Simple Fitness for Busy Moms: Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes

I've been trying to get as much nourishment out of my calories as possible. I know that Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes are two super foods, full of almost everything we'll need for our day. Last week I bought a pack of blackbean burgers from Costco, put guacamole & diced tomatoes on top and made sweet potato fries. Make them yourself,,,so easy & you don't get all that extra sodium. I dice the potato into circles, short way, then chop those into fries. I use 2 sweet potatoes. I put 1/4 cup coconut on bottom of cookie sheet, sprinkle original mrs dash on bottom of cookie sheet. Cook at 450 degrees for 40 min. Stir fries around at 20 min.

Brussels sprouts I cut in half, put in ziplock with tbls of coconut oil and original mrs dash shake it up. Cook at 400 degrees for 20 min. This helps my craving for fries. I can them with ground turkey with avocado and rice. I also eat it with ground turkey and spaghetti. It tastes great with grilled chicken. So yummy & sooooooo good for you! Can sub olive oil for coconut oil on both recipes.

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Meal Prep

I want to say, you will not be successful if you do not meal prep. It's too much food, too much cooking, and too many times you will want to talk yourself out of doing it. I personally don't like leftovers. I have to eat it & remind myself food is fuel!! I make all my meals for Monday-Friday on Monday & then I might cook a little over weekends. Now that my metabolism is better I cheat more over the weekends, so I don't like to waste food by meal prepping. I wouldn't recommend cheating for the first two weeks of this diet so your metabolism will stabilize.

Carb Cycling

I hit a plateau about 6 months into my fitness regiment & noticed messing around with my carbs helped get me to my ultimate goal of 18 percent body fat (I stopped looking at the scale, I'm about ten lbs heavier than I was before kids, but in a smaller pants size,,,the scale lies!). I don't recommend necessarily starting with carb cycling, start simple, one step at a time, but I want to explain it, as that is what I do & I will talk about it a lot in my meal plans. Everyone has a different take & There are a million ways to implement it, so I will just tell my version & you can research it If you want further info.

Healthy carbs that you'll want to eat are brn rice, oats, sweet potatoes, and brn rice pasta. For my snacks I have fruit, eat your fruit early in the day because it is a complex carb. I have popcorn with no butter & light light light salt sometimes. If you pick a protein bar or shake, pick one with low carbs. Quest bars are high in carbs, so I eat them in the mornings or closer to my workouts.

So if you notice I eat 1/3 cup of oats in the am, 1/2 cup carbs for meal 4, then 1/4 cup carbs at meal 5. On a low carb day I might lower this or keep it the same. On a high carb day I will eat more carbs. Most of the time I add healthy carbs to snacks, I eat a full 1/2 cup with my meal at night. I still leave out carbs of meal 6.

My carb cycle is simple, when I've had a intense workout, especially when I've worked my legs or back I eat high carbs, most other days I keep them lower.

Hopefully as I blog this will make more sense!

Basic Meal Plan

Meal 1--1 scoop protein shake. (Check your label, muscle milk, for instance is high in calories & carbs, try muscle milk light. My fave is protein 7) an apple or banana, 11 almonds or teaspoon of peanut butter. (I love flavored peanut butters from trader joes & sprouts.)

Meal 2--4 egg whites & 1/3 cup cooked oatmeal add an ounce of cheese to eggs or avacado & tomato. I buy egg whites in a carton. So much easier than cracking eggs.

Meal 3--snack, could be same as meal 1 or try protein bar ( read your labels! I love quest bars)

Meal 4--4oz chicken breast, grnd turkey, or 5-6oz talapia, veggies, 1/2 cup of rice, sweet potatoes, or rice pasta, and a fat, 1/4 avacado, 1 oz of cheese, or a teaspoon of Peanut butter.

Meal 5--same as meal 6, except remove carbs or only have 1/4 cup.

Meal 6--1 scoop protein shake.

*you can rearrange meals & snacks to your own schedule, for instance, I workout at 5 am, so I eat a fruit & pb before I go & have my protein shake right after. That's my meal 1. If you'd rather eat eggs right when you wake up & eat the snack later go for it. Just make sure you get all your meals in!

*this diet is formulated for a woman, men get double the amount of food. So for men, 8 egg whites in stead of 4 & 8oz meat instead of 4 oz, 1 cup brn rice instead of 1/2, and so forth. No fair!