I have discussed my transition to a Fitter way of living before and how experienced a huge benefit and never looked back. However, I credit two things in particular to having a hugely positive impact upon my body, I know you must be thinking these are the food I ate and the training programme I followed, however, whilst these played an important role the following two lifestyle changes helped me to a much greater degree so I thought I’d share them with you.
1) Planning Weekly Meals
Sounds obvious yet so many people fail to do this and when it comes to eating healthy, good quality food you need to be on the ball. Eating food on the go is ok from time to time but you know quality scoff will not always be available and your choices will be compromised. I started to plan my meals for the week on a Sunday and wrote up a 7 day meal plan. Breakfast is always easy and lunch was simply the previous nights dinner, simples.
Life is so much easier now I know what I’m cooking each day and I’m more consistent with meal preparation, I eat nutritious food 80-90% of the week and shopping is more economical as I knew what I need and there’s little food waste. You will find you’ll spend less as you just buy what you need. Of course we’re huge fans of batch cooking so we can stock the freezer up too which makes planning meals and lunches even easier.
So this Sunday morning, make yourself an epic coffee and plan the week ahead, it’s really quick and makes you feel so much more organised and in control. If everyone in your family has different tastes then try out this fantastic idea from our Fitter Food mentor Claire Harding; she puts up a voting board so the kids and her husband can score whether the meal was a hit or a miss. It’s an awesome way to start gathering data about what the family enjoy and they feel more involved in the transition to healthier meals.
2) A Big Sunday Batch Cook
I love Sundays for so many reasons, the main one being a good old Sunday roast. I got into the habit of batch cooking my food for the week on a Sunday when I was working full time as a Personal Trainer, some nights I would not get home until 9-10pm so I knew it would make my life a lot easier. The more often I did a bath cooking session the quicker and easier it got. I would steam loads of vegetables, cook up a bath of burgers and simmer a big stew, chilli or curry all whilst roasting a nice lamb joint for some Sunday feast action. I would then portion up some for lunches and dinners that week and freeze the rest for another day. It’s really quite satisfying once its done you know most of your meals are good to go when you get home from a long day at work. Just make sure to factor in what you have in the freezer when planning your weekly menu and don’t forget to grab them out of the freezer to defrost in the morning for when you get home.
Now these tips may not sound ground breaking and that’s because they are not. They are simply 2 things that have really helped me on my journey because the more good food I have to hand the less I need to buy when I’m out and about. It means I know exactly what I’m eating with no hidden nasties. Plus I save money and make a healthy lifestyle easier to manage. Of course every now and then I can’t be bothered to cook and we may eat out but for most part I am very much in the routine of planning and preparing my own food.
Now to make planning a preparing good quality and great tasting scoff it helps to have some easy to make nutritious recipes to hand. This is exactly why we wrote The Paleo Primer (formally Fitter Food: A Lifelong Recipe For Health & Fat Loss) and our latest book Fitter Food: A Second Helping. Like the first book the front section is dedicated to educating you and helping you discover what works best for you and understanding macros (protein, fat and carbohydrates). So by the time you get to the 150 recipes in the back you will have a better idea of the direction you wish to take. Our second book takes a step up from the first and we highlight the areas of nutrition there has been further research on and how we have evolved. If you order now we can get it to you with plenty of time before Christmas 🙂 Thank you so much for the support and we can’t wait to hear what you think.
Have an awesome day,
Matt
