Food
Alison and I have been on a health journey over the last few years. During this journey, we have tried many strategies and programs to find balance in our eating habits. Most of our efforts were short-lived or unsustainable, but each taught us important lessons. About a year ago we changed our lifestyle and began eating in a healthy, sustainable way.
The crux of this healthy lifestyle can be summed up in three simple statements: Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. These three statements capture the key to balance and a sustainable healthy lifestyle. We learned to apply these principles through the Beachbody Portion-control containers. We love Beachbody and we are big believers in both their nutrition and exercise programs. We are, however, 100% consumers of the programs. We have no desire to sign people up or become Beachbody coaches. We do not have time or enough belief in their supplements.
Using the Portion-control containers we have learned how to recognize, prepare, and eat healthy food. We eat the right types of food in the correct portion sizes. We love portion control because it is not really a diet, rather it is a lifestyle that we can really sustain for the rest of our lives. This month Alison and I had a really good conversation about the "why" behind this change in our lifestyle. There were a plethora of reasons for our change including avoiding lifestyle diseases (lifestyle diseases from poor diet kills more than smoking and alcohol abuse), feeling healthy and strong, having more energy, and setting an example of healthy eating for our future children. One of our favorite trainers has a saying that has really resonated with Alison and me. It is to "Choose your hard." Making healthy choices, especially given the prevailing culture, can be hard, but you either choose to make the sometimes hard, but healthy choice or you choose to live with the difficult consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.
We have learned about making better food choices. We avoid foods with significant amounts of hidden sugar. We buy most of our groceries from the produce and meat departments of the grocery store. We avoid processed food as much as possible. We pay attention to food labels and avoid foods with more than a handful of ingredients. When it makes sense we consider buying organic food. We seek to continually learn how to make better and healthier food.
I do not ever feel hungry. I eat lots of food. My plan is to eat between 2,300-2,500 calories per day. This is an appropriate level for me to fuel my daily activity and maintain a healthy weight. The key to successfully living this lifestyle is planning. One of our favorite trainers loves to say that planning is not half the battle, it is the battle.
Each week Alison and I fill out a spreadsheet charting our eating plan for the week. This spreadsheet details the meals and snacks Alison and I plan to eat. We then buy food, prepare food, and cook food according to this plan. Having a plan helps us to stay on track. I will be honest and say this takes a significant amount of effort, but we have found this method to be well worth the results.
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| This is typically how our fridge looks after meal prepping for the week |
Sunday, April 7:
Meal 1: Pre-workout:
I eat a meal like this most mornings as soon as I wake up.
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal cup (so delicious!) 💛
Activity: 4-Mile Walk
Daybreak is a very walkable neighborhood and we take advantage. On Sunday morning we took Tex on a four-mile walk. We walked to the Daybreak lake from our house and walked around it for about a mile, before returning home.
Meal 2: Breakfast
This is a fairly typical breakfast for Alison and me (her meal plan only has one protein).
Sautéed spinach, 2 fried eggs, Fixate Breakfast Sausage, and Ezekiel bread with butter. ❤️❤️💚💛
Activity: Yoga Fix
Alison is doing the Beachbody program 21-Day Fix Real Time program. Today is an active recovery. It is also a rest day for me. Together we both participated in Yoga today. It was a great way to stretch our muscles and get ready for a more intense activity next week.
Meal 3: Brunch
Aebleskivers with butter and cinnamon sugar, bacon, sausage, breakfast casserole, and fruit. ❤️❤️💛💛💜 ?
This meal was not really in our plan. I am guesstimating the containers above. While we try to eat on the plan (80-90%) of the time the rest of the time we do not worry about it. This applies when we are on vacation and for other special occasions or treats. Alison's family has a tradition to eat an Aebleskiver breakfast in between sessions of the general conference. This year we decided to partake. It was a delicious meal. One thing I love about this lifestyle is that it provides us the flexibility to participate in social events, but right afterward we go back to eating healthy. I will also note that our palettes have changed. As we have shifted our eating our desire/capacity to eat foods that are full of salt, sugar, and other less desirable ingredients has decreased. While we make good food choices that fuel our bodies we do not feel deprived at all. In fact, we eat delicious and satisfying food every day.
Meal 4: Snack
An apple, 3/4 cup cottage cheese, and 20 baby carrots. 💜❤️💚💚
This is a pretty typical snack for me. One of the reasons this meal plan has been so effective for Alison and me is because even when we go off plan, like with brunch we do not use that as an excuse to scrap the plan. Instead, we get right back to eating the way we have planned. This helps us to stay on track and feel good.
Meal 5: Dinner
Lemon-garlic chicken thighs, asparagus, and chunky monkey ice cream. ❤️💚💜
This dinner was delicious. We made 10 4-ounce chicken thighs so that we could each have one for dinner tonight, Alison had leftovers for lunch every day in the upcoming week, and I had lunch for 3 days. We also made enough asparagus for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. We often will make a large dinner on Sunday and plan on using leftovers for Alison's lunches in the coming weeks. The highlight of dinner was the chunky monkey ice cream. It is really just bananas, peanut butter, almond milk, almonds, and a little bit of dark chocolate. It is a simple recipe but tastes so good.
Monday, April 8:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
This meal was exactly the same as Sunday.
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Carrot cake baked oatmeal cup (so delicious!) 💛
Activity: 80-day obsession Day 21 Total Body Core
This workout works your entire body using compound (multi-joint) exercises designed to challenge your core and maximize strength gains and calorie burn.
Activity: 3-mile run
I am training to run in the American Fork half-marathon this summer so I am building up my mileage. This week I will go on three runs of 3-miles each.
Meal 2: Post-workout
1 scoop of Quest protein powder in water, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 serving of steel-cut oats. ❤️💜💛
Alison tried something new this week and made steel-cut oats in the instant pot. I usually have some instant steel-cut oats that I can microwave. This way all I had to do was heat them up. These steel-cut oats tasted very good. They have a nutty flavor and a little bit of a different texture. I like it.
Meal 3: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, Fixate breakfast sausage, and Ezekiel bread with peanut butter. ❤️❤️💚💛
Alison will also often have toast with her breakfast, but this week she reconfigured her meal plan so that she can have steel-cut oatmeal with bananas, peanut butter, and cinnamon. It looked amazing.
Meal 4: Lunch
Lemon-garlic chicken thighs, brown rice, asparagus, and an orange. ❤️💛💚💜
Meal 5: Snack
Meal 6: Dinner
We each got two of these tacos, but I was so hungry I ate my first one before I remembered to take a picture. They were tasty.
Tuesday, April 9:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Vegan Carrot Cake 💛 & 1/2💛 1/2💙
This vegan carrot cake is seriously so good. The whipped topping really makes it a treat. The topping is made of aquafaba, which is the liquid in the can of chickpeas, turns out aquafaba is a good substitute for egg white. I am not vegan, but I still very much enjoy this plant-based treat.
Activity: 80-day obsession Day 22 Booty
This exercise targets the glutes with isolation exercises.
Activity: 1.5-mile walk
Tex and I have gone on a walk every weekday morning (unless we are running). After my regular workout, I take him out. I really enjoy spending this time with him. This time of year is especially beautiful because we get to enjoy beautiful sunrises.
Meal 2: Post-workout
1 scoop of Quest protein powder in water, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 serving of steel-cut oats. ❤️💜💛
Meal 3: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, and Ezekiel bread with butter. ❤️❤️💚💛
Meal 4: Lunch
Salad at work: Spinach, peas/lima beans, carrots, eggs, chicken, ham, and dressing in orange on the side ❤️💛💚🧡💜
Ancestry.com has a cafeteria on site. This is one of my go-to options. They have a bountiful salad bar.
Meal 5: Snack
Meal 6: Dinner
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| These are great meatballs and the recipe made enough that I will be able to eat the leftovers for dinner next week when Alison is out of town |
Wednesday, April 10:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Vegan Carrot Cake 💛 & 1/2💛 1/2💙
Activity: 80-day obsession Day 23 Total Body Core
Work your entire body using compound (multi-joint) exercises designed to challenge your core and maximize strength gains and calorie burn.
Activity: 3-mile run
Meal 2: Post-workout
1 scoop of Quest protein powder in water, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 serving of steel-cut oats. ❤️💜💛
Meal 3: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, and Ezekiel bread with butter. ❤️❤️💚💛
Meal 4: Lunch
Salad at work: Spinach, peas/lima beans, carrots, eggs, chicken, ham, and dressing in orange on the side ❤️💛💚🧡💜
Meal 5: Snack
Meal 6: Dinner
One of Alison's coworkers sent her an edible arrangement. It was a kind gift. We incorporated it into our meal tonight (we especially enjoyed the chocolate-covered fruit). Once again it wasn't really in the plan, but when you receive an edible arrangement you eat it. It is mostly fruit anyway.
Thursday, April 11:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Vegan Carrot Cake 💛 & 1/2💛 1/2💙
Activity: 80-day obsession Day 24 Triple-A
Activity: 1.5-mile walk
Meal 2: Post-workout
1 scoop of Quest protein powder in water, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 serving of steel-cut oats. ❤️💜💛
Meal 3: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, and Ezekiel bread with butter. ❤️❤️💚💛
Meal 4: Lunch
Lemon-garlic chicken thighs, broccolini and potatoes, and an orange. ❤️💛💚💜
Meal 5: Snack
Meal 6: Dinner
Alison has been wanting to try this melon sorbet recipe. She froze some of the melon from the edible arrangement and threw it into the food processor, along with a couple other ingredients. It was a great treat and really was almost entirely made of fruit. The texture was just like regular sorbet, without an overload of sugar.
Friday, April 12:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Vegan Carrot Cake 💛 & 1/2💛 1/2💙
Activity: 80-day obsession Day 25 Leg day
Build a leaner, stronger lower body with this challenging leg workout that hits your quads, hams, glutes, and calves from every angle.
Activity: 3-mile run
Meal 2: Post-workout
1 scoop of Quest protein powder in water, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 serving of steel-cut oats. ❤️💜💛
Meal 3: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, and Ezekiel bread with butter. ❤️❤️💚💛
Meal 4: Lunch
Lemon-garlic chicken thighs, brown rice, broccoli, and an orange. ❤️💛💚💜
Meal 5: Snack
Meal 6: Dinner
The brussel sprouts were kind of a bust. They were very bitter. We really want to like brussel sprouts and we have given them many chances, but so far they are not a vegetable we enjoy eating. The peanut butter popcorn was incredible. You may notice we had a lot of treats this week. This is actually more than we normally have, but we tried a lot of new recipes and for the most part, the treats fit within our plan. We are getting the macronutrients we should be getting by eating these treats.
Saturday, April 13:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Vegan Carrot Cake 💛 & 1/2💛 1/2💙
Activity: 80-day obsession Day 26 Cardio Flow
This dynamic endurance workout uses progressively more intense rounds of primary movement patterns to challenge your mind, muscles, and stamina.
Meal 2: Post-workout
1 scoop of Quest protein powder in water, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 serving of steel-cut oats. ❤️💜💛
The steel-cut oats Alison made in the instant pot ran out so I am back to my instant steel-cut oats. One of the reasons Alison doesn't love it when I make it this way is that I have to use a large bowl to keep it from going all over the microwave. This bowl takes up a lot of space in the dishwasher. I honestly like this texture better and I can mix in the strawberries even more because it isn't quite as sticky.
Meal 3: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, and sweet potato hash. ❤️❤️💚 & 1/2💚💛
Meal 4: Lunch
Stir-fry with brown rice, peanuts, and an apple. ❤️💛💚🧡💜
Meal 5: Snack
Activity: 2-mile walk
Today is Tex's birthday. We took him on a walk around Daybreak lake. Alison and I very much enjoy going on walks together. It gives dedicated time to talk. It sometimes feels like we have made many significant decisions about our lives on our walks.
Meal 6: Dinner
This dinner had a nice mellow flavor. It was enjoyable. The other nice thing about this meal is that it is a one-pan meal so it was pretty simple and there were not a lot of dishes.
Sunday, April 14:
Meal 1: Pre-workout
Morning Smoothie - 8 ounces almond milk, 1 scoop Vega One, one-half banana, 1/2 TBSP PB Fit, and 1 cup spinach ❤️💚💜
Vegan Carrot Cake 💛 & 1/2💛 1/2💙
Activity: Pilates Fix & Yoga Fix
Today we did two active recovery workouts. The yoga especially felt good and helped me stretch my muscles in preparation for the upcoming week.
Meal 2: Breakfast
Roasted squash and zucchini, 2 fried eggs, 4 slices of turkey bacon, and sweet potato hash. ❤️❤️💚 & 1/2💚💛
Meal 3: Lunch
Cauliflower fried rice, peanuts, and an apple. ❤️💛💚🧡💜
This meal is huge. By volume, it is just a lot of food and is super filling, but also super healthy and full of vegetables. When you mix in a little bit of brown rice with cauliflower rice it has a great texture and it really doesn't taste like cauliflower rice.
Meal 5: Snack
Activity: 4-mile walk
It was a beautiful day so we walked from our house down to the Daybreak lake, circled around the north shore area, and then walked back home. It was delightful.
Meal 6: Dinner
The beef tenderloin is one of our favorite meals. It has so much flavor. We have continually gotten better at making it, and this one was by far our best one yet. We tried outs one banana pudding to go with our meal. It was pretty good as well.
This week was fairly typical of our meal plan. It was a little heavier on seafood than most weeks. We also tried almost all new dinner recipes. The only one we had made before are the beef tenderloin. Every week we make a plan and we try to stick with it. Sticking with these plans has helped us to live our best life, where we feel healthy and happy.
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