Who here loves spending all day Sunday preparing meals for the week?
Didn’t think so.
Many people are under the impression that in order to lose weight and stay fit they need to eat a small portioned meal every 2-3 hours.
If you’re up at 6:00 AM, that is typically 4-6 meals a day. As someone who worked in the Corporate world and spent long hours at a desk, I can tell you from personal experience that it requires extreme commitment to have 4-6 healthy meals prepared for each day if you're a career driven individual.
Some weeks I would make it work, but it took a lot of sacrifice. I would haul my work bag, gym bag, and meal bag into Manhattan every morning at 5:00 AM and back home in the evening because I really wanted to sustain my fitness. I looked like I was going on vacation with all my luggage.
I would get home at 8:00 PM and would start putting together some meals for the next day. I would often make sure that got done rather than getting to bed when I needed to.
As you can imagine, it wasn't realistic to keep this up forever.
(I did for a few years)
When the time came that I couldn’t keep this up anymore, I decided to purchase my meals already cooked from a meal prep service.
This was an upgrade because it saved me the time of preparing the meals myself. However, I still needed to haul that extra bag into work every day and there was a significant financial cost to this. It was truly and investment.
For anyone interested in giving this a try, some meal prep services I recommend are Freshly.com, EatCleanBro.com, and FreshDirect.com.
Just to be clear, this method of preparing your meals and having a small portioned healthy meal every 2-3 hours DOES work.
It just takes a lot of effort, time, and sacrifice.
After years of preparing my meals I was introduced to a different nutrition method that was a game-changer for me.
It is called intermittent fasting. I’ve used it with hundreds of working professionals who want to have structure in their nutrition, but also significantly value their time.
The main idea for this method is pushing off your first meal of the day until about 12-2 pm. And your second meal will come 6-8 hours later. Before that first meal, liquids like black coffee, tea, and water are encouraged.
I know this goes totally against the mainstream idea that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’ But the reality is that many of us skip breakfast anyway or have a non-nutritious breakfast. Bagels or cereal is not going to prepare you for the day mentally or help your energy levels.
There are several different ways it has been taught and implemented. I personally suggest including only proteins and fats in the first meal. In the second meal you can add in about a handful of carbs.
This method has become very popular recently because it doesn't require a lot of meal prepping or completely eliminating the foods you enjoy. Eating out with clients or grabbing a beer with coworkers becomes more flexible and enjoyable for those who are health conscious.
For anyone who works a 9-5 type schedule or travels often for work, this eating strategy has been an amazing fit. (For my clients and many others I know of)
It fits into their lifestyle, allows them to prepare a meal or eat out, and doesn't require watching the clock every few hours.
If you’ve been struggling to find a sustainable nutrition plan thus far, I recommend you give this a try. You may feel hungry before that first meal for the first week, but your body will soon adjust.
To make this strategy a whole lot easier, feel free to grab my list of 75 proteins, fats, and carbs for free. Just click HERE.
