Author: rosspotterpt

You’ve heard it should be done time and time again but you still fail to prepare your meals for the coming week and then wonder why you end up running to the fridge or popping out for lunch with work colleagues. From now on, as you follow my #112 Guide, you’ll be prepping meals before your week starts so that you’re fully prepared and can eat without the fuss.

Food prep is extremely easy but yet is often overcomplicated, with most simply cooking too much, leading to waste and a lack of motivation. There are hundreds of reasons to start food prep ahead of time, because it saves time, money and sanity. Obviously it goes without saying some foods are easier to prepare than others which is why it will take you a few attempts to find out what works best for you. I’m hoping that when it becomes second nature it will not only help you, but may also help your family as life becomes much easier. As I mentioned above, different things work for different people, some will make a list, go shopping and prep for the whole week, whereas others may prepare the night before.

From working with my clients I’ve been able to put the below list together to help you organise everything accordingly:

• Before the week starts, check your calendar for events. What have you got going on?
• Look up new recipes or simply use your current favourites to create a shopping list of all the ingredients you’ll need for recipes chosen.
• Look in the cupboards and find things you can use up, we’ve all got spices and ingredients lying around that are shouting out to be added to a meal.
• When you return from doing the food shop, place all the ingredients on your work surface and sort into ‘make now’ and ‘make later’ piles.
• For fruits and vegetables, I want you to cut and slice them into the portions you’ll need before placing into small tubs or bags in the fridge.
• Bake, grill or slow cook your meats before placing into separate containers, again in the fridge, remembering to keep all meat separate and stored in individually air locked containers. As a general rule I’d say consume all meat prepared within 3-4 days.
• Cook rice and pasta and again store in containers and make sure it’s consumed within 3-4 days.
• Smoothies or breakfast shakes can be made the night before but be aware the contents will separate and if oats are added they will swell up.

And then… label individual items and containers with dry wipe makers or stickers with a ‘use by date’ on for health and safety reasons. If you’re extremely on the ball or suffer from OCD like myself, colour code meals for use throughout the day.

By following the above steps you won’t run out of food mid week and will find yourself with more time, which can be spent with the family, or if you’re like me, at the gym. When you do go food shopping (assuming you’re not shopping online) please try and stick to the perimeter of the supermarket because this is where fresh produce can be found, compared to the man-made high fat/sugar foods which are usually found in the middle.

Don’t forget – supermarkets are designed in such a way that you’ll visit every aisle, picking up offers and bargains which seem too good to leave and it’s for this reason, that you will only be buying the things on the list you made at the start of the week.

This is one topic I could easily write a whole ebook about to cover all the content. I’ve decided therefore, to choose the most important and relevant information and unwrap it so you’ll be able to make changes without getting bogged down in the science.

Stress itself comes in many different forms such as physical, mental or nutritional and each can be divided into good and bad stress. If we were to take physical stress (exercise) for example, you can see that exercising has a positive effect on the body, thus creating a positive stress. Over-training would cause immune system suppression (bad stress) so you can see that too much of anything is a bad thing and finding the right balance is crucial.

There are six types of stress in total which can be divided into two different stressors – internal and external. External stressors are things that stress the body from the outside, be it sunlight, injury or chemical exposure etc, and internal stressors come from within the body and are more often than not a reaction to external factors. If you’re in an unhappy relationship (external), you’ll experience a chronic stress within the body and it’s this chronic stress which releases hormones for your survival and well-being.

All stressors, be it internal or external, are funnelled together and processed by the autonomic nervous system. The nervous system acts as a traffic light system allowing a steady flow of traffic flowing optimally. If for any reason the sum of all stressors placed on your body is too great, you’ll begin to fall out of balance and the traffic light system collapses. This system collapse activates catabolic (the breakdown of cells) hormones.

The hormones activated create a rise in cortisol which causes fatigue, depression, breakdown, depressed immune system and decreased growth and repair, meaning no matter how hard you work or how clean your diet is, your body is in survival mode and will hold onto everything it has.

Make sure you find a way to eliminate stress from your lifestyle or you may find yourself stuck and unable to alter your body composition. Drop me a message if you’d like some more information about reducing stress and learning how to control your mindset.

For years I believed ALL bread was evil, and well, most commercial processed glutinous bread may as well be. But who doesn’t love fresh baked bread and butter? The satisfaction as you sink your teeth into a fresh slice covered in butter, we’ve all been there! so, bread lovers rejoice because there is one bread that trumps all others; sourdough.

Traditional fitness & bodybuilding diets eliminate all sources of bread and while it’s quite right that most should be, sourdough has found a way to creep into many diet plans. Sourdough is more digestible than standard loaves and more nutritious too. Lactic acids make the vitamins and minerals in the flour more available to the body by helping neutralize the phytates in flour that would interfere with their absorption. The acids slow down the rate at which glucose is released into the blood-stream and lower the bread’s glycemic index (GI), so it doesn’t cause undesirable spikes in insulin. They also render the gluten in flour more digestible and less likely to cause food intolerance.

I’m a great believer in sticking to the plan and not deviating from the guidelines however I’m well aware that many of my clients need balance and every once in a while some diet relief. For a healthy metabolism quality carbohydrates are essential. Sourdough is one of those amazing tasting carbs and one which I consider Pro-Metabolic. The right carbohydrates are essential whether it’s aiding to get leaner or simply to get healthier. In a healthy body, sourdough can hold its own alongside potato and rice as a carb source. I have eaten it at stages through my comp prep, when I felt I needed some different sources of fuel to help my digestion and body fat levels.