As a person who loves to work out and loves to try different fitness classes and cleanses, I hate changing my diet. Up until right before having a child, age 28, I was able to eat whatever I wanted and be able to work out once or twice a week and get away with it, not having to do much to maintain my body.
Fast forward 1 kid and 4 years later, working out 4-5 times a week and that is not enough. I refused to change my diet, thinking I could still eat whatever I wanted, and I’m not talking about all junk food here, but it did consist of chips here and there, some candy here and there, but for the most part it was decent. Never straight garbage food. But still, never able to lose any weight or inches, ever. Frustrating. How much more time did I need to dedicate to working out each week?!
3 things I noticed I needed to do constantly in order to change my body and tone it up: workout, meal planning and healthy snacking.
When I started my Advocare cleanse, the first thing I had to change was my diet. If I did not change it, there as no point in doing the diet. I had to get rid of coffee and replace is with a supplement they provided. Fine. Not ever a choice I would make, but had to do it in order to make changes. Another thing I had to do was meal plan. I have tried Beachbody 21 fix and you’re supposed to meal plan and all that but I never did, so essentially it wasn’t working for me either.
Meal Planning : With Advocare, I meal planned for all day and all week while I was at work. I prepped my breakfast, which was strawberries that I cut. I prepped my morning snack which was flavored almonds or celery and organic peanut butter. I prepped my lunch which was either tuna with celery, lentils, grilled shrimp over salad, quinoa, grilled cauliflower, and ground turkey with avocado, or ground turkey chili. All of it was pretty awesome! Really filling and tasted good.
When I came home for dinner, I also had to have planned what we were going to eat or we would just take a lazy route and eat something less healthy. We ate a LOT of fish and quinoa, vegetables, ground turkey, turkey burgers, avocado, turkey chili, grilled chicken. It ended up being easier than I thought to make all of these things than I had originally thought. My daughter was the hardest part, I had to make her other things because she doesn’t like fish but still it happened.
Working out: Once I started to change my diet, I coupled it with working out 3-5 times a week. I alternated between barre and 21 day fix 30 minute daily workouts. If I couldn’t get either of those in, I would run, walk or bike. There were many options, I just had to change my priority of time in order to fit it into my daily life.
Healthy Snacking: An option for a snack that I would eat as a mid morning snack were Vegan Protein Bars. These were also very good for me to eat prior to going to work out around 4:30, right after work, and it gave me energy to do my work out. Eating it about 30-40 minutes before going to work out is key. If you are not the type to eat before going to work out but always want to have a sort of protein after, these GoMacro Vegan Protein Bars are a great treat for after working out. The Protein Replenishment Peanut Butter bar is an excellent choice for after work out. I have been using barre workouts and the 21 day fix workouts and each time it has been helpful. They are super easy to purchase and you can get a case of 24 for 30$. Not a bad deal at all and that could last you almost all month if you ate one a day! They also are sold at Rite Aid, 7 Eleven, etc. you can look up your zip code to find them. Pretty useful. I know when I find a good product I have to just order it online so it will come quick!
When dieting and meal planning, you need to incorporate snacks into your diet. Otherwise you will end up eating something you shouldn’t. That always happens to me. I will be tempted by some sort of snack and that’s when my diet gets lost in the sauce.
For those who are very bad about being able to plan healthy meals, I would suggest writing out a schedule. This way you can stick to it. As a teacher, it was easy for me to set a schedule and stick with it. Otherwise I would never! Being all over the place and super busy is really hard for eating healthy. But as always, it is a lifestyle change and you need to change the way you eat if you plan to make some changes for better health in your life.
If you are busy and have kids and plans and not a lot of time to eat during the day, healthy snacking is where you need to perfect your diet. Green tea and lemon ginger tea are huge helpers as well for healthy snacking.
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