What’s On the Menu: Week 2

It’s been a week….so how do I feel about meal prep?

PROS

• Nothing like wandering to the fridge at any given time and knowing exactly what you are going to eat. Goodbye, guesswork!
• I know that I’m eating something healthy that will further my fitness goals. It’s a lot easier to avoid surprise dark chocolate covered cashew binges when my prepared alternative is staring me in the face.
• Huge timesaver during the week. If you worked late there’s no additional prep time for dinner – just pop the top and get to munching.
• Fewer dishes – most of the time.
• Because you prepared your food personally, you know how it was made and what’s in it. Sneaky calorie bombs and rando ingredients need not apply.
• Measuring food all the time means you start learning what actual portions look like. Theoretically, this will make eating out easier in the future.

CONS

• Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooredom. It’s tough to eat the same thing day in and day out without feeling occasional flashes of food FOMO.
• I have to eat A LOT. Not so much the amount of food, but the frequency. And now that my body is adjusting to it, I go from zero to hangry if my food isn’t in my hands on time.
• Committing time to meal prepping in the first place.
• You wreck the kitchen 1x per week.

Overall, I think meal prep is one of the best ways to secure your goal success. They say a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and you can’t get much more ‘planned’ than this. That being said, I don’t think I’d do it forever, but I’d probably stick with it for at least one meal per day – like lunch – to help keep me on track in the future.

Now to the Good Stuff – Food!

After Week 1, I went back to the drawing board to see where I could push flavors further without upping the calories. Breakfast stayed about the same – smoothie or fruit – but I added a lunch alternative and some new ingredients. Like last week, I’m sticking to basic cooking methods and my air-fryer has proved its worth many times over. My top seasonings were garlic or garlic salt, lemon pepper, lemon juice, Himalayan Pink Salt with some special assistance from Urban Accents Chicago Steak & Chop mix and Korean BBQ Taco Sauce. I’ve found that adding seasonings POST cooking means I generally use less, saving me a few precious calories and definitely some sodium.

Portobello Burrito Bowl (Lunch)

Calories: 421 Carbs: 63g Fat: 16g Protein: 16g

Air-fried portobellos came out perfectly tender and I avoided that ‘mummified’ texture they sometimes take on in the oven. Add a little of the steak & chop seasoning and they’re good to go!

Korean BBQ “Pork” Bowl (Lunch)

Calories: 309 Carbs: 45g Fat: 5g Protein: 20g

I air-fried the porkless bites and saved the sauce to sub for Urban Accent’s lower calorie version (also easier to measure). Forgot a pic this week, but this one will make another appearance!

Oven-Roasted Tomato Scallopini (Dinner)

Calories: 406 Carbs: 45g Fat: 14g Protein: 34g

I air-fried the veggies & scallopini for this one (shocker) and oven roasted the tomatoes at 425 with a sprinkling of sea salt and 1/2 TBSP of EVOO.

The rest of my calories throughout the day include my post-workout protein shake, which I switched to Vega Sport Protein Powder because it offers more protein per serving with the same number of calories as the Orgain, but I’m still using O for breakfast or snack smoothies. Goals for next week are more of the same – keep the meals creative, stay on track with breakfast, and avoid picking anything off my BF’s plate.