No more excuses - meal planning

Sitting down to a home-cooked meal in the evening is not an everyday occurrence for many people in our society for a variety of reasons; being too tired or hungry, wanting something easy, needing something quick and convenient, feeling too busy, not knowing what to eat or not liking to cook.

As an athlete, you already have so much to squeeze into the day that it’s easy to see why dinner may be an afterthought, especially if you have been up since 5am or you are finishing an evening workout around 6:30 or 7pm. 

But, that's not a good excuse. 

Let's get serious...
You aren't too busy to train so it's all about priorities when you say you are too busy to cook. 

As an athlete myself, I can empathize with how overwhelming it can be to plan nutritious meals, every day of the week and still squeeze in workouts. And this is in addition to work, family and everything else on a never-ending to-do list. 

I realize that I do not share many of my meal creations on this blog but I have to be honest with you, I'm passionate about healthy eating and I love sharing my food pics but my job is not a food blogger. And I also don't like to measure food and make my meals precise for you to replicate.

I am a board certified sport dietitian who spends all day helping athletes maximize performance by personally addressing and tweaking lifestyle, nutrition and sport nutrition limiters.

I regularly share my food pics on Facebook with the hope that you can be inspired to prepare healthy and satisfying home-cooked meals that will work for your active lifestyle but I never want you to feel overwhelmed when it comes to food shopping and food prepping.
There are hundreds and hundreds of food bloggers with amazing pictures, stories and recipes of food.
You should have no problem finding recipes that will work for you...but the key is making the time to actually prep and cook those meals. 

As far as I know, athletes love having a plan to follow so if it works for you to have a training plan, consider a meal plan to guide you in a successful week of eating. 

There’s no need to be obsessed with food as you need to let food enhance your life, not control your life. And there is nothing wrong with the occasional off day of eating. 

I actually feel that allowing yourself an "of" day (ex. breakfast for dinner, yogurt, granola and fruit for lunch, PB & J and a smoothie for breakfast, etc.) can actually keep you on track for healthy eating the rest of the week. It's kinda like a vacation from "typical" eating.  

Above all, you should love to eat and your meals should work for your health, body composition and performance goals. 

Place a similar amount of passion, effort and enthusiasm into your daily diet (and fueling regime) so that you can experience the rewards of having a healthy, nourished and well-fueled body. 

Here are a few of my meal planning tips that will work for your busy lifestyle. 
But in order to make them work.....
 make an effort, not excuses. 

1. Prepare meals on the weekend and always plan for leftovers. A little meal prep goes a long way. Dice, chop, wash, cook — do as much as you can when you have the time so you at least have options for a upcoming meal. Don't overwhelm yourself. Plan for 2-3 days and then do a light meal prep to last you the rest of the week.

2. Prep a meal before a workout.
You don’t want to finish your workout hungry with no patience to meal prep. Prepare as much as you can before working out. This is a game changer. You won't believe how your food choices will change (and how less complicated "healthy" eating can be) when you know that a meal is prepared before you workout. More often than not, if you finish a workout hungry, you will almost always go for what's quick and easy and not always healthy or performance enhancing and find an excuse or reason to eat it (even though you know you should be eating something healthier.)

3. Have a menu for the week.
Knowing what you will eat for dinner (and breakfast, lunch and snacks) will ensure you have those items available. No need to make this menu extravagant, just make a plan. Theme meals or staple meals work really well, especially when you are getting started with this habit.

4. Allow yourself one night a week to get a little help from a pre-made or semi-homemade meal.
Sure, you could dine-out but let's be honest, eating out takes time and it's expensive...you have to wait for food, eat and pay and travel to and from the restaurant. Consider getting help once a week (Wed or Thurs) from a salad bar, pre-made meal option from the grocery, pick-up/take-out healthy item or making something super easy and semi-homemade. Make sure this meal works for you as your meals should never make you feel guilty or should negatively affect your next days workout. 

5. Use your time wisely
Think about your entire day (M-F) - when do you have the most free time? And by free time, this means watching TV or spending time on your smart phone/computer at home. Could you make more time in your day?
Hopefully, there are times when you are home and you can find 10 to 30 minutes in the early morning, when you get home from work or in the evening that you can do some cooking or prepping. Oftentimes, the cooking and meal prep is an afterthought and athletes get busy doing something else or feel too exhausted and hungry to do anything but sit.....and eat something convenient.

As an athlete, food should be high on your to-do list. This means eating, cooking and planning. 

You know how important consistency is with training and you love the results when you follow your training plan.
Put that same focus and attention on your eating habits as you do with your training and you will find yourself doing amazing things your healthy, well fueled and nourished body. 

Stop being so busy

If something is important to you, you'll make time for it.
You'll find a way, not an excuse and you'll make progress because something is better than nothing. 

You are an expert at being busy! 

So, if you are passionate about something or it makes you feel good, is feeling busy all the time, really the way that you want to live your life?

Athletes are fantastic at staying busy. We know how to put a lot on our daily to-do list but it seems like sometimes we can never get everything done. Like we are always playing catch-up but we can't stop being so busy. 

One of the hardest situations for an athlete to be in is to feel like you are always behind - behind on workouts, behind in life, behind on healthy eating, behind at work, behind on family obligations, behind on chores. It's very hard to make time for everything that is important to you and because of that, it would be to your benefit to stop being so busy. 

For many people, it can feel normal to feel busy all the time. If work duties are done on time, then your time at home is spent doing laundry, cleaning and paying bills. Once you get everything done at home, you feel like you have slacked on your workouts. And then on top of it all, you feel like you should be spending more time with friends and family because work and training has been super busy.

One word I don't like to use (nor my athletes) is the word sacrifices. Sacrifices do not get us ahead in life so stop saying you are making sacrifices. For us athletes, sacrifices can often make us feel guilty and we end up carrying around guilt. Rather than feeling like you are making a sacrifice, consider the investments you are making instead. 

Think about the last time you trained. What was on your mind? Your upcoming race in 6 months, your cadence or stride or stroke, your breathing or form....or the bills you need to pay, the errands you need to run, the dishes you forgot to put away, the laundry you still need to fold?

There are a limited number of hours in each day so if you invest your time wisely, you can increase productivity. You'll never get the most out of a workout if your mind is somewhere else and if you are too busy to make the time to eat healthy, you are just not fueling your body properly for your workout routine. If you aren't getting rested sleep, you will struggle to stay energized throughout the day.

With everything that you may be trying to get done, you are likely making a sacrifice somewhere else and this is no way to live life.

So, if you aren't busy does this mean you are lazy or not doing enough? Absolutely not! You just need to make your investments wisely and stop trying to be busy all the time.

Yes - you can stop being so busy!

The problem with staying busy is losing your present moment. Cramming too much into one day is exhausting and you miss out on important things in life that bring happiness and joy.

No matter how much you get accomplished each day or how much you put on your to-do list, it can become emotionally and physically draining to be so busy. You may say to yourself that there is no other way you can live without being so busy because you just have so much to do, but the most important take-away is asking yourself if you are making things happen and making time for yourself and others, or constantly feeling like you can never slow down or catch-up. 

Here are a few tips to be okay with with not being so busy:

-If you are an athlete, you likely have the trait that you will find a way to get it all done - no matter what. So next time you have a free 10-15 minutes in your day, enjoy doing nothing. You can still be super productive in life without filling in every second, of every day, with something to-do. Savor free time for yourself or with loved ones, every day. 

-Just relax. Enjoy an intentional skipped workout every now and then. Rather than cleaning your house, take an hour and prepare a home-cooked meal with your spouse, close friend/family or child. Don't bring your computer in your bed at night to answer emails, pay bills, book tickets or write on your blog, enjoy your free time wisely and if free time comes into your life, see it as rest time because you likely don't rest enough. 

-It's almost impossible for most people to turn off the work mode button (especially if you work from home). Our career/job is a big part of our lives (it pays the bills and pays for race fees) but what part of your job keeps you so busy? Is it the hours worked or could it also be the stress associated with work and the stress that comes home with you? It's very easy to feel unbalanced in life because of job-related stress or expectations. Figure out the best work-life balance so that you are not so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. 

-If you are willing to make the necessary investments to improve your performance as an athlete, you need to simplify your commitments. As hard working individuals/athletes, it's easy to take on too many responsibilities. Declutter your life so that you can truly enjoy the things in life that are truly important to you. This doesn't only include tasks and meetings but also TV, social media and anything else in life that is not a necessity. And if something in life helps improve your efficiency or helps you stay on the right track, consider it an investment to your time even if it costs you money.

-Schedule some time for yourself. Get inside your thoughts and what you really want in life. If there are negative people in your life draining your energy and robbing you of your happiness and joy, remove the negative energy from your life right now. 

-Books, magazines, TVs, newspapers, podcasts. Wow - there is a serious issue of information overload these days. If we aren't learning something new, we are trying to confirm what we already know. It takes a lot of time and energy to be in the know of everything so only spend time on what is relevant to you. If the information truly makes you a better, healthier and happier person, this should be your only source of information. 

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Manage your time wisely, make investments not sacrifices and slow down and stop adding so much to your already busy life.