5 Tips That Make Meal Planning Easy

Chances are, you probably kick off each week with every intention of eating healthy, home-cooked, veggie-packed meals. Then reality happens, and the next thing you know, you’re grabbing fast food on the way home from work or staring into your empty fridge until you give up and polish off a bag of chips for dinner.

A few simple meal planning strategies can help you get your nutritional game on point—and you don’t have to be a domestic warrior to pull it off. Here are five to get you started.

1. Set Your Goals
Your nutritional needs are the foundation of your meal plan. So before you start bookmarking recipes, do a quick assessment of your personal goals. What do you need to eat more of? Less of? Do you have a target calorie count? What foods are best for you? “My main piece of advice for someone who wants to start meal planning is to find out what foods are right for his or her body,” says Sagi Kalev, creator of Body Beast. “When you meet the body’s fuel requirements, hunger disappears. Food cravings are nonexistent. Energy, mood, mental function, and well-being all improve. When that happens, it becomes very easy to follow a diet plan.”

2. Make a Master Plan
 Once you know what you need to eat, compile a master list of recipes. That way, you can pull easily from that list rather than combing through cookbooks every week or falling into the rut of repeating what you made last week. Use whatever organizational system works for you—Pinterest, meal planning apps, index cards in a recipe box, or even an Excel spreadsheet. “When I find a recipe I want to make, I print it out and add it to a binder,” says Autumn Calabrese, creator of 21 Day Fix. “Each week I go though it, find a new one, and add those ingredients to my shopping list. It’s important to keep variety in your plan so you don’t get bored.” When you’re planning your meals for the week, it’s okay to leave some flexibility. Some people make a school cafeteria-style calendar and schedule every last snack in advance—but it’s also okay to stock up on healthy staples and then wing it at mealtime.

3. Shop Strategically
Make a grocery list based on your favorite healthy foods and any new recipes you’ve pulled. “Having your favorite things ready to go is key,” Autumn says. “Make a list of the foods you know are a part of your meal plan, and make sure you stock up on those. I always have tons of fresh fruits and veggies in my fridge, along with a few different types of proteins, peanut butter, raw nuts, and lots of seasonings. This way, no matter what I want to make for a meal, I have the ingredients I need.”

4. Bang Out the Prep Work
When you get home from the grocery store, don’t just stuff your purchases in the fridge. Peel your carrots, slice your cucumbers, scrub your sweet potatoes, and dice your onions. Not only does it become a one-and-done task rather than a daily chore, but it makes you more likely to grab those healthy foods when you’re hungry. “Prepping your food is a huge part of success,” Autumn says. “I cook enough protein to get me through at least three days. I also cook a few sweet potatoes and sometimes a little bit of brown rice. This way, when I’m running out the door, everything is made and I can grab it and go.”

5. Don’t Sabotage Yourself
Once you’ve planned and prepped, the hard work is done. Now all you have to do is avoid the usual stumbling blocks. One common mistake, Sagi says, is trying to eat foods you don’t really like. (If you hate the taste of kale, you’re not going to grab it when you’re hungry.) And Autumn cautions against buying junk food. (It’s easier to avoid ice cream when it’s not in your freezer.) But as long as you plan ahead, shop for healthy foods, and keep some go-to recipes in your arsenal, healthy eating will become a no-brainer. “When you eat right for your own body needs, you feel terrific,” Sagi says. “So it becomes very natural to gravitate towards eating properly.”

5 tips from Team Beachbody Blog post author Kara Wahlgren

21 Day Fix, No Joke

21 Day Fix is No Joke!  Everyday real people are seeing great results with this program and I want to share my top 3 reasons why. 

1.  Program is only 21 days long with 30 minute workouts.  For some it is hard and scary to commit to a 90 day program, but 21 days is doable for anyone.  Short achievable goals build us up for success.  30 minute workouts make it easy for anyone to "find the time" to workout.  You have to throw the "I don't have enough time" excuse right out the window.  EVERYONE has 30 minutes. 

2. Food containers.  We see it time and time again, you are killing your workouts, maybe even completed an entire 60 or 90 day program, but you didn't lose any weight or very little.  Nutrition is EXTREMELY important.  It's not all about the workout.  Yes, you are getting stronger and fitter doing the workouts but as Tony Horton famously says, "Abs are made in the kitchen."  You CANNOT out exercise a poor diet. This is where 21 Day Fix has been able to help give so many the success they have been looking for in the past.  With the easy to follow color containers you learn portion sizes and what you should be eating.  Nutrition made super simple!!

3. Support.  I can't emphasis this enough!!  FREE coaching and ongoing challenge groups help keep everyone committed and motivated. You are not alone on this journey! Studies show that having support enhances self-control and self-esteem and provides motivation to keep going strong. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recruited 166 people to participate in a weight-loss program either alone or with three friends or family members. Among those who embarked on the program with friends, 95 percent completed the program compared to only 76 percent of those who dieted solo. After 10 months, 66 percent of the group dieters had maintained their weight loss compared to only 24 percent of those who were on their own. Join me and you will be placed in a closed Facebook group with other challengers doing a Beachbody program. You will have one on one access to me, your coach.  I will be there to help reach your goals.

Interested in joining an upcoming Challenge Group?  Fill out the short questionnaire HERE. 

Real People, Real Results

Ready to get started, order 21 Day Fix Challenge Pack HERE and then fill out the short questionnaire HERE. Let me know you just purchased 21 Day Fix and we will get you started!  As always, you can contact me at fitcoachamanda@gmail.com.

Are you on Facebook?  Join me at www.Facebook.com/FitClubKC.

New Year New You

My Holiday accountability group ended December 30th. I lost 7lbs during December, one of the toughest months to lose weight!!!  Without my support group I don't know if I would have had such great results. :)

New Year New You SUPPORT AND ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP starting January 5th.  Join now, complete the short questionnaire, http://goo.gl/forms/yt1CNO0Ztw.

CHECK IT OUT AND SHARE with someone you think might be interested!!!!  I would love to see you in the group and get to know you, support you and help you reach your health and fitness goals in 2015!!!!!

No sure if you're ready to join or have questions?  Private message me or send me an email at FitCoachAmanda@gmail.com.

Are you making your New Year's Resolutions? 5 Tips for Setting Goals.

1. Determine WHY you didn’t hit your goal last year. Human beings have patterns and they do the same thing over and over and scratch their head when they get the same results. Let me guess, last December/January you were totally fired up to build your business, lose weight, quit smoking or whatever and by February you were already off track? Sound about right? Well, why? Why does that keep happening? The biggest reason this happens is you either A) don’t have a mentor or accountability partner OR you simply didn’t “hang around the fire” enough. What I mean by hanging around the fire is being around people that lift you up by attending events, and investing time and money in your education. Don’t skip this step, very, very important if you ever want to get different results.

2. Why do you want what you want? Why is hitting and setting goals for the New Year important to you? Dig deeper than you have before. Be able to tap into the REAL reason you want to hit those new goals.

3. What happens if you DON’T hit your goals? The reason I see so many people quit on their dreams is they forget two things, they forget why they started and the cost of non-success. If you don’t reach your goals this year, what happens? If there is no pain here, there’s a good chance you won’t have the chutzpah (boldness) to move past the dark and tough days.

4. Get Specific when setting goals for the New Year. Set SMART goals. Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

5. Identify the HABITS you will need to change. The fact is MOST people simply pay attention to their results and they complain about the size of their team, the lack of money in their bank account or the weight they are holding onto. You cannot change your results, you can only change the habits that created those results. What habits will YOU change THIS year? Will you invest in your education? Will you eat better and exercise more? Will you get around better mentors? What will your daily routine be?

Tips from Ray Higdon's blog.  Follow him for great MLM tips!

How the Scale is Lying to You

Author

Rebecca Swanner

 

Don’t trust the scale. You’ve heard it before. But, really, do yourself a favor and don’t listen to its insidious lies. Your scale tells you one thing and one thing only: how much you weigh (at this exact moment, on this planet). It doesn’t recognize and can’t report on things water retention, muscle gain, bloating, or how many carbohydrates you housed the night before.

It also doesn’t know if you’ve started a new workout routine. If you have, it’s very likely your weight will go up for the first few weeks. That means even if you have a fancy schmancy scale that can tell you about bloating and muscle mass, it still won’t tell you not to freak out if your weight goes up when you start working out. (Psst – that’s what we’re here for.)

Look, I get it. For some of us (myself included), the scale can be a mental measure of fitness success. I weigh myself every morning. And it used to be that whenever that number was higher than the number I saw the day before, I would get bummed out. But, then I started to realize that scale weight isn’t real and now I just use it as a measure that things are generally heading in the right direction.
It also became extremely clear (through weighing myself every morning), that weight loss isn’t linear. Some days I was up a pound. Other days, down two pounds. Here is a look at how my weight has fluctuated over the last month so you can see what I mean. (I didn’t weigh myself between the 15th and the 19th as I was traveling. That’s why that part is flat.)


Still, knowing all of this, I wanted to lose 10 pounds. My pants were tight and I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t like this. So, 30 days ago, I (and a team of 5 of my coworkers) started doing FOCUS T25 and tracking what we ate. I’ve been good about keeping up with the workouts, but not so good about dialing in my food. I have a penchant for burgers and beer, both of which are fine in moderation. The numbers on the scale went up and the numbers on the scale went down.

After 30 days, I feel fitter, my pants fit better, I can start to see more definition in my arms, and my legs feel stronger. Guess how much weight I lost? 0.4 pounds. Not four pounds. Point four pounds. I had just spent 30 days working out and watching what I was eating and I only lost a measly .4 pounds. Harumph.

But I did notice real results somewhere else. In my photos and in my measurements. If you haven’t taken photos and measurements, start. If you’re on Day 5 and forgot, don’t wait to take them until Day 30. Just take them tomorrow morning. And then take them again on Day 30. I take measurements of my waist, the widest part of my waist, my hips, my chest, my biceps, my thigh, my forearm at the widest point, my wrist, and my neck. I use the forearm, wrist, and neck measurements to determine my approximate body fat percentage.

In 30 days, I lost .75″ on my waist, 1.5″ on my lower waist, and .5″ on my hips. I also lost 1.5 pounds of fat and my body fat percentage dropped from 29% to 27.8%. If I had had eaten better, I probably would have seen even more impressive results. Now, a fancy scale could have told me my body fat percentage, but it couldn’t have told me the rest. And, the photos tell the rest of the story. I haven’t yet reached my fitness goal, but I definitely look like I’ve dropped more than .4 pounds.


And, so you can see it’s not just the angle I’m at, here’s the side view. And, yes, that’s a beer poster behind me. This one, if you’re curious.

How much do you rely on the scale?

September 2014 Team Beachbody Blog

Countdown to Thanksgiving: Dos and Don’ts for Filling Your Plate

 I know you’re probably going to eat more on Thanksgiving than you would on most Thursdays. And, I understand. It’s one of my favorite holidays too! I want to eat all my favorites (stuffing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie…), but I also don’t want to wake up the next morning and feel like I’ve undone my progress. Of course, if you’ve been exercising and eating right, one day won’t undo all the work you’ve done. But, as we head into winter, it’s easy to fall off the horse and really struggle to get back on. So, with that in mind, I snapped these photos during Autumn Calabrese’s most recent video shoot to help you plate your Thanksgiving meal.

The Typical Plate
Honestly, this is kind of what it looks like when I usually eat Thanksgiving dinner. But, after watching Autumn’s video, I learned where I was going all kinds of wrong. First off, where are the greens? And, secondly, this plate is filled with so high in carbs and sugar, it’s no wonder I always want to nap after dinner.

Our Registered Dietician, Ani Aratounians weighed in on my typical Thanksgiving plate. “It’s high in carbs and there’s lot of sugar and fat. Especially saturated fat. There’s butter everywhere and hardly any fiber. After eating this plate, you’ll feel stuffed and bloated.” And this doesn’t even take into consideration the pie. Or the wine. Or seconds…or thirds.

The Revised Thanksgiving Plate

One easy way to totally redo your Thanksgiving plate (and still have all your favorites) is to start with the green veggies. Put the green beans and the salad on your plate first. Then, add the turkey (aim for the the skinless pieces if you can find them), and then add on your other favorites.

The calories aren’t low, but they’re much more reasonable than the first plate. Aratounians’s thoughts on this plate were much more positive. “This is much higher in vitamin and mineral content, and antioxidants. Overall, this is much more balanced for your blood sugar with the protein and fiber balancing out sugar content. And, I can’t help but notice that it’s a much prettier plate!” She recommends, if you are going to go for seconds (and really, who isn’t), go for the greens and protein (again, ideally, without skin).

Author from Team Beachbody Blog, Rebecca Swanner 

Bust Your 6 Biggest Exercise Excuses



When you’re feeling overworked or overwhelmed, it’s easy to find an excuse to skip a workout…or two…or a whole week’s worth. But don’t let bad excuses get in the way of good intentions. Here’s how to keep them from derailing your fitness routine.

THE EXCUSE: “I’m too busy!”
Instead of letting your endless to-do list take priority over your health goals, treat exercise like any other important task. “It’s about prioritizing and planning ahead. Set a time and schedule it, as if it were a dental appointment,” says Jimi Varner, a trainer on MTV’s I Used to be Fat series. Of course, there will be days when you really are too swamped to squeeze in a full workout—but that doesn’t mean you should skip it altogether. Instead, try to carve out a few minutes to break a sweat. “If you have just 10 minutes, it’s still progress,” Varner says. “It doesn’t have to be an hour and a half, so knock it off.” Go outdoors and do a few sprints, or try a time-crunch-friendly program like FOCUS T25 or P90X3.

THE EXCUSE: “I’m beat.”
Whether you’re sore from yesterday’s workout or drained from a long week at work, don’t bail out just because you’re low on energy. Start slowly, and gauge how you’re feeling after the first few minutes. “It’s okay to exercise at a lower intensity for a shorter time. Start doing it, and really listen to your body to see if this is nurturing or punishing,” says Michelle Segar, PhD, Associate Director for University of Michigan’s Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center and a motivation and behavioral sustainability researcher. “This helps get people more in tune with their body and actually can improve their desire to move.” Promise yourself you’ll do the first five minutes of your workout—once you get going, chances are you’ll go ahead and push through.

THE EXCUSE: “I’m broke.”
When you’re on a tight budget, it can be hard to justify the cost of a monthly gym membership. But you don’t need Globo-Gym to get in shape. “Walking is among the best ways to move, and you can do it anywhere,” Segar says. And Varner suggests picking up furniture movers (usually under $10) and using them for lunges or mountain climbers. And, ahem, we can recommend a few DVD training programs that won’t break the bank.

THE EXCUSE: “The gym is intimidating.”
You might feel like everyone’s staring at you, but the truth is, they’re probably way too busy worrying about what they look like. So get out of hermit mode and go build a support system. “Everybody you see in these classes was once in your shoes,” Varner says. “They understand how you feel and the courage it takes to be there. And they will be more than happy to help and be supportive and friendly.”

THE EXCUSE: “I’m bored.”
If you do the same workout every…single…day, it’s easy to fall into a rut. But there’s no rule that you have to stick to a rigid, repetitive fitness regimen. “You can change up any part of your routine,” Segar says. Renew your enthusiasm by starting a new program, joining a new class, ditching the treadmill for a hiking trail, or making a friendly weight-loss wager with a friend.

THE EXCUSE: “I’m dieting instead.”
Just because you’re counting calories, it doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to chill on the couch. “Diet alone works well when weight loss is the goal, but adding exercise to the mix can enhance the results,” Varner says. “Exercise has countless other health benefits than just weight loss—you’ll look better, feel better, sleep better, have more energy, and be more productive at work and home.” And with all those benefits, why would you want to make excuses?

June 2014 Team Beachbody Blog