I was sharing in my group about how I prepare my meals for the week ahead of time, and the question that people asked me is: “how do you go about preparing your meals for weight loss?”
Planning Your Meals for Weight Loss
So here’s how the whole thing started. I’ve decided this year to train for a second fitness competition. The first bikini competition that I participated in was back in 2012, after losing a substantial amount of weight and going from obese, to fit, to competition ready in about 14 months. There were things about my training that I didn’t like:
- I pretty much trained on my own, yes, I had hired an online trainer to help me and give me some guidance but no one to watch my form when training, or explain “why” we did certain things the way we did.
- I had NO posing training… I had no freaking clue how to stand on stage or walk.
- I showed up by myself and not as part of a team.
This time, I decided to do things differently and thankfully, I was accepted as part of an amazing local team with the very own David Esparza, Sr., as my competition coach. He’s considered one of the top natural bodybuilding competitors in the world, in all history of natural bodybuilding, and has an incredible reputation. Another thing I’m doing differently this time is that I’m training for figure instead of bikini, which has been my goal all along.
People who are close to me know how incredibly busy my schedule is and believe it or not, adding a competition to my already busy schedule helps me to be extremely disciplined. That’s the part I love about it. When I’m not on a schedule like this, I tend to relax a tad bit too much and forget how important eating is, or I’ll forget to workout.
I work from home and my daily schedule begins everyday at 5:00 AM, with what I call my “power hour.” I read my Bible, pray, meditate and then read 10 pages of my personal development book of choice, have breakfast and shower. I begin working at 6:00 am and don’t stop until around 2:00 PM. It’s important to me to take as little breaks as possible and be able to focus on my job, so my hubby who also works from home, will help with heating my meals while I continue to work. Did I mention that I have to eat 6 meals a day? Which implies eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours more or less.
So now to explain planning your meals for weight loss. It’s easier than you think:
I grill steak and also prepare and grill bison, turkey and beef patties, I either grill or bake my chicken (depending on how I feel), I steam my veggies, then I measure all of them, pack and refrigerate. I then label them “Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.” I also write which meal it is #2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I freeze all my pre-cooked meats (already stored in airtight containers), except for all my meals for day 1. Every night, I’ll move my meals for the next day from the freezer down to the refrigerator.
You can do the same and it will save you time, money and energy if you do. I’ve noticed we don’t waste any food now because we know exactly what and how much we’ll eat. This is how I manage my portion control, by cooking everything in advance, measuring how much I’ll eat and then warming it up when i’m ready for my meal and this is how I avoid overeating. I have a plan, I do all my work on Sunday and during the week, I only warm up my food and I don’t have to put any more thought on it.
You don’t have to be preparing for a competition to pack your foods. It really does help when you’re trying to lose weight. You can pre-cook brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes as well as most of your meats and veggies. Again, I don’t recommend precooking your salmon or eggs, unless your hard boil them. Preparing and packing your foods will help you be sensible with your food intake and you’ll be able to be better prepared when hungry. I am less likely to cheat on my meals with something unhealthy or out of my plan when I’m prepared. When I travel, I just take what’s already prepared in the refrigerator and go, instead of what would normally happen: “eating on the road” and going off my plan.
So I hope this helps you in planning your meals for weight loss. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave any questions below, and I’ll be happy to answer them. If any of your friends are having trouble losing weight and you think this will help them, please share this article with them.
