I recall a quote from BFL:

"If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail."

As far as food goes, I have jumped into the program without planning. It is hard. The day goes by too fast to organize meals on the fly. It has to be done in advance, or at least this early in the program.

So far I have been scraping by, trying to keep the carb count in line and the 40/40/20 mix. I'll have to go back to the book as my meals were not balanced. At least I did get six in.

Here's my meals for today until I get the right foods in and plan it. A critique is most welcome.

Post Workout Meal #1
Protein shake + skim milk + banana

Meal #2
Bran cereal + skim milk + tenderloin beef

Coffee with a dash of milk

Meal #3
Tuna + spinach + raddishes + avocado + tomato

Meal #4
Bran cereal + skim milk + banana + tenderloin beef

Meal #5
Carrots + broccoli + cauliflower + oil + onion + pork tenderloin + red peppers

Meal #6
Wholewheat cereal + skim milk + plums + protein powder

1850 calories, 30%c 43%p 27%f (That avocado really did it)

I know, too heavy on the cereal.

Looks pretty good to me... If that is putting together meals on the fly I wouldn't mind if you put together mine!

One question.... I'm not seeing any carbs in your meals 3 and 5.... BFL likes you to have pretty even portions of each for every meal. Could you mix in some carbs here or are you trying to plan with a LC BFL?

I've begun setting aside one night or weekend to do cooking. I'll cook up some chicken, steak, carbs (potatoes, rice, pasta) and possibly a crock-pot meal. Enough to last me for the week. Has made packing those meals for work a lot easier and quick.

If you have the opportunity take a look at the Eating For Life cookbook that Bill Phillips put together. Some of the recipes have strayed from the BFL format but many of them are really great and can make planning for meals a lot easier.

Have a great Cinco de Mayo!
Kiks

IMO, you are drinking too much milk. Maybe you could mix your cerel in some yogurt or cottage cheese to give it some crunch + get some added fiber.

Does your protein shake have a mixture of carbs and protein? If so, you don't need to have anything else with it. The shake should be your meal. Also, you don't have to make the shakes with milk, you can use water and they still taste fine.

Meal # 3 looks great except you should eat a little less veggies and add a carb portion. maybe a baked sweet potato? The avacodo is a good source of HEALTHY fat & it is allowed! Meal # 5 looks good, but again, you might think about adding a carb. It looks like you ate two portions of veggies and no carb. This would be fine if you were doing a low-carb diet, but you said you are following BFL.

Good meal ideas:
1) banana + fat free cottage cheese
2) Protein Powder mixed with water
3) baked potato with salsa, steamed green beans, & grilled chicken breast with Mrs. Dash & salt and pepper
4) fat free yogurt, (I like Dannon Light N' Fit = 0 fat and 90 cal for 6-oz.) tuna ontop of a small salad with oil & vinegar dressing
5) brown rice, baked salmon with squeezed lemon juice & seasonings, steamed broccoli

HTH!!!

Best wishes!

nets33,

You are right, I am missing carbs from meals 3 & 5. I think this is a hangover from being on Atkins for 5 months. I just automatically pick low carb veggies. I will fix this. Just looked at BFL's carbs list on the way into work this morning.

I agree with you that a Sunday night cook up for the week would make life
easier.


Redeemed,

I understand about the milk. I do love my cereal and until last week have not really had any in the last five months due to Atkins. I think your suggestion of yoghurt with the cereal is a good one. I'll try that. I can't remember the last time I had cottage cheese but I will give that a go as well. I look forward to the variety.

The cereal I am having is already high in fibre. Here's the breakdown for 100g:

Calories: 204
Carbs: 29.2g
Sugars: 14.4g
Protein: 13.0g
Fat: 3.9g
Saturated Fat: 0.6g
Sodium: 395mg

It's basically bran. So I think I am getting my fibre. What does BFL say about fibre? All I read was not to take it after exercise.

My protein powder is (for a 40g serve):
Calories: 151
Carbs: 3.3g
Sugars: 0.9g
Protein: 30.1g
Fat: 1.5g
Saturated Fat: 0.9g

Once again, I realize that my low carb history has me robotically excluding them from lunch and dinner.

I'll break the habit I hope. Can't believe BFL encourages potatoes though? Isn't this like the highest GI you can get? Doesn't that spike insulin?

Looks like your protein powder is pure protein, so you will want to eat it with a portion of carbs. Maybe an apple or something.

As far as cottage cheese goes...some people hate it, but I truly love it. I put it in my salad sometimes, eat it plain, mix my fruit yogurt in it, or mix protein powder (banana flavor) in it. Some people like to put Splenda and cinnamon in it (I think it is nasty this way). Your tastebuds will adapt.

There aren't many foods that I do not like.

I can develop quite an appetite, so for me, I look forward to any time I can eat!

First leg workout this morning. My little gym doesn't have a machine to work the calves so I had to make do with a leg press machine. A bit of a challenge on the quads to get the weights up for the calves!

Taking it a bit easy the first week. No "10's". Don't want to overexert my muscles just yet.

Quality carbohydrates:
Potato
If I had to pick my favorite carbohydrate food, potatoes would be it. They're conveniently "nature made" in portion sizes-all you do is pick one that is approximately the size of your clinched fist.(see how simple that is?)
Potatoes go well with almost any protien portion, and they're portable, refrigeratable , and , contrary to popular belief, they taste great even without butter and sour cream. You can top them with a spoonful of salsa , ketchup, steak sauce--they're even great plain.
This is quoted right from the BFL book.

Just a note on calves. You can use a squat bar to do calves or you can hold a dumbell in one hand and step up on something, (like a step or a machine that will not fall over on you) let your heels hand down and lift up and lower, repeat until you finish your set. I had to learn these tricks b/c my gym doesn't have any machines for calves.

About potatoes; I think the equal portions of carb/protein helps maintain balanced blood sugar levels.

Proteins
chicken breast
turkey breast
lean ground turkey
swordfish
orange roughy
haddock
salmon
tuna
crab
lobster
shrimp
top round steak
top sirloin steak
lean ground beef
buffalo
lean ham
egg whites or substitutes
trout
low-fat cottage cheese
wild-game meat

Carbohydrates
baked potato
sweet potato
yams
squash
pumpkin
steamed brown rice
steamed wild rice
pasta
oatmeal
barley
beans
kidney beans
corn
strawberries
melon
apple
orange
fat-free yogurt
whole-wheat bread
high-fiber cereal
rice cake
popcorn
tortilla
whole grains

Vegetables
broccoli
asparagus
lettuce
carrots
cauliflower
green beans
green peppers
mushrooms
spinach
tomato
peas
brussels sprouts
artichoke
cabbage
celery
zucchini
cucumber
onion

Vegetarian Proteins
tempeh
seitan
tofu
texturized vegetable protein
soy foods
veggie burgers

Fats
avocado
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds
cold-water fish
natural peanut butter
low-fat cheese
low-fat salad dressing
low-sodium nuts
olives and olive oil
safflower oil
canola oil
sunflower oil
flax seed oil

Fats to Avoid
butter
fried foods
mayonnaise
sweets
whole-fat dairy products


Remember 6 meals two to three hours apart---each meal a protien and a carb from the list..throw in two servings of allowed veggies....you get it ! Planning ahead is half the battle...good luck!
Oh yeah and each portion of protien and carb should be no bigger then clinched fist or plam of your hand.
I don't see banana on the list. It's High glycemic.

Oh I forgot one thing...you need a tablespoon of oil a day unless you eat Salmon three times a week. allowed oils are: safflower,sesame,canola,and fat from avacados. You can put it on salad with vinegar or I put a tablespoon of safflower oil in my oatmeal in the morning...also do you use fitday or diet software to track ratio's...40/40/20. I started using fat free yogurt. makes a big differnece. So I will have a fat free yogurt carbs 21 and a shake with 20 grams protien..that's almost perfect ratio. Do that with every meal and throw in some EFA's (good oil) and it should be all good. Hope this all makes sence! Don't forget about your free day!

calf raises with out machines

another This one too.

Surfer376,

Thanks for the ideas. Quick and easy, portable and cold meals that meet the 40/40/20 and 1/6th ratios in addition to tasting good are great to have.

It feels like I'm eating all day but it's kindof nice at the same time. Instead of hanging out for each meal then spending an hour eating it I feel as if I am eating just when my body is ready.

To be fair, it is early days. I know that coming off the binge from last weekend I tend not to get hungry for a few days afterwards.

My goal is to get organized so that I can spend the minimum amount of time thinking about, making and consuming meals and more time doing....well...anything else. Life is too short right?

I've found I get too frustrated if I try to plan everything out (and nothing EVER goes along with my itinerary). I do better just making what sounds good when it's time for a meal. (The exception is the lunches + 2 snacks I pack for work)

Bananas are ok, he uses them in 3 different recipes in "Eating for Life." I think the list in BFL is just a guide so we can get the gist of it. There's many low GI veggies that he didn't include on that list that are excellent for us. Also he said to eat as many low GI vegetables as you want.

I don't think it's always a bad thing to skip a carb at a meal. A lot of the champions skipped the carb in meal # 6. I've found I loose more weight if I err on the side of less carbs than too many! Also if I had a particularly wild free day I sometimes cut back the next week. It's not by the book but everyone must do what works for them.

Good day!
Sheri