I cannot count how many times I have heard ‘I bet you don’t eat _____.’ So. Very. Annoying.
Carbs get put into that blank more often than not. Why must people make carbs out to be such a terrible thing? No, I am not shoving white bread or white rice in my mouth at every meal, but I do eat carbs, daily, with every meal. Probably MORE than the typical person.
Did you know that there are two different types of carbohydrates? There are high-glycemic and low-glycemic carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are ranked on a scale from 0 to 100 according to their ability to raise blood sugar, referred to as glucose, after you eat them. This scale is called the glycemic index.
High-glycemic carbs have a higher carbohydrate content, spike blood sugar levels, and digest faster. These carbs are great for your prework and help aid in recovering from your workout.
Consuming high GI carbs before you workout gives your body the fuel that it needs to sustain itself in a workout. If you were to eat low IG carbs before a workout your body would not be able to process them quickly enough to tap into them as a fuel source. If you live an active lifestyle you should be eating a combination of low and high glycemic carbs throughout the day.
Josh and I eat quick oats before we workout in the morning.
My oats are pretty simple and straight forward. I mix 1/2 cup of non-fat milk and 40 grams of quick oats, then microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Then I mix in a healthy dose of cinnamon and 1 Tbsp of honey.
Josh has gotten into making overnight oats for his pre-workout meal.
For his recipe:
• Mix together 40 grams of quick oats, a healthy dose of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. • Then mix in 1/2 cup of non-fat milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla- no more stirring past this point • Top it off with 1 ounce of banana thinly sliced, drizzle 1 Tbsp of honey over the oat mixture and bananas. • Place it in the refrigerator, in the morning stir it all together and enjoy!
I used to not eat before my workouts and I started getting terrible headaches throughout the day after my workouts. Jimmy, our head coach, suggested that I try a recovery drink or eat before I came. Once I started eating, the headaches went away.
Josh can eat 15-20 minutes before a workout and be totally fine. Not me. I need at least 1 hour before I start throwing my body around after I eat and I cannot handle certain foods, like bananas, before I workout.
Figuring out what works best for your body is a little trail and error, but a pre-workout meal is necessary. I don’t exactly enjoy getting up at 4 a.m. to eat for my 5 a.m. workout, but to give my workout my all, I need to give my body the fuel to do it.
No, I am not a competitive athlete and maybe that does sound a bit crazy…but you have to passionate about something just for yourself. You have to be willing to give that ‘something’ 100% of your effort or don’t be surprised/upset/disappointed/angry when that passion turns into a flop.
Back to the second type of carbs.
Low-glycemic carbs are typically eaten throughout the entire day. These carbs aid in keeping you fuller longer, do not kill your macro count, and have a high micronutrient level (bonus!).
Micronutrients according to the CDC, are small amounts (micro) vitamins and minerals that are important for proper development, disease prevention, and overall health. These micronutrients are not organically found in the body and must be obtained through a proper diet. There is not one single food that can provide all of the micronutrients needed, so a well balanced diet is required.
If you do not live an active lifestyle, then I would suggest mostly consuming low GI carbohydrates.
Fiber is the undigested part of carbohydrates. Most carbohydrates are broken down into sugar and the rest is fiber that passes through the body.
Soluble fiber dissolves in water, aids in lowering glucose levels, and cholesterol. Soluble fiber can help in preventing the dreaded carb crash, because they regulate blood sugar levels.
Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water, which helps your food move through your digestive system faster.
Lately, Josh and I have been ravenous. I mean, feeling like we just cannot get full and are starving all day. This could be due to a lack of fiber in our meals or as I like to say, my muscles are just hungry. I am going to make an effort to consciously put more fiber into our menu and see if that helps the situation.
If you didn’t get a chance to make the TOTES Toast I posted last week. Do yourself a favor and go make it NOW. It definitely had plenty of fiber and tastiness that you don’t want to miss out on. All things considered the MACRO count wasn’t bad at all.
Josh found a delicious fresh baked, rye-seeded bread from Publix. I cut out a few steps and changed a few of the ingredients from the original recipe. I weighed out 84 gram slices of the bread, which gave us 43 grams of carbohydrates. You can definitely cut a thinner slice of bread and cut down on the carbs. Go check out the menu from last week to see the changes to make and go make it!
Lastly, here’s a handy little list to refer to for your carbohydrates:
Medium to High GI Carbohydrates:
Whole Grains Rice Quick Oats
Potatoes Pineapple White Bread
Bananas Watermelon Honey
Popcorn Most Cereals
Berries Zucchini Leafy Greens
Cucumber Tomato Onion
Celery Eggplant Cantaloupe
Honeydew Apple Barley
*Apples *Beans *Nuts
*Oatmeal *Blueberries *Barley
*Nuts Broccoli Carrots
Asparagus Sweet Potato Avocado
Strawberries Pears Peas
Whole Grains Spinach Raspberries
Blackberries Prunes Corn
(*soluble fiber foods)
M • E • N • U
Beer Can Chicken + Grilled Peach Salad
Steak + Roasted Eggplant Salad
Beer Can Chicken + Grilled Peach Salad
So who knew this beer can chicken was even a thing?! Not me. I never would have actually thought a recipe would have popped up when I typed it into Pinterest! Small chickens are super cheap and this really is the best way to cook a whole chicken in my opinion. EVERY piece of the chicken is juicy. You can even opt to cook them in the oven instead of on the grill!
The recipe I found slices the skin open and puts in slices of lime. With all the spicy spices and juiciness from the beer, I can only imagine how good this is going to be. I am going to skip the butter and brown sugar. I don’t think those ingredients will be missed.
I love summer for many reasons. One of those reasons being salads with fruit. Grilled peaches alone are delicious. Grilled peaches in a salad are even better. Its not peaches and ice cream good, but it is still good!
If you can’t find honey goat cheese, you can mix in 1 Tbsp of honey with 4 oz. of regular goat cheese. I would make the dressing ahead of time and grill the peaches. The peaches have to cool before adding them to the salad regardless, so making them ahead of time won’t hurt.
If you don’t plan on grilling the chicken, then don’t feel like you need to fire up the grill just for peaches. Get your pan super hot and sear your peaches.
This meal is great for meal prepping and is a great example of how meal prepping doesn’t have to be your typical boring food. You can easily figure out the macros for this meal and weigh it out into equal portions. With all this rainy weather I really want a good filling soup, but nothing too heavy since it is scorching outside and humid as all get out. I love this soup dearly.
Depending on the type of noodles you buy you will boil them in the sauce that you have made or simply turn the sauce off, remove the pot from the eye, and put the noodles in and let them cook for about 8-10 minutes.
You can make this super easy by getting a rotisserie chicken like they did in the original recipe or cook chicken breasts to make it more macro friendly. I have used shrimp, rotisserie chicken and chicken breasts. The shrimp were great in this dish, but did not give me an adequate amount of protein. The rotisserie chicken was too difficult to plug into mymacros, so I opt for chicken breast. I weigh out my chicken before cooking it and then add it to the sauce once it is made.
In order to make 4 equal servings I use a slotted spoon and weigh out 4 equal amounts of the noodles, chicken, and kale. The servings are not going to be perfect because the kale likes to clump together. In this case I will try to eye-ball the kale amount in each scoop, so they all are as equal as possible. I use the slotted spoon, so one serving doesn’t have more sauce than the others. After you have weighed out 4 servings of noodles, chicken, and kale, make sure you split the remaining sauce equally between the 4 servings as well.
I. Love. These. Sweet. Potatoes. So. Much.
The last time I made this dish, I couldn’t get over how good the sweet potatoes were. I love turmeric and a plain sweet potato is great on it’s own to me. I am going to add chopped chicken breast to this dish instead of the egg. I can’t picture scrambled eggs being good in this meal but the runny egg is very good. I don’t want a runny egg and chicken mixed together, so I am going to just stick with chicken and see how that tastes.
I will more than likely double the amount of dressing to help coat the chicken as well. It says to use brown rice and quinoa. I used just quinoa last time and it turned out great. The sweet potatoes and quinoa will keep all week in the fridge so don’t be afraid to make them ahead of time.
This bowl is very versatile. It can be eaten as a cold salad over some mixed greens, a warm salad on it’s own with the mounds of veggies, put it over some rice (which is what I plan to do), if you have some rice noodles left over from the coconut curry soup use those, or there is always a tortilla!
Slice your steak super thin so it cooks quickly. I would even suggest making extra dressing to marinate the steak in before cooking. I accidentally mixed up this recipe with another steak taco recipe a few months ago. The other recipe had a marinade and it turned out great. Just a thought.
If you are watching your fat intake then make sure you get a leaner cut of meat, like sirloin. Alternatively, if you are watching your carbs, either use 1/4 to 1/3 Cup of jasmine rice or quinoa, or you can opt for the low carbohydrate wraps.
This meal is completely meal prep friendly. If you want to eat it all fresh, make sure you at least make the dressing, slice your meat, and chop the veggies before hand to make things easier.
Steak + Roasted Eggplant Salad
This salad is very basic and healthy! Low carb, low calorie, low fat, and high fiber! Add in more quinoa for some added protein. This salad would work well on it’s own, but I need a main course too. Since we are already buying steak this week, I will just buy two more and call it a day.
I HIGHLY recommend salting your eggplant before you cook it. Sometimes I am lazy and skip this step but depending on the eggplant the skin can be very bitter if you don’t salt it. Simply cut your eggplant and salt each side. Place the salted eggplant on paper towels. Let the eggplant sit for 30 minutes and pat dry.
Once the eggplant has released the excess water you are ready to roast it.
Personally, I can’t have this salad without some sort of dressing. I love balsamic vinegar with eggplant. I am going to mix together 1/4 cup balsamic and 1 Tbsp of honey. You could even roast some cherry tomatoes and throw in this salad too, maybe add some pine nuts for a crunch…just thinking out loud.
Don’t forget the list!
