Create Your Meal Plan

We’ve spent the last week learning about the fundamentals of nutrition: calories, macros, calorie intake, and meal plans. Now it’s time to take action. Today you are going to create your meal plan. Once created, this is the meal plan you will follow for the remainder of the challenge.

Tips

Take some time this morning to decide what meal plan (paleo, whole30, etc.) you will follow, if any. Remember: you have all the knowledge you need to create your own meal plan just by calculating and following your macros.

Plan out a full day of meals that fit that plan. Now look at that day and see how many components of it can be reused.

Consider making a double-sized portion of some meals, and use the extra as a lunch or dinner the next day.

How many items on your list can be changed for variety without adjusting the quantity? I.e., take the 6 oz chicken breast for dinner: use sugar-free BBQ sauce one night, grill a second night, and slice into a garden salad a 3rd night. It’s the exact macros every time but used differently to prevent boredom.

Plan as many meals in advance as possible. This minimizes on-the-fly decisions (which always turn out bad).

Meal-prepping is your friend. Use weekends or days off to cook ahead of time so when meal time comes during the week, and you’re one step ahead of the game with fresh, ready-to-eat meals already prepared that support your nutritional goals.

Today’s Tasks

Don’t forget to complete today’s tasks for the challenge. Today we add a new task to your list: sticking to your meal plan.

• Drink 1 gallon of water
• Workout for 45 minutes
• Read 10 pages from your book
• Stick to your meal plan Once completed, be sure to head over to the tracking site and mark them as completed to track your progress for the challenge. Tomorrow we’ll learn about using tools like MyFitnessPal to track your macros and creating recipes to make tracking easier.