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Roasted Vegetables

A great example of something that I prepare in advance for a week’s worth of meals is roasted vegetables.  It is a super simple, mindless dish that is great for providing your needed fibrous carbohydrates.  Roasting vegetables is great for maintaining their vitamin-rich qualities while making them delicious.  Having a large batch of veggies is also really versatile in that it can accompany a great variety of meats, and things such as rice or sweet potato when dishing out individual-sized portions (as mentioned in my “Food Prep” post).  It is a really basic process that has pretty much become a habit, and helps keep my meal planning for the week easy, so I thought I would share.

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Using a large lasagna/roasting pan, spray a light coat of olive oil.
  3. Add two 16 oz. bags of Brussels sprouts and two or three 12 oz. bags of broccoli florettes in a single layer within the pan.
  4. Coat the top of the vegetables with another light layer of olive oil.
  5. Sprinkle vegetables with sea salt, black pepper, and granulated garlic.  No exact measurements are used for this, I just use a light dusting of each.
  6. Cover pan with foil and roast for 25-30 minutes until they’ve reached your desired tenderness.  Enjoy!

*This can make as many servings as you wish, but typically we can use it for 12-14 servings throughout the week.

Food Prep

Prepping food is necessary to keeping on track with watching what you eat, and making good choices for yourself in order to best meet your goals.  Many people think of prepping a week’s worth of meals on a Sunday as something that will consume an entire day and require a zillion containers along with measuring, weighing, and counting.  For some people, doing exactly that works for them and that is great, however, for others food prep doesn’t need to be so time or equipment intensive.  In fact, if it makes more sense to you to do less prepackaging of your meals, then do just that.  One thing I do quite often when prepping meals for myself and my family, is instead of measuring and weighing food out on a Sunday, I will make large batches of different types of proteins and/or side dishes such as vegetables and store them in the fridge in their own containers.  Now since my portion sizes and nutritional needs are different than my wife’s or my 5-year old son, it is much easier for us to just pull from the larger containers as needed.  For instance, I can easily pack my lunch for the day by pulling the right amount of protein, vegetables, and good carbohydrates from each container and placing them in an individual portion-size container as a well-balanced meal.  This is when I will do the measuring and weighing, if necessary, making sure that I’m getting the right amounts of each quality ingredient for that meal.  The other beauty of this process is that it still allows you some variety.  Rather than eating a prepackaged meal, you could mix and match the different meats, vegetables, carbohydrates in as many different varieties as your little heart desires throughout the week.  I know for my wife, this helps her a lot from feeling like she’s eating the same meal for every meal for a week at a time, which is something she does not enjoy ( I on the other hand, don’t mind the repetition so much).

So, remember prepping is key, but it doesn’t need to be the overwhelming chore that it is so often thought to be, and instead is something that anyone can do to help keep themselves on the road to nutritional success!

 

Ham & Egg Cups

One of my favorite simple breakfast foods is one that I can prepare on the weekend and will last into the week for several days.  It is these ham and egg cups that are super easy to make.  They are delicious, simple, and really convenient to have on hand when staying prepared for your meals.  Below I have included the recipe, so you too can enjoy this yummy breakfast, but I have also included the breakdown of the macros for each egg cup for those of you watching your numbers.

Ingredients:

4 jumbo eggs

1/2 cup egg white

2 oz. light, shredded Mexican cheese (Trader Joes)

8 oz. uncured Black Forest ham (Trader Joes)

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease a muffin pan with a zero calorie spray (ex. coconut oil) and line 8 cups each with 2 slices of ham (equals 1 ounce per cup).
  3. Sprinkle a quarter ounce of cheese into each ham cup.
  4. Whisk together the egg whites and eggs and equally distribute the egg mixture among the 8 cups.
  5. Sprinkle sea salt, black pepper, and smoked paprika onto each cup.
  6. Place in the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes or until done.
  7. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

My Own Journey

I look back at pictures from six, seven, or eight years ago and I hardly recognize myself.  One, because of all the changes I have endured mentally and physically since then, but two, because I never realized how much I needed to improve when I was in those moments.  I look at that picture on the left and I really don’t remember ever looking so puffy and round.  I was regularly working out and trying to “eat well” so there was no reason for that appearance or that weight on the scale.  In fact, I felt fine and would consider myself healthy.  Well, at least that’s what I thought at the time.  Experience and knowledge have led me to where I am now, and that is knowing better.  Knowing that it’s more than just working out and “trying” to eat well that gets you where you need to be.  Now, it’s not something that happens overnight either.  The picture on the right is a current picture of me as I decided to clean out my dresser drawers and came upon a pair of shorts I owned and fit well nine years ago.  I slipped them on just out of curiosity and found that they are easily 6 inches too large in the waist.  At my heaviest, I weighed in at 235 pounds and now I weigh 190 pounds.  I could lift more weight when I was heavier, but not by that much.  Although today I am lifting slightly less weight I am much more versatile in my lifts and I am incredibly more fit than I ever used to be.  I feel good, I am not plagued with head colds and illnesses as frequently as I once was, and my energy levels are on point.  All of which I had no idea were issues for me when I weighed more.  It’s one of those things where you don’t notice something until it’s gone.  That’s exactly the case for me.  I didn’t notice my puffiness, lack of endurance, my sluggish afternoon slump or common head colds until they were no longer an issue.  However, I didn’t find what works for me instantly either.  It took years of trial and error to find what works.  I experimented in many different ways and recognized quickly that what works for one person may or may not work for another.

I’m not one of those that weight loss comes easy for.  I have had to work hard for where I am now, and I have to continually work towards meeting my goals.  Right now, my fitness goals revolve around lifting heavy weights, so I eat to support those goals.  I lift heavy and I condition in many different ways, and I do not deprive myself of the foods I like to eat. If and when my goals change, my nutritional goals will change as well and I will need to eat in a way that supports my body and what I am trying to achieve.

Easy Teriyaki

Food prep is one of the best habits to instill when trying to eat correctly for your body.  It is a routine that can be established that may take some time on a single day, but can alleviate a lot of time spent in the kitchen later in the week, which totally makes it worth it.  Having prepared meals that are balanced, well-thought out, and proportioned correctly, will eliminate the need to think about your food during the work week when time is often limited.  But waiting until you are hungry to decide what you are going to eat is one of the worst habits, and probably one of the hardest habits to break.  So, going into a week with an executed plan will take all the guess work out of things, and keep you on track and feeling successful from the very start, since no one can do well when feeling defeated right off the bat.

Here is an easy chicken teriyaki marinade recipe I use regularly for approx. 2-3 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken.  If I use 2 lbs. of chicken, I can make 6 meals, and that helps me when I am prepping food for the week.  This is just one of the many ways to keep my food tasty all while being smart with my choices in food, so I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I do!

2-3 lbs. chicken thighs

6 oz. orange or pineapple juice

1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce

3 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. black pepper

Combine all the ingredients within a gallon size ziploc bag.  Marinate the chicken 4-6 hours in the refrigerator.  I often let it sit overnight.  Cook and serve the chicken however you choose, the possibilities are endless!

Nutrition Seminars Available!

Hey everyone!  If you, along with your fellow gym members or colleagues are interested in learning more about your own nutrition and what to do to get on track, Darrell Lutz Nutrition now has a seminar available to get you started.

Check out the Services page of the website for more information and pricing.