Start With a Healthy Kitchen
If you’re going to get the results you want in the gym, you’re going to have to make changes in your nutrition. Most dads claim not having time is a main obstacle in reaching their fitness goals. The goal of this blog is to help you reset your kitchen by making healthy food more accessible and enticing by doing away with unhealthy choices, getting your kitchen organized and stockpiling healthier ingredients. You can encourage better eating habits with a healthy kitchen equipped with nutritious and accessible foods. Having healthier options available can help save time with your meal planning and prepping.
Resetting Your Kitchen
To ensure your success, you need to get rid of unhealthy foods which are primarily items that are calorie-dense, lack nutrients, and are high in fat. These are foods that you can normally find in the middle aisles of the grocery store except for a couple of things. You’ll want to clean and organize your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer by checking expiration dates and getting rid of old items.
Clear the Pantry, Freezer, and Refrigerator
Avoid It- Potato chips, cookies, crackers, candy, boxed meals, most cereal, sodas, salad dressing, dips, fruit juice, and fruit cups.
Choose Carefully- Whole grain items such as bread and crackers, canned beans, dried fruit, and canned vegetables.
Keep These- Oils: Olive, coconut, and avocado, seasoning and spices, whole grains (brown rice, oats, and quinoa) whole grain flour, dried beans, lentils, nuts, nut butters (natural and no added sugar),
Equipping and Organizing Your Kitchen
To make meal prepping easier and to save time you’ll need some basic items around the kitchen. If you have the right tools in the kitchen and healthy accessible food items at home, you will be less likely to hit the drive through for dinner to save time.
You’ll want to organize your cabinets and drawers and look at what you have on hand. This is not an all-inclusive or hard and fast list, rather a good set of tools to get you going.
*Baking Sheets
*Glass Casserole Dishes
*Roasting Pans
*Mixing Bowls
*Large Skillet
*Saucepans
*Peeler
*Cutting Boards (Have a few on hand for meat, vegetables, fish, etc.)
*Sharp Knives
*Utensils (such as spatula, cooking spoons, ladle, etc.)
*Measuring Cups and scale to measure out servings
For organization, keep your measuring cups, mixing bowls and cooking utensils together. Keep your baking sheets and casserole dishes together. Have your pots, pans, and skillets together and accessible close to the stove.
Shopping and Storing
With the kitchen cleaned out and organized, it’s time to go shopping
It’s hard but try to stay away from processed foods and opt for whole foods. Food that you find in the middle aisles of the grocery store are primarily processed foods. If it has more than 5 ingredients on the ingredients list and you cannot pronounce them, it’s likely junk food. Healthy whole foods will generally have one ingredient, itself.
It is recommended by experts that we take in 5-13 servings per day of fresh fruit and vegetables. What’s great about fruits and vegetables is that when you need something to eat quickly, you can just pick them up and eat them. Fresh produce won’t last as long as processed food, but they last a good while in the refrigerator, and you can even freeze them.
Nuts add good fat to your diet. Raw nuts can be stored at room temperature for about a month. Beyond that they can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months and can be frozen for a year. I like bagged raw natural almonds for a quick snack.
Hydration is Essential!
There are many signs of chronic dehydration. Headaches, fatigue, irritability, dry skin, and constipation are a few. If you go too long in a constant state of dehydration, it can have a negative impact on your blood pressure, can cause repiratory issues, and increase bad cholesterol. Drink water! It is recommended that men 19 and older drink 13 cups, or 104 onces per day. This does not account for daily activities such as exercise. Drink extra water on the days before and days that you perform extra physical activities. You can make drinking water more enjoyable by keeping a pitcher of fruit-infused water in the refrigerator. This is a better alternative to sodas and fruit juice! Infuse your water with lemon, strawberries, oranges, watermelon, cucumbers, or a combination or two.
Keep Your Freezer Stocked with Healthy Options
I’m talking about lean meats and fish. Separate by portion size before freezing to help with meal prep. Lable freezer bags or wrap with what meat it is and the date to ensure freshness. Frozen fruits and vegetables from the store are a healthier alternative to canned fruits and vegetables. They contain less preservatives and are sometimes cheaper. Generally frozen fruits and veggies are picked at their peak ripeness and are flash frozen resulting in better taste compared to canned goods.
If you choose to stock up on fresh vegetables to freeze, they should be blanched before freezing. Blanching means to put them in boiling water for 1 or 2 minutes before freezing. Fresh fruits should be at their peak ripeness and have their pits or cores removed before freezing. Package them into desired portion sizes and label.
Search the Web for specific fresh food and produce storage recommendations on the items you buy.
Components of a Healthy Meal (USDA MyPlate Guidelines)
*If you have food allergies or specific dietary guidelines/restrictions, follow those, but the below guidelines are good for most. Consult your physician if you have any dietary restrictions/allergies!
Whole Grains- About a quarter of your plate should be filled with whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, and whole grain pasta. Sweet potatoes and other starchy vegetables fit here as well.
Protein- One quarter of you plate should be filled with lean protein like chicken, fish, lean cuts of beef or pork, beans, or low/no fat dairy products like Greek yogurt.
Fruits and Vegetables- Fill the other half of your plate with fruits and vegetables, more vegetables than fruit. One method is to fill your plate with vegetables and add a piece of fruit with your meal. Variety is key here. Prioritize fresh vegetables but frozen is okay and avoid or limit added butter and salt.
This is what a general healthy plate should look like. You’ll want to get some healthy fats sparingly through nuts, seeds, and other sources like olive oil. Be mindful of how much salt, butter, and sugar you are adding (use sparingly). Instead opt for other spices and herbs and/or hot sauces and peppers.
Staples to Keep on Hand
Planning your meals is essential to making eating healthy easier. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Without a meal plan, you’ll be more likely to opt for less healthy quicker options which will derail your fitness and nutrition goals. If you plan ahead and have nutritious options on hand you will be more successful at establishing healthy eating habits and over time a healthy lifestyle. You will probably crave the bad stuff over healthy options at first. Over time, your taste buds can adjust, and you may find yourself preferring healthy food over junk.
If you use some of the staples listed below, a simple sample meal plan may look like this:
Breakfast- Whole-grain oats with eggs and a side of fruit
Lunch- Canned tuna with a sweet potato and vegetables
Snack- Plain Greek yogurt mixed with fruit
Dinner- Grilled chicken breast with brown rice and green veggies
What To Keep in the Pantry
Whole Grains and Pastas
These store for a long time. Place them in plastic containers after you open them, and they’ll last longer. Whole grains and pastas include brown rice, whole grain pasta, whole grain oatmeal, barley, quinoa, and farro.
Canned Fish
These last a long time and are a good quick protein choice. Look for tuna and salmon in water vs oil.
Canned Beans
Heat and eat or add them to something you’re already preparing. Beans have protein and fiber and are easy to serve. To reduce sodium intake, you can rinse beans in water before eating.
Nut Butters
Use natural and unsweetened nut butter like peanut butter to add healthy fats to your diet. Good for a snack with crackers or fruit.
Nuts and Seeds
Keep a variety of whole nuts and seeds such as sunflower seeds, walnuts, and almonds to add healthy fats. Add to yogurt or oatmeal or eat a handful by itself.
Canned Tomatoes
You can use canned diced or whole tomatoes to add to all kinds of meals without having to peel or cook them down.
Honey
Honey is a good alternative to added sugar. I add a little honey to my oatmeal with almonds.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are an easy choice for adding complex carbohydrates to meals. They last a long time and are super easy to prepare.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Look for an unfiltered version to add flavor to dressings, marinades, and other things. Unfiltered vinegar has some probiotics in it that can help with digestion.
Spices and Herbs
Add flavor without adding butter, sugar, and salt.
What to Keep in the Refrigerator and Freezer
Chicken
One of the easiest lean proteins to use, prepare in infinite ways as an entree, add to salads, etc.
Eggs
Eggs provide protein and vitamins. They’re cheap and stored for a long time. Eggs are primarily used for breakfast food but can be hardboiled as a snack or added to all kinds of dishes.
Nonfat Greek Yogurt
Plain Greek yogurt is a good source of protein. It can be used to replace things such as sour cream in recipes. A good snack with added fruit and/or nuts.
Frozen Fruit and Veggies
Keep a variety of frozen fruits and vegetables on hand to add to meals or snacks. They keep for a looong time and are a lot of times cheaper than fresh produce.
Meal Planning Can Save You Money
You will be less likely to eat out if you have a plan and healthy food on hand. With inflation, you can’t even eat fast food cheap anymore. Each time you avoid eating out, you’re putting more money back into your budget. If you avoid a sit-down restaurant, you save even more money!
Planning your meals can also reduce food waste which results in more money saved. How many times have you thrown food out because it didn’t get eaten, or you forgot you had it?
You Can Meal Prep on Limited Budget
Many of us think that healthy meal planning can’t be done on a tight budget. With careful, intentional planning, it can be done. The main thing is to plan meals based around things that are healthy and things that you enjoy.
Below are some steps to follow to plan your meals on a budget:
Check Out Your Refrigerator and Pantry
Don’t go out and buy things you already have on hand. This is why you must know what you have, and you do that by cleaning out and sorting through your kitchen as mentioned above. The less money you spend on duplicate items, the more you’ll have on hand for things you don’t.
Shop Your Local Ads
Look for items on sale that can work in your meal plan for the current week. Don’t just go to the closest local regular store, look at all the available ads and compare prices. Stores like Aldi are great for produce and other items.
Find Coupons
Most stores have their own apps now and you can look through and download their coupons directly from the app. Some stores still mail coupons out, look through those and see how the items match up with your meal plan or alternate your plan to match up to what you have coupons for.
Develop Your Meal Plan
After looking at what you currently have, what’s on sale, and what you have coupons for, draft your meal plan for the week. Write it down or use your smartphone to plan out what you’re going to eat for each meal for each day of the week.
Make Your Grocery List
Now that you have your plan and you’ve checked what you have on hand, it’s time to make a list of the items and quantity you need from each store. Don’t go to the grocery store hungry and only get what’s on your list. When you buy unexpected items, your grocery bill will grow quickly!
This should help get you going in the right direction. Don’t think of healthy eating as a diet to do for a few weeks. To fully get the benefits of healthy eating you have to make slow and gradual changes to form habits and make the habits become a lifestyle. If you’re still reading to this point you’ve been reading for a while, and I want to thank you for sticking with me! It is my hope that you find all of the above information helpful! If you find yourself in need of a help getting things on track with your fitness and nutrition goals, I am here to help! I am a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach, and I can help get you a plan for success to reach your goals. I specialize in helping working dads transform their bodies in 90 days or less without spending hours per day in the gym. Visit my website at https://www.jumpersiftness.org or shoot me an email me at bradley@jumpersfitness.org.
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