How to Plan Your Meals and Food Prep!

Food prep is one of my top priorities in regards to my health and weight loss. Prepping food keeps me organized, never without a meal, saves time and money, and keeps me on track. "Winging it" when it comes to your meals is not something I recommend anyone doing if they are trying to lose weight and life a clean, healthy lifestyle. 

It took a bit of trial and error, like everything I do in life. You will get better at this once you keep you doing it. For example: I like carbohydrates at night. Thus I schedule more carbs then than I do during the day. Sometimes people think I am crazy. However, I know me and I know my body. Consuming complex carbohydrates in the evening has never caused me to gain weight, ever. I have been eating carbohydrates almost every evening since I started my new weight loss journey in November of 2013 and I am down almost 45 pounds. I train extremely hard in the evenings so when I finish, I need my carb fix. Carbs keep me full, cut cravings, and help me sleep better. You may be different. You may find you want to switch your meals and their times - it is all about what works for you most all of, keeps you satisfied.

Believe it or not; food planning is simple.

What I do:

1) I always have my planner. I love this thing. It's a $10 one from Target.

2) Decide what I want my meals to be. You can see those written in the blue marker. I write them out and which meal number I want it to be.

3) List the certain ingredients I want the meal to contain.

4) Put a check mark by the items I already have it at home and will not have to purchase.

5) Make a grocery list on the oppsoite side. 

6) Designate a day to cook everything - except my dinners. Most times I make those nightly.

7) Put everything in tupperware. Grab and go; heat and eat.

Side note: I do not include fruits and vegetables as part of my daily caloric intake. I consider those "freebie's". I know fresh fruits can contain natural sugars but those have never deterred me from losing weight. I view those as natural energy and craving busters. 

I also do this with my workouts and training regimen. It is just as important to plan my workouts as it is my food. I do not write all of the details in my planner as I have a detailed "Weekly Nutrition and Training Plan" I share with you guys.

Lastly, I do this with my finances. Purchasing a planner or even a notebook is a great tool to have to keep you on track. You can never be too organized in my opinion. It is also great to look back on how far you have come, compare bills, and remember recipes, etc.

How do you prep your food? Leave a comment if you have ideas to share or have a question!

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Weekend Recap: Eat. Train. Girlfriends. Devil's Due.

Happy Sunday. Is everyone having a great weekend? It is currently a pretty, sunny afternoon in Charlotte and I am exhausted.

This weekend has been busy, but great. Friday was hectic at the office for me. I had meeting after meeting, I kept getting interrupted, and I just had so much to do and no time to finish it all. One good thing that happened; I was having my daily meeting with my President to let him know that the week after next I will have been with the company for 90 days. I can't believe it. Time is going by so fast. I asked him if he wanted to give me a review. Every other department in my company has to have a review, but I do not belong to a department. Even though I meet with him every day in his office since part of my job is being his assistant, I thought a review is still needed. He concurred. He decided to do it over lunch! So he, I, and the "acting" HR Manager and my mentor, Teresa, will be doing it together. I can't wait. 

After work, my best friend Kelly and I hit the gym. I was super tired from work but we pushed hard. It was such a good work out - 40 minutes of cardio and an upper body weight circuit.

Talk about some post gym hotness right now. We love our "mean muggin'" face. We decided to indulge and treat ourselves with a bottle of Pinot and our favorite type of pizza. Whenever I want a pizza treat, Palmermo's Spinach, Feta, and Bacon pizza is the only kind I buy! Plus it was on sale at Harris Teeter for $3.00 who could resist. 

When Kels left, I rented a movie on demand. I really need to stop doing that, I think I have already rented four this month. My bill is already $80 so this will be great. Anyways, the movie I rented was "Shakespeare in Love". I thought it was awful. I literally watched 20 minutes of it and changed the channel. I should have known better, but it received a lot of awards apparently.

Yesterday morning I was wide eyed and bushy tailed at 8AM. I usually sleep until 10AM if not later on the weekends now. I think my body just gets so tired from dieting, training, and work, so it makes up for it on the weekends. Not this weekend! I went to bed at 1:30 AM and was ready to go at 8 AM. Since I was up early, I decided to make the best of it. I recently purchased coconut flour so I made protein pancakes with it. They were delicious! I also did not realize how high in fiber coconut flour is either. Another amazing benefit!

After breakfast, I did laundry then went to run a couple of errands. I of course had to stop by Ulta. I had a coupon plus huge liters of conditioners were half off. I also needed a new candle. I burn candles so much that I go through them quickly. Additionally, I want to start doing more fun things with my hair. I usually wear it straight or curly. That's it. Last week I did a fun head braid and yesterday I decided to buy a headband. I haven't worn a headband since I was maybe 13!

I bought everything for $26 bucks - with 3X rewards points. Plus a $5.00 coupon for next time. I never buy anything hair, makeup, or skincare related from anywhere else. Ulta rewards loyalty like no other!

After my errands, I hit the gym. I had the best work out EVER. I mean I pushed it to the freaking limit. I did 20 minutes on the Elliptical, 15 minutes of HIIT on the tredmill (inclined walk), 5 sets of squats to fail, then 20 more minutes on the Elliptical, and finally ended with 15 minutes of yoga to stretch my body. I felt like a million bucks after, but my muscle soreness set in shortly after.

I took a shower and got ready, then met my close friend Brooke for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants; Cantina 1511. I rocked my new headband too!

After dinner Brooke and I went to a 10:30 showing of "Devil's Due". I am a horror and paranormal junkie and if there is a new scary movie coming out, I have to be there with bells on. I really liked the movie. It has received really bad reviews from fans and critics. They both say "no" on Fandango, but I truly have to disagree. It was scary... very scary. Perhaps a little too much "devil" for me - I prefer just "ghost" stuff (if that makes sense), but overall I think you should see it once. The only thing I would recommend is a stronger story line. I wanted to know more of the back story as to what was going. But that is one of the reasons why I think there will be more.

I got home around 12:30 from the movie. I was too freaked out to go to bed, so I stooped down a couple of levels and watched "Bad Girl's Club" and went to bed around 2 AM. I woke up early again today, at 9, and decided to knock out all of my food prep and cleaning. They are finally complete, but I have no energy left. I am wiped out. I am relishing my clean apartment. It was bad this week. Marty's hair was everywhere. Ugh!

My post workout snack this week is going to be COOKIES! How amazing, right? I switched up my protein cookie recipe since I now have coconut flour, and the outcome was phenomenal. I might share the recipe. Maybe, maybe not. :)

I definitely planned on working out today, but I'm over it. I can barely walk, my quads are about to pop off of my body, and I just want to rest. I want to do some blog things, read, and relax to prepare for another week. Oh and "The Following" comes back on tonight for season 2. Is anyone else into that show?! It is brilliant! Furthermore the Kardashians, Atlanta Housewives, and Revenge come on tonight as well. I can't wait to be lazy and watch my shows. That is one of my favorite things about Sunday, ha!

Be sure to link up like me on Monday!

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