This week we offer you the second in a series of blog posts that give you practical weight loss tools. We are demonstrating how to store the food you’ve just purchased and prepare food for the week to make your weight loss journey easier. Emma O’Connor created this video for our Sweet Loss Wellness, Inc. clients as part of her Nutrition Internship with Sweet Life Wellness, Inc. and final project for her master’s degree in nutrition from North Carolina Central University. Emma offers her insights in the accompanying video to help you make the most of your time and energy as you lose weight and keep it off. Here’s what Emma has to share with you in this video and in her own words.
I will be showing you all how I meal prep for the week, and set myself up for success. By the end of this video, I hope you can find new ways to inspire you to create a system for your food storage and prep, plan ahead, learn the key components of building a nutrient dense plate, eliminate triggers that may cause disruption in your progress, and how to utilize all of your groceries. When I get home from the store is when I do my meal prep, if not immediately, then later that day for sure. I keep my grocery list and my meal list close by, so I can reference it when prepping my food. This will help me determine how I want to cut them and take that pressure off me later in the week when I’m swamped with so many other tasks. I start by washing the veggies. Some veggies are for cooking and some are for snacking, so I just cut accordingly. I found that putting my veggies in mason jars with a small amount of water at the bottom helps preserve their shelf life. It also makes it super easy to grab a handful and plate it, pack it for future lunches, or cut it out further to add to dishes.
Doing the same thing (to fresh herbs will also help keep them fresh for longer. Simply put the herbs upright with a small amount of water at the bottom of the glass. Then open up a Ziploc baggie and cover the top with the herbs and put it in the fridge. For fruits, I like to keep ones on hand that don’t require any prep other than a quick wash. Some fruits like bananas, apples, oranges, and I almost always buy my berries frozen unless they are in season. Taking the time to learn the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, and how to keep them fresh will guide you into prioritizing them. Dietary guidelines recommend two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables daily based on a 2,000 calorie diet. To find out what your personal recommendations are you can always come back to visit this video or click here for the link. I’m going to start by showing you what my system looks like. Inside my fridge I try to keep it organized just as you see here. The top shelf is designated for my dairy and cheese, eggs, and sauces. I have salsa, hummus, and kimchi currently, but those things do change out. I always like to keep non-fat Greek yogurt, berries, cheeses, and cottage cheese. I do my best to purchase fat-free or reduced fat dairy. It doesn’t alter the protein or the absorption and it can significantly cut down your total fat and calorie intake.
The eggs you see on the bottom are raw and the eggs in the blue container on the top are hard-boiled. I do this in a batch in the beginning of the week to make it easier to grab a quick breakfast or throw on top of a salad for extra protein. The key for my household is to keep the fruits and vegetables in sight and within reach. I found that when I keep them in the crisper drawers at the bottom of the fridge, I tend to forget about them until they spoil. On this shelf this week are some peppers, broccoli, snap peas, mushrooms, celery, carrots, onions, homemade vegetable broth, brussels sprouts, and cucumbers. The front left containers have finely chopped cucumbers, carrots, and black beans, which is convenient to add with some lettuce, cilantro, maybe a hard-boiled egg, light cheese, and a vinaigrette to make again that quick salad. Everything else is cut accordingly to the following meals I planned for this week. Fajitas, curry, chickpea, and cabbage, fish tacos, meatballs, rice, and brussels sprouts, chicken with lentils and broccoli, and cauliflower pizza. The bottom shelf is where I keep my meats and as you can see any overflow of vegetables. The meat should always have their own shelf or be stored and sealed properly to eliminate any cross contamination.
Prepped here I have my lentils, meatballs, pulled chicken, and my Mahi Mahi defrosting. Everything you see other than the fish is prepped and ready to go for the week. I also keep my bread in the fridge to let it keep a little longer than it would if I kept it on the counter or the pantry. For sandwiches, I enjoy tuna or turkey cold cuts but if we’re going do cold cuts I get light sodium. The DRI of sodium is 2300 milligrams which can add up very quickly when introducing cold cuts into the meal plan. That’s why it’s extra important to look on the nutrition labels of your groceries and check the amounts of things like sodium, added sugar, fats, and carbs. The Crispers in my fridge are never used for vegetables because like I said if it’s out of sight it’s out of mind. I have less likely of a chance of forgetting that my yogurts are there than my vegetables and whether that’s intentional or not I’m not sure but I do know my tendencies and the goal is to set myself up for success. We also like to keep our beers in here. We keep a mix of non-alcoholic beers as well as regular beers. This has helped me and my partner cut back on drinks and we try to only drink on the weekends but sometimes work is really tough and it’s more about just the habit than the fact that I’m actually craving a beer.
Planning ahead and avoiding triggers. Ask yourself am I going be doing a lot of driving today? If so am I going to be hungry to or from my destination? Is traffic going to be so long and irritating that I just don’t even want to do anything when I get home? This is what we want to avoid because we know we have options at home that are more nutrient dense than anything we might get at a fast food joint. So we pack some of the nutritious snacks for the road. Accept the new habit change, and get a lunch box or containers that are easy to transport and eventually we will adapt. It will become something else to look forward to. My own adaptations have taken over tiny parts of my life. This is a screenshot to the right of my daily alarms and the notes I write with each alarm. I have one to remind me to meditate and log to track my food and to wake up of course but it really helps enforce new positive habit change. The image you see in the middle was created by the US Department of Agriculture as a visual guide to encourage a variety of food throughout the week. It suggests your plate should contain roughly 20% fruits, 30% vegetables, 30% grains, and 20% protein with a small amount of dairy.
The images you see to the left and right were based off of this visual guide, and on the left is fajita with beans, rice, cheese, peppers, onions, light sour cream, cilantro, and topped with lime, and on the right it’s meatballs, rice, and broccoli. This is the curry chickpea and cabbage dish I found on Pinterest. It was a vegetarian meal, but it had a good source of protein with the combination of rice and beans, which makes it a complete protein. These are the fish tacos, and they were so, so good. I think adding the salsa, lime, and cilantro made it taste so fresh, and they were super easy to make. Salsa is a great way to get some extra veggies in. I went ahead and put the fish tacos in Minot diary. It was not a heavy meal, so it might be a nice lunch as well, but you could always add some more rice if you needed to have a few more calories. The thing I like about this app is that you can add your recipes and friends, can share them with one another, which can be helpful if you’re ever in a food rut. This was my meatball prep for the week. I used lean turkey and added eggs, seasonings, a third cup of breadcrumbs, and a one cup of chopped spinach. I like to add leafy greens and other vegetables and sneaky things like this, smoothies, and pasta sauce ’cause you can’t really taste it and it’s good for you and it also can help you use up your produce.
These are the ingredients for cauliflower pizza night. In my house it’s known as pizza Sunday. We have cauliflower crust which you can buy in the frozen pizza section. It is thin crust, cooks perfectly every time, and it is never soggy. This one had some leftover meatballs, mushrooms, onions, a light cheese, and a homemade pizza sauce. I did that by adding some seasoning to the remaining crushed tomatoes I had and used my immersion blender. Super easy and again I am controlling the amount of sodium. When it came out I topped it with arugula dressed in lemon. So easy and so delicious. Here is the process of me making lentils and pulled chicken. I let the chicken cook in the crock pot with my stock and other seasonings for a few hours while I prepped other things. Lentils are a lot easier than they are made out to be. Depending on the brand you don’t need to let them soak. Just boil and rest for about 20 minutes on medium heat. I always like to start with a mirepoix which is carrots, celery, and onions. Then I add garlic, rosemary, thyme, and oil. They absorb flavor really well and you can serve them just like that or add a bit more broth, blend it up, and you have a hearty soup. Smoothies are great for when you’re in a pinch but not all smoothies are created equal.
When making a smoothie, think of it like you are building any other plate. You want vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, and dairy. Adding all of these essentials will also help in the absorption process. Having healthy fats, proteins, and carbs will ensure that you’re getting the most nutrient absorption as possible and also leave you feeling fuller for longer. Here are some of my breakfasts throughout the week. Protein oats with apples and cinnamon, toast with cottage cheese and an egg, my favorite berries and yogurt, and then I have eggs, black beans, avocado with half a peach, and then just a simple English muffin with peanut butter and a Siete tea.
Now I can go over some of these snacks that are my absolute favorite and go-tos. I’ll bring them in my car or just keep them around the house. Dark chocolate is an absolute must and the single individual wrapped ones are perfect for lunches or just a little late night snack. Siete brand chips are one of my favorites because they use avocado instead of canola but I know most of you have heard me say that before. Yasso are Greek yogurt frozen bars. Each one has about 100 calories. I also love a Chobani shake yogurt.
They’re just easy to grab and drink on the go. The Solis, those are dried fruits and they have various flavors which are also good for the go and just have in your car or in your purse, bag, whatever it is. And then frozen bananas coated in chocolate are always in my freezer and then I’ll always have raw cashews or almonds in my car or in my pantry and a granola bar. Some of my favorites are Go Macros which are here, as you can see and then anything Kind bar. Thanks again for watching this video. I appreciate the opportunity to share my tips with you.
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Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Nutritionist-Dietitian
Emma O’Connor, Nutrition Intern
Student, Master’s degree program in Nutrition
North Carolina Central University
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