Meal Planning and Prepping
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If you saw my post at the end of last week, you knew this was coming. A full post dedicated entirely to my meal planning and prepping for the 80 Day Obsession fitness program. These meals aren't anything specific to 80 Day Obsession and can be used for anyone that is looking for quick and easy meal ideas.
This program was structured with timed nutrition meaning we were to eat meals within one to two hours of each other and eating the right kind of meals before working out. I'm going to share with you my breakfast, pre-workout, lunch, and snack meals. For dinners, we are still using Hello Fresh. I ate per the plan tweaking those meals each week to fit my nutrition needs.
As I've mentioned multiple times, I started Beachbody when I was six weeks postpartum with Macie. I was on maternity leave and did the workouts while Macie played or napped. With that, I also started drinking their superfood shake, Shakeology. Even though I have ebbed and flowed with workouts and eating healthy over the last three years, I have continued with Shakeology the whole time.
Before Shakeology, I was eating terrible breakfasts or skipping breakfast all together. Having these shakes was the first time I consistently had a healthy breakfast that was delicious and filling. For this program, I continued the shakes exactly as I always made them.
Breakfast:
- 1 scoop of Chocolate Shakeology
- 1 cup of baby spinach
- 10 oz of water and 4 oz of unsweetened almond milk
- 1 scoop of peanut butter
- 1/2 of a banana
- 1 scoop of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides
Pre-Workout Meals:
- 1 slice of multi-grain bread with PB, 2 hard boiled eggs, raw carrot sticks with homemade black bean hummus
- 1 whole wheat tortilla, handful of baby spinach, 2 frozen egg whites heated, pico de gallo
- Organic chicken apple sausage, sweet potato, mix of squash and zucchini
Snacks:
- Hard boiled eggs
- Carrots and black bean hummus
- Apples with a sweet hummus such as this or this.
- Apple-Banana Muffins (I added cinnamon and vanilla to this recipe)
- Grapes, Apples, or Strawberries
Lunch:
- Whole-grain sandwich rounds with "egg salad" made with avocado or guacamole and hard boiled eggs topped with baby spinach
- Chicken breast with sweet potato or brown rice and a vegetable (yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, butternut squash, broccoli, asparagus)
- Homemade tomato sauce with chicken italian sausage or turkey meatballs over top spiralized zucchini or squash or over whole wheat pasta.
- Same homemade sauce over four chicken or turkey meatballs on a whole grain bread for an "open faced meatball sub"
- Pork tacos (pork recipe here) on either a whole wheat tortilla or 2 corn tortillas with lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, and cheese
- Pineapple, bell peppers, and chicken grilled on a skewer over brown rice
- Greek lemon chicken with brown rice and any veggie (marinade recipe here--I used dried seasonings because ain't nobody got time for that)
- Ground pork tacos with a kiwi salsa and a lime sour cream (Hello Fresh recipe here)
I typically chose two pre-workouts and two lunch options a week to eat so I didn't have so much prep to do on Sunday but I still had a little variety. If I made a pot of sauce, I would have enough for dinner one night and then I used it in a few different ways through the week so I didn't get sick of it. My favorite concoction of all of this was the chicken-apple sausage with sweet potatoes and vegetables. I was fueled for the workout and it tasted amazing.
Typical Day of Eating:
- 8:00 am - Shakeology on the way to work
- 10:00 am - Chicken Apple Sausage with sweet potatoes, zucchini and squash
- 11:15 am - Beachbody Pre-Workout Energize
- 11:30 am - Workout for an hour
- 1:00 pm: Beachbody Recover with a portion of fruit
- 2:30 pm: Whole-grain sandwich round with "egg salad" made with avocado or guacamole and hard boiled eggs topped with baby spinach
- 4:30 pm: Carrots with black bean hummus
- 6:30 pm: Dinner to fill in whatever gaps I missed in my nutrition plan for the day
Prep on Sunday for this would have been:
- Cut up and saute chicken sausage
- Cube sweet potato, toss with olive oil and salt & pepper, bake for 20-25 min
- Cube zucchini and squash together, toss with olive oil and salt & pepper, bake for 20-25 min
- Make a double batch of black bean hummus (Henley and Hubs eat this too)
That's it! Of course there were weeks where I made more on Sunday and some weeks I made less, just depended on the time I had and the effort I was willing to put in. Between grocery shopping and cooking, I was spending anywhere from 3-5 hours on the weekend.
I previously dreaded this process but having food ready to go during the week, especially with trying to fit workouts into my work day, has been critical to my success. Before, I would try to get my workout in so I could still get food at the cafe before they closed, which didn't always work with meetings scheduled. With bringing my own food, I am able to eat whatever and whenever I want.
When I first read the nutrition for this program, I was very overwhelmed. I attempted to look on Pinterest for ideas but since the program was so new, there wasn't much out there. Now that I have been doing it for 13 weeks, it has become second nature. Honestly, it probably took me 2-3 weeks to get into a rhythm with the prep and planning.
I hope this post helps at least one person out there. I have included links in this post that will take you to my Beachbody coaching sales links for the Beachbody shakes and performance line. I'm not trying to sell anything to you guys but included them if you are interested.
I am planning to do another round of this starting April 23rd, follow me on Instagram if you want to see how my journey is coming along!
