Meal Plan: Week Three

This past week or so was mainly focused on building consistency with everything we've worked on up to this point. As Michael also mentioned in his video blog, he's been working on buying products with higher quality ingredients. Again, just because a product's label makes it sound great and healthy, doesn't mean that it is. As Michael mentioned, plenty of healthy sounding wheat breads are actually made from "enriched" flour, which essentially means processed, and can be just as bad as white flour. Any of these will wreak havoc inside your body, triggering your hormones to store more fat. Michael's done a nice job working on this, and the difference we see in his journal with better protein and carbohydrate selections is outstanding in comparison to where he started. Michael was already very good with his water intake and limiting high calorie, high sugar liquids, but we have him tracking this as well. He is drinking water with every meal and snack time, as well as throughout his workouts. Overall, Michael had another very good week. Even his "cheat meal" was pretty good: A cheeseburger made with 90% lean ground beef, on a whole grain bun, with ketchup, pickles, onion, and homemade baked french fries as his side - oh, and water to drink. Since he's been doing so well, I thought I'd share some examples of good meals in a day of Michael's nutrition, taken directly from his Food Log:
Breakfast - 1 cup 1% cottage cheese, 3/4 cup fresh pineapple, and 1 slice of whole grain bread. Water.

Snack 1 - Shaklee "Cinch" shake. Water

Post Workout - Shaklee "Physique" (an excellent post-workout recovery shake with high quality protein and carbs).

Lunch - Stew made of chicken breasts, cannelli beans, tomatoes, onions, and celery, 1 slice of whole grain bread. Water.

Snack 2 - Shaklee Cinch Meal Bar. Water.

Dinner - Talapia in skillet w/olive oil, brown rice risotto, arugala w/dijon/lemon juice/olive oil. Water.

Hopefully, everyone can see again that you don't need to starve yourself to lose weight. In fact, by eating like he has in this journal example, Michael is already significantly losing weight, inches, and bodyfat. Michael and his wife are excellent cooks, which has helped them still create good variety while staying healthy at the same time. It definitely has required planning, and better discipline in choosing good foods and portion control, but in no way does it leave Michael "deprived" of anything. Plus, the significant increase in his activity level does require enough of the "right" calories to fuel and support it properly in order for it to be effective. All in all, another great week. Keep up the good work!