Sandra Blackie

If yours is an “on the go” lifestyle, perhaps you’ve skipped the occasional meal or felt that you didn’t have time to eat. If your goal is to change your physique, increase your energy level, and maintain health, missing meals is not a good idea. To keep your metabolism running in high gear, eating 4-6 times per day is a must.

In this article, you will find some helpful tips on staying well nourished, metabolically efficient, and energized throughout the day. Begin incorporating the idea of cooking in bulk, preparing your food ahead of time, and having healthy snacks handy when you are “on the go”.

Cooking in Bulk

Cooking large quantities of food once or twice a week saves time and makes meal preparation easy.

1. Cook large amounts of lean animal protein to refrigerate or freeze. Use zip-lock freezer bags for storage.

2. Hard boil your eggs ahead of time and refrigerate them. This is a quick way to get your protein in.

3. Cut your veggies up, rinse and store in a crisper. When you’re ready for a salad, it is right there, ready to eat.

4. Use canned legumes (kidney beans, black beans, corn). Rinse and re-heat in the microwave vs. preparing them from scratch.

5. When using a cookbook like the "Lean for Life Cookbook", make enough for two, four, or even six meals. Many of these meals can be frozen and used later.

6. When preparing your food, begin cooking the items that take the most amount of time first and finish with the easiest items, last. (i.e.: I bake a large salmon filet in the oven for 40 minutes, set the rice cooker at 20 minutes next, and finish off with cutting up my veggies for either a salad or to be nuked).

Many of us believe that, if you want to follow a clean and healthy meal plan, going out to eat is not an option. Actually, this is not entirely true. You can go out to restaurants, eat at fast food establishments (on occasion), enjoy food with your partner, family or friends, and even go to parties or other social events!

Healthy meals are served almost anywhere. However, it is important to keep a few general guidelines in mind when you eat away from home.

1. Eat foods that you can see in nature. Potatoes grow in the ground and apples grow on trees but there is no such thing as a bagel bush or a pasta plant! Commercially prepared foods should be eaten in moderation.
2. Ask for your foods to be prepared without gravies, sauces, oils or butter. Ask the server to put dressings and sauces on the side.
3. Use the “2/3 plate rule” whenever possible. 1/3 of the plate should be covered with protein (chicken breast, fish, lean red meat), and the other 2/3 of the plate should be carbohydrates (1/3 starch/grain and the other 1/3 fruit/vegetable).
4. Eat slowly until you are comfortably satiated, not stuffed.
5. If the restaurant does not serve a “perfectly healthy plate”, eat a small amount to tide you over until you can get back on track with healthier choices. Avoid going longer than 4 hours without food. It is a set up for over-eating and making poor food choices.
6. Most of the restaurants that I’ve eaten at will accommodate most of these “healthy meal guidelines”. Fast food chains are even beginning to serve more healthy food options.

While I am standing in the check out line at the super market, I take a moment to glance through various health & fitness magazines. “Lose 30 lbs. in 30 days!” “Use BRAND X, the most powerful fat burner in the world!” Recently, I actually saw an ad that said, “Have your cheesecake and build muscle, too!” The sad part is, many consumers believe this stuff!

Some of my new clients have been exposed to so much myth-information that they don’t even trust common sense, anymore. Their belief system is so firmly in place, they can’t even move towards their personal health and fitness goals until these beliefs are addressed and then thrown out, for good!

The common problems I see are listed below.

1. The media makes carbohydrates out to be the enemy. Low-carb diets are everywhere. Minimizing the processed and refined carbohydrates (cakes, bread, crackers) makes good nutrition sense but to make all carbohydrates “bad” does us all a great disservice. Starches, grains, fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates that come from the earth. These foods give us energy. We need them.
2. The idea that dietary fat makes you fat is still an idea that is alive and well. Of course dietary fat is more calorically dense than carbohydrates and proteins, but no macronutrient makes you fat. Gaining weight is caused by too much energy in (calories) and not enough energy out (exercise).