New Daily Meal Plan

Last week I decided that I am going to follow a more structured and thought out meal plan to make sure I am eating right. I spoke to a personal trainer in my gym who really knows his stuff, and he told me I was not eating enough! I never thought I would hear someone say that. So on his advice, I plan to eat 6-7 small meals a day, leaving no more than 2-3 hours between eating. Eating this much does sound like it would be counter-productive to losing weight, but he told me that by doing this, your body never enters starvation mode where it stores food as fat. You also will not feel as hungry when it reaches meal time, so you are a lot less likely to overeat. As long as I am eating the correct things at the right time, then it will help me to get leaner and lose excess fat. I will also be aiming to increase my water intake as this helps to flush the body, and I will be forcing myself to enjoy green tea, as the health benefits are huge - it is a great natural metabolism booster.

Meal Plan

Meal 1 (Breakfast) - 7:30am :

40g oats made with water

+ 2 tsp Stevia

+ 1 scoop protein powder

+ 1 egg white

+ Frozen berries

Meal 2 - 10:30 am : 

1/2 cup Greek yog/cottage cheese/quark with berries

OR

1/2 can tuna

OR

Mixed nuts (handful)

Meal 3 (Lunch) - 12:30 am :

120g lean meat

+ Salad/broccoli 

+ 75g brown rice or 1/2 sweet potato

Meal 4 - 3:30pm : 

1/2 cup Greek yoghurt with stevia 

+ Banana

Meal 5 (only if going to the gym) - 5:30pm : 

1 serving of fruit 

e.g Grapefruit/dates/figs

Meal 6 (Dinner) - 8:30pm :

200g lean meat

+ Large portion of veg/salad

+ Optional: 1 egg (not every day)

Meal 7 (Optional) - 9:30pm  : 

100g quark with stevia

+ Frozen berries 

For lunches I will prep the food at the start of the week, so it is all cooked and ready to just put in to a lunch box in the morning. This will take a little time and effort one evening a week, but it's worth it to just be able to grab and go in the morning. Also, it removes the possibility of being tempted to have something I shouldn't. Fail to plan, then plan to fail. I have discovered that frozen meat is so much cheaper than fresh meat! Obviously it is not as tasty, but its great to be able to have a good portion of protein for lunch and dinner, as before I discovered this I could only afford chicken 2 nights a week.

I will be implementing a more comprehensive weekly work out plan to make sure I am incorporating every muscle group. Before, I was skipping chest & back in my routine as I was not looking to achieve muscle in those areas. But I now understand that it is important to work on every aspect of the body, and that it will help to lose all over body fat. Another important point the personal trainer pointed out to me, was to mix up the routine in the weights room every time you go. If you do the same routine every week then your body gets used to it and knows what is coming. So even if you change the order you do it in, make sure it is not the exact same thing each time.

Here are some examples of the dinners I have been having since starting my new plan. It's amazing how full you can make your plate look by just piling up the veg! I sprinkle Schwartz Piri Piri Seasoning on the meat/fish before grilling, and usually have some balsamic vinegar with the veg/salad.

Chicken breast, smoked mackarel, scrambled egg, mushrooms & broccoli

Chicken breast, mushroom, tomato, rocket, olives & avocado

Basa fillet, sweet potato chips, broccoli, avocado, rocket, tomato & mushroom

Basa fillet, scrambled egg, broccoli, salad, mushroom & tomato

I will let you know if I manage to keep this up for the first week!

Lucy x