CHANGE #15

Prepare Your Meals and Workouts for the Day/Week

(Before you shout “Impossible”… keep reading!)

SIMPLY PUT… Figure out what you want to eat for the next seven days (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks), then take an evening to prepare as many meals as possible. The same planning goes for your workouts and 10,000 steps—grab a calendar and pencil in exactly when and where you plan on fitting in time to exercise/walk.

Look, I’m a work in progress. We are all works in progress.

As such, I’m the first to admit that the whole food thing is not easy for me. I don’t know how to cook, I absolutely love to eat, and I generally gravitate toward the exact same things every week for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. As for dinner, well, let’s just say it’s always potluck.

It’s easy to blame bad choices on not having enough time to think about what you’re going to eat. So here’s a novel concept: Think about what you’re going to eat—before you eat! If you can do that (stocking your house with the things you need, pre-cooking and preparing all of your meals and snacks), it does more than just save time. It causes you to naturally make smarter food choices without trying that hard.

The same prep goes for your workouts. For me, if I have to get up early to exercise, I will grab everything I need—shorts, T-shirt, sports bra, a pair of socks, cover-up, long-sleeved shirt, shoes, earphones, you name it—and place it all down on a table before I go to bed. So when I wake up, I just go down the line, throw it all on in under five minutes, and I’m out the door. The minute I have to search for a clean sports bra or my iPod or the other sock, I’m in trouble. Why? I have the attention span of a lightly scented Eucalyptus candle. The minute I lose focus, I’m off to something else. So don’t let yourself lose focus first thing in the morning.

And as you might imagine, it’s not just about organizing your clothes. Organizing your workouts is essential too. I have a big desk calendar on the back of my bedroom door. Every day I work out, I pen a little W on it for workout. Every day I eat well, I pen a little F for food. The rest of the calendar square is used for writing down my workouts (what I’m doing, where and when). So start writing down your workouts, because what that will do is turn them into an assignment, as opposed to something you need to find a moment to squeeze in.

DON’T STOP THERE…

An actual conversation with my dad

ME: Hey, Dad, what are you up to?

DAD: Just watching the game.

ME: What are you eating?

DAD: Almonds.

ME: Um, you were eating almonds when I called you two hours ago.

DAD: Yeah, I just finished the bag.

ME: Dad, that’s like 45,000 calories!!!

DAD: But they’re so light, how could they be fattening?

ME: I don’t even know what that means. From now on, fill up an Altoids tin of almonds and that’s all the almonds you’re allowed to eat!

DAD: You mean for breakfast?

ME: For the whole day!!!!

If I haven’t stressed it enough, I’ll say it again: I don’t want you to count calories. And one more time for good measure: No calorie counting.

What I do want you to do though is come to terms with what a normal serving size looks like—at least when it comes to the foods you’re eating regularly. (And please don’t consult my dad for this.)

Once you see what’s considered average, it will be easier for you to see what’s not. And smaller portions mean fewer calories, without having to add anything up.

There are a few standard ways to eyeball certain foods without needing a dietician on call or any nutrition app to tell you the score. For example:

• A three-ounce serving of cooked (not raw) chicken, fish, or meat is about the size of a deck of cards (or about the size of a woman’s palm).

• A one-cup serving of pasta or rice (cooked) is about the size of a tennis ball (or a normal scoop of ice cream).

• A one-ounce serving of nuts, pretzels, or chips is roughly one handful.

• A one-ounce serving of cheese is around the size of two pairs of dice.

• A normal single serving of fruit or vegetables is the size of a tennis ball.

• A single serving of green salad is about the size of an open-cupped hand.

• A normal-sized baked potato is the size of a baseball.

• A standard serving of cereal is about whatever you can pour into an average-sized coffee cup (or about the size of a baseball).

• A teaspoon-sized serving of fats, oils, or butter is around the size of the tip of your thumb.

• A normal single serving of salad dressing is about the size of your thumb.

• A serving of peanut butter (two tablespoons) is about the size of a Ping-Pong ball.

But here’s the thing: I don’t know how big your hands are. They could be as small as a credit card or the size of my friend Kaitlyn’s, who can palm a watermelon. So come up with something in between that works for you and stick to it.

Like I always tell my parents when they swear they’re only eating one serving of nuts and the one serving turns out to be a camp trunk, I always use an Altoids tin to measure out a single serving of nuts, and I’ve used coffee cups to measure out my cereal. You make do with what’s around you.

So try this: For the first couple of times you’re preparing food, use a few measuring tools—a measuring cup, teaspoon, tablespoon, and a food scale (if you have one)—to see a normal serving size of the foods you eat. Then ask yourself how big that serving size really is.

Hey, if you think a serving of fish looks more like the size of a checkbook or the sponge in your bathtub instead of a deck of cards, I’m not going to debate you. Create and use your own visual cues, and whatever helps you remember what a normal portion should look like, stick with it.

Trust me—within a few weeks, the serving sizes of everything you typically eat will become ingrained in your brain and you’ll always know (without needing any tools) when you’re preparing bigger portions than your body really needs.

Tips and Tricks

The plan is simple—plan! But even though you already know what to do, using a few of these tactics can make the most of all your prep work.

Shop for your meals—not for yourself. Buying food without an agenda is like giving your appetite a license to kill. Having a plan and a grocery list makes distractions minimal, so write a list of only the items you need to make your meals for the week ahead and shop for only those items.

Fill your freezer with frozen foods—but not the bad kinds. Instead of messing with all fresh ingredients, take advantage of a few bags of bulk frozen meats, vegetables, and fruits. Frozen foods are often cheaper than fresh, they are already washed, peeled, and cut, and because these foods are processed and frozen immediately, they typically retain more nutrients.

Grab your takeout menus and circle the good stuff. Instead of hoping you’ll make a healthy decision during those “high-pressure, low-willpower” moments when ordering in, go through all of your takeout menus (on a full stomach) and circle the smartest choice on each menu so you’re never caught off guard. Bonus points for grabbing menus from other local restaurants you haven’t been to yet—but could find yourself at with friends or coworkers one day—and doing the same as added insurance.

Invest in a cooler. Being able to eat healthy at any time, no matter where you are, can make all the difference. Keeping healthy snacks (such as fruit, nut mixes, protein bars, a can of tuna, packets of almond butter, or whole-grain crackers) in your car, at your office, or in your bag will give you the convenience of having healthier foods close by.

Take your time. Spending a few extra minutes to measure portions and trim away a little excess fat may take more time, but I guarantee you that for every extra minute you spend in your kitchen, you’re probably sparing yourself from two or three minutes of exercise. Trust me—It takes less time to prepare a lighter meal or snack than it does to burn off whatever extra calories you might have eaten if you hadn’t prepared ahead of time.

Don’t let your workout clothes stray far from one another. Invest in a few single-mesh laundry bags (two should be fine). Then as soon as you’re through with your workout, toss everything into the bag—shirt, sports bra, shorts, sweats, even your underwear and socks. Cinch it up and throw it in the wash. That way, you’ll have everything in one place for the next workout without wasting time scrambling to find things, or worse, not exercising at all.

Pay close attention to what Mr. Roker says. Getting in your 10,000 steps becomes a lot harder when Mother Nature has other plans. Watch the weeklong forecast and prepare for the worst. If the news says “chance of rain” (or anything else that might keep you indoors), assume that the chance will be 100 percent and figure out what indoor activities you can do to help hit that 10k goal. And if it said rain but you got sun, I’m giving you carte blanche to blame Al.