My adventures in meal planning days three, four & five plus review
My weeks worth of pantry food
After saying I would blog every day for a few days I completely forgot to come back continue writing.
Day Three:
So for Day Three I didn’t follow the meal plan to the letter. Breakfast was an omelette then lunch was a fresh fruit juice – both meal plan items but just from different days. For dinner I went out to a restaurant with my brother and his wife and we went to a place called Amerigo Vespucci. If you’ve never been I highly recommend it. The food, the atmosphere and the feel of the place was amazing. I will definitely be going there again! There was so much choice food-wise and you can’t go wrong with Italian food.
Day Four:
Breakfast: Smoothie bowl (see day one and two for picture)
Lunch: vegetable omelette
Dinner: Salmon and couscous
Today I decided to have what’s called a cheat day (eat whatever you want basically!) The main key to a cheat day is to make sure you don’t go over your calorie goal for the day. For me this was 1300. I was still getting the same number of calories and macros but from different foods. I did this by having the same vegetable omelette but this time adding some smoked cheese squares to make it indulgent. Then for dinner I had shop bought chilli salmon with Indian spiced couscous. Simple, easy and indulgent food and now I’m ready to get back to abit of light meal prep before holiday time!
What you may have noticed is that as the week went on I have adapted and changed meals. This is super key in meal planning and prep because it’s not set in stone. The best plans are the one that allow for flexibility and still allow you to maintain a calorie deficit where you eat less calories than you use in the day.
With this in mind and the fact that I’m approaching annual leave I’ve decided that for lunch I’m going to experiment with fresh fruit and veg juices and then have 2 meals per day – breakfast from the meal plan and dinner will be 50:50 choice between my signature meals and the meal plan. The next few days are going to be busy with laundry, packing, admin and paperwork so meal planning now while I have time is important!
Day five and summary:
For day five I kept it simple and had an omelette for breakfast and then skipped lunch to then have a big dinner of salmon fillet and roast potato. It’s officially the start of my week off and the end of my meal plan practice week.
My results?
I lost a kilo in weight (approx. 2 lbs) and feel much more clear headed and lighter. I wasn’t expecting to lose any weight BUT then I realised the not snacking and eating nutritionally balance meals was a big help after all. I feel like I don’t crave as much sugar as I did before because of planning meals and having balance meals with lots of fruit and veg.
Summary:
I like how this meal plan allowed me to plot by day what I was going to eat and see the week ahead as a rough timetable. Whilst I didn’t follow it to the letter I was still able to get the benefits of planning meals ahead of time. The big thing I’m taking away from this is to PLAN MEALS IN ADVANCE. Timetable them in and then just stick to them. The meals can be anything that is easy to make. I also learned to have back-ups and alternate meals because, as I experience this week, sometimes you just don’t fancy what is on the menu for the day but still want to be healthy and eat clean. Before I start the full meal plan lifestyle I plan to make a list of all my favourite healthy lunches and dinners and then write up groceries lists. Some recipes I will take from the Blogilates meal plan and some will come from my own cooking experience. I’m slowly starting to shift my mindset around healthy eating and I’m so excited to keep going down the meal planning route.
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Be sure to follow me on the blog and on my Instagram for further updates and things I’m trying out in the world of meal prep. I hope you enjoyed this mini series and please leave me any questions you have in the comments.
See you in the next blog post!