intimidated by the grill.  But eventually I got tired of always needing my husband around to light it that I learned to do it myself.  It's not complicated.  And a few weeks ago I took a poll, thinking there were other women (like me) who were on the timid side, but as it turned out ALL my girlfriends are the grill-masters in their homes!

Shrimp and pork chops (on the barbie!).

2.  Rice/ quinoa.  I make a big batch of brown rice and a batch of quinoa that we can both eat from for the week.  I highly recommend a rice cooker.  I received this one as a gift... it is life changing.

Must have!!  Rice cooker to the rescue.

If I want to, I can set a timer and tell it when I want my rice to be done cooking.  It basically does everything except clean itself when it's done-- and that requires very little effort on my part.  Here's another tip-- you can buy rice and quinoa frozen.  Yep, already cooked, in the freezer section.  So if, for example, I'm traveling and won't have Sunday to prep, I can buy frozen rice and still have quick assembly for meals.  *BOOM*

3.  Chopping.  I buy most of my greens already chopped and washed.  It's easy to find organic spinach, kale, arugula, etc already washed and ready to go.  I chop any veggies that are going into my salads (cucumber, peppers, etc) and portion out my salads into large (5 cup capacity) tupperware containers.

Grilled mango with jalapeno crema, pork and avocado.

4.  Boiling.  I typically hard boil a dozen eggs on Sunday evening.  When I need scrambled eggs I just microwave raw eggs (usually at work) when I am ready to eat them.

5.  Packaging.  Each evening, starting on Sunday, I look at the next day's menu and get everything lined up in the fridge.  That way in the morning when I'm packing my lunchbox I can just grab and go.    

Grilled shrimp with a summer salad and avocado dressing.

Summer is my travel season which throws in some extra challenges with meal planning but Katie has provided plenty of resources on how to eat well in a restaurant setting.  I can look at my plan, get an idea of macronutrients and compare with options on the menu.  I recently traveled with a friend who is also working with Katie, and twice we ordered the same dinner!

I'm in the final build before the first Ironman of the season so my nutrition is being put to the test on a daily basis.  I am happy to report that I am feeling good, recovering quickly, and know that in 9 weeks (and 2 days!) my consistency in diet for 9 months is going to be evident when it counts!