A day in the life of my eating plan

Everyday someone wants me to make up a meal plan for them.  I used to do this for my personal clients for free. But honestly I stopped because it was time consuming and I wasn't getting paid for it. 

Don't get me wrong, I do love to offer free help and advice, but sometimes you have to put limits on what you do for free and what is a service that should be paid for.  Since I'm not a registered nutritionist, I feel funny charging people for meal plans that I do create. So that's why I stopped.  When I became a Team Beachbody Coach I found a great alternative and problem solver is the Team Beachbody Custom Meal Plan Wizard that comes with the upgraded Club membership.

What I've also found to be a great tool for planning my meals is the nutrition guide books that come with almost every Beachbody workout program.  P90X, Insanity and Brazil Butt Lift are the 3 programs in my library. Each one of those came with a nutrition plan that's easy to follow and if you like to cook, you can totally modify the recipes to suit your taste buds.

So here is a sample day for me from yesterday.  I'm in Phase 1 of the P90X Nutrition Plan.  Phase 1 is a lower carb phase, meaning 50% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat.  I'm taking in about 1800-2000 calories per day, eating 5-6 small meals.  These meals are inspired by or taken from the P90X Nutrition Guide.

Post workout snack

small recovery drink and a cup of non-fat yogurt

Breakfast

Spinach & mushroom omelet with 8 oz milk, 1/2 a grapefruit and a cup of green tea

Snack

P90X Peak Performance Bar (wildberry yogurt)

Lunch

Grilled chicken over baby spinach with tomatoes, celery, baby carrots, avocado and balsamic/rice vinegar. And 1 TBS of vanilla whey protein powder mixed with water.

Snack

Chocolate Shakeolgy mixed with 4 oz chilled coffee, 4 oz milk and 4 oz water, and a dash of cinnamon

Dinner

Roasted chicken breast with oven roasted veggies, spinach salad and one slice of whole wheat bread.

If you're really serious about changing your ways in order to lose weight, burn fat and gain muscle, or just feel better, you need to get serious about your eating habits too.  But getting serious doesn't mean it doesn't taste good or your starving yourself.  As you can see I had a lot of food yesterday.  My big treat was my Shakeology:)

For those of you who think its too expensive to buy a workout system like P90X or do the Custom Meal Plan Wizard, I say divide the cost by number of days in a month.  For instance the Meal Plan Wizard comes out to about 50 cents per day.  Considering what kind of junk we buy through out the day that costs more than that, I think the Custom Meal Plan Wizard is a bargain.

I'd love to hear from you.  Please feel free to leave a comment below or email me at fitwithjessica@live.com

My vacation and staying fit

Vacations, we all love them,cherish them and eagerly await them. We even diet and exercise right before our vacation in order to look good, maybe even hot, and to perhaps feel great while on our retreat.  But most of the time we will throw all of that hard work out the window when we go away, only to feel bloated, guilty and maybe 5 pounds heavier when we return.

I don't know about you, but I can still have a great time on my vacation if I take the time out to squeeze in exercise and plan some healthy meals and snacks.  I know this isn't a very popular idea, but trust me, if you give it a try you won't be disappointed.

Recently, my family and I had the opportunity to take some time off and travel to Florida to visit with my mom and also my dad. We stayed at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village.  First off, we were blessed to stay at this amazing resort.  It made it very easy to keep up with eating right and sticking to my P90X routine (at the time of my vacation I was in week 11 now in week 12).  We stayed in a room with a fully equipped kitchen. I know there are a lot of people who don't find cooking on their vacation fun, but with 4 kids it really saves us from a lot of headaches and spending too much money on food.  Knowing we would have the kitchen, I packed my vanilla whey protein and Shakeology, along with things like plain oatmeal, whole grain bread, beans, brown rice and other healthy goodies.  Once we got down there I hit up Wal-Mart for the rest of our pantry. 

You can save a ton of money, time and calories by just eating breakfast in your room. With a dishwasher right there all we had to do was prepare, eat and stack dishes. Then we were ready to hit the pool.

We did indulge a few times and ordered private poolside dining, but we tried to stay healthy with that too.  The resort made it easy to pick healthy choices such as Tandoori chicken with chickpeas.  But for most of the days, I just ran up to the room to blend up (well my husband did that) a chocolate and peanut butter Shakeology.

Exercise wasn't a problem and I really looked forward to that part of the day. I woke up around 6:30 am (I know, I'm crazy), every morning to stretch and then take a walk to the fitness center.  I know this doesn't sound like something to look forward to, but the walk to the fitness center was so beautiful, relaxing and peaceful. The sun would just be coming up, there were flowers everywhere and cool little lamps to guide your way.  I really enjoyed this sacred time to myself every morning and felt this was truly one of the best parts of my vacation.

I stuck to my P90X schedule as closely as possible. Since I was on vacation, I didn't want to spend too much time in the gym, so I adjusted my routine to include 25 minutes on the treadmill or stepper and then 25 minutes of a strength routine.  Then on my scheduled cardio days I did 35-40 minutes on the treadmill or stepper and then 10 minutes of abs.  I feel like even though it was a quick routine, I worked really hard.

Again, I know most of you might find this not fun at all, or maybe even slightly crazy, but I didn't gain any weight while away and no feelings of "why did I eat that much?" type guilt.

I've got lots more to blog about, but will wait until later on.

I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to comment or send me an email to fitwithjessica@live.com.

Foods to stock up on

I wish I had copied the link when I first saw it, because I can't find it now:(

There was an article on MSN's Delish Channel about what foods you should keep on hand with a long shelf life.

I think they were:

Rice
Canned Beans
Chocolate Chips and Baking Chocolate
and I totally forget the rest

But here are some items I also think you should keep on hand:

Vanilla Whey Protein Powder - You can make fruit protein smoothies, or mix it into oatmeal, or pancake batter.  Whey protein is a great way to add extra protein to your nutrition, without being too heavy on you digestive system.  Makes for easy breakfast, snacks or light dinners.

Jarred Tomato Sauce - I read somewhere that canned tomato products pick up the harmful stuff in the cans because of their acidity. But jarred tomato products are better for you.  Tomato sauce is always better homemade, but who has time for that.  Find a brand you like and stock up on it when it goes on sale.  You can get creative with it by adding it to pasta, using it in your meatloaf or meat ball mixture, using it for homemade pizza.  You get the point.

Frozen Raspberries or Blueberries - Frozen is usually cheaper than fresh in the off season and you don't have to worry about spoiling.  I picked these over strawberries because the blend up smoother in the blender.  I hate finding chucks of fruit in my smoothie.  I also add these to Greek yogurt, or defrost and add on top of pancakes or waffles.  You can put them in salads too.

Frozen veggies - Again, frozen can be cheaper than fresh, and since they're flash frozen, the veggies don't lose their nutrients as quickly as fresh can.  You can get the steam in the bag variety.  Just opt for no sauce variety.  You can stir-fry, or add to pasta, use as a side dish, etc.

Ground Flax Seed - I like to use Bob's Red Mill.  Its cheaper than buying wheat germ and is high in Omega 3s.  I like to add mine to smoothies, pancake, waffle and muffin batter, meatball mixture, on top of yogurt.

Walnuts - You need to keep these int he fridge if you buy a very large package like I did a few weeks ago.  Walnuts are very high in Omega 3s and yummy on salad, yogurt or with a piece of fruit.

Chicken Breasts - You can freeze these to stock up.  Chicken breast is low in fat and high in protein.  I don't think I need to explain what you can do with chicken, but you can grill a few pounds at a time and use for quick meals during the week.  Like a pasta toss or on top of salad.

Protein Bars - Let's face it, we're all in a hurry at one time or another.  While I don't recommend eating them more than once a day, I do like to keep one in my purse for a quick snack or lunch.  Better than getting a donut:)

Peanut Butter - While high in fat, peanut butter in  moderation is a good way to get a quick shot of protein.  Have it with an apple or a banana.  Spread it on a rice cake or a piece of whole wheat bread.

Greek Style Yogurt - My favorite brands are Chobani and Fage.  I tried the Yoplait brand and it was just okay.  Try buying plain.  You can use it in place of sour cream or mayo. I like to mix mine with honey and frozen berries, topped with walnuts.  Greek yogurt is a lot higher in protein than regular too.  Chobani has 22 grams per serving and Fage has 19 grams.

Honey - This is a great way to sweeten in stead of sugar, and its pretty affordable compared to stevia.  A little goes a long way in oatmeal, yogurt, tea, or on top of pancakes.

Whole Milk Mozzarella Cheese - Yes, you heard me, whole milk.  Whole milk mozzarella cheese is really not that high in fat when it comes to cheese.  Plus its a lot more satisfying that the low-fat varieties.  Use it for homemade pizza and pasta dishes, also add to salads, or have a slice with an apple or fresh blueberries.

Eggs - I like Eggland's Best.  They are lower in fat, and higher in Omega 3s than regular eggs.  I'm not a fan of egg whites, and since these are expensive, use the whole egg.  A whole egg isn't bad for you.  The yolk is full of more nutrients than just the whites. 

Butter - Yes, real butter.  In moderation its not going to harm your diet.  Plus its more satisfying than low fat spreads.  And its all natural.

If you are stocked up on some healthy, satisfying foods, chances are you'll stick to your nutrition plan instead of being tempted to go out and grab some fast food.  If you need more ideas on what to stock up on, you can join Team Beachbody's Club Membership program. For less than the price of a daily latte ($2.99 per week), you can get custom meal plans, recipes and shopping lists.  Nutrition is 70% - 80% of the equation of getting healthy or losing weight.  And sometimes we're lost when it comes to what to eat.  So I think its money well spent:)