Paleo Planning – Meals for the Week
“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.” – Winston Churchill
One of the hardest things about sticking to any diet is the temptation we face every day. You walk into work and it happens to be “Bagel Friday,” and you rushed out this morning without eating breakfast. One bagel won’t hurt me right? Then comes the necessary butter or cream cheese. Cheat #1! Then all of sudden it happens to be noon and you forgot your lunch in your rush out of the home. Co-Worker Justin asks you to lunch with team and you graciously accept, not realizing that everyone is going to Tony’s Pizza. No salad on the menu, you get a couple slices of Pepperoni. Cheat #2! You are on a roll why stop now. Boss asks you to finish your TPS Report just as you were trying to leave. You are now at the office until 8pm, no food at home. You grab a dirty water dog and can’t resist the bun.. Cheat #3!
While the above scenario is extreme, and you often have opportunities to make good diet choices on the go, it does illustrate the need to plan. So now that you get the point how could the above scenario been avoided.
Well, it starts on Sunday with three easy steps.
#1 Meal Plan for the week and make a grocery list
#2 Purchase your groceries so that you have time to make a couple quick meals for the week
#3 Spend Sunday evening cooking for the week or at least for a couple days.
Baked Lemon-Rosemary-Garlic Chicken Recipe
Here’s an example. When you’re at the grocery store, pick up a family pack of skinless, boneless chicken breast. Opt for the organic free-range stuff and you shouldn’t be out more than 20 bucks. Make sure you have a lemon or two, some olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and salt/pepper. Now, what do you do with all this chicken? My suggest, make some chicken salad and ready cooked chicken breast!
#1 Pat dry the chicken on a paper towel
#2 Lightly dress with olive oil
#3 Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken
#4 Place the chicken in the pan and put rosemary, garlic, lemon juice on top
#5 Bake for 40-50 minutes at 350
#6 Let chicken cool to room temperature
#7 Take 4 chicken breasts and set aside for lunches/dinners
Chicken Salad Recipe
Okay so you have 4 chicken breasts left, oh what to do….you can’t just eat chicken breast all week. Well, technically, there is no rule against that, but to spice it up, let’s make some chicken salad. You will need grapes, celery, red onions, garlic, Paleo mayo, almond slices, and salt/pepper.
#1 Chop onions, garlic, and celery and place in a bowl.
#2 Quarter grapes and into bowl with about 3 tablespoons Paleo Mayo
#3 Add Chicken (cut up into small pieces) and mix. Cool in your fridge.
This makes about 4-5 servings for the week. Combined with the 4 servings of chicken breast you already made. Add an avocado, some carrots, or salad mix, and you have yourself 9 meals pre-made for the week.
Total time: 2 hours tops!
Total effort: Not Bad
Total reward: GREAT
How are you planning for the week? Let us know in the comments…
I already began my game plan last night when I knew I had more time to cook:
Already in the fridge and either used or ready to go for the next four days:
Meat
3/4 lbs. grass-fed sirloin steak
1 lbs. grass-fed Delmonico steak
1/2 lbs. bison ground beef
1/4 lbs chopped chicken liver
I also have bacon and sliced turkey ready to go for a quick breakfast option if I’m running late, also always carry a Paleo Kit or two in my backpack in reserve.
My plan is to mix and match during the course of the week between the meat I have and all the veggie options and fill the plate depending on how I feel and/or how hard I worked out prior to eating. I normally eat a big breakfast especially after a morning run or WOD, go very light on lunch or just wait it out, then have a decent sized dinner, also dependent on how much I did at the gym.
Thanks again for all the help from Bennett and the other participants!
I shop on Sunday mornings, enjoy the rest of the day and cook in the early evening. I buy a variety of vegetables, which I cook separately with lots of garlic and keep in plastic containers. This way I have many options when preparing meals during the week and never feel like I have to eat a meal I prepared on Sunday and may not want on Wednesday. Most of the meals I prepare during the week take just in about 15 min.
I have to have a salad with lunch and dinner. I buy red, yellow orange peppers, spring greens, cherry tomatoes, radicchio, endive, pears, apples, etc. the salad has to appetizing
I marinate chicken breasts and meats before I put in the freezer bags and each morning I just pick something I want to eat that day.
For snacks, I buy the Paleo Krunch at CFH and mix with raw nuts and dry fruit (read labels to make sure there is no sugar added). I like fig and berries. I chop, mix and keep in small plastic bags ready to go. The fresh fruit I always have are apples, black and blue berries
This weekend we had beautiful weather and I knew I would crave ice cream, so I bought the Yonanas frozen fruit maker and works GREAT! I froze bananas on Friday and today, used one banana and a cup of mixed berries and in less then a minute I had ice cream! Then I chopped nuts and 85% dark chocolate and mixed all together. Delicious, quick and easy! And, I have enough for 2 servings.
Before the Paleo Challenge, I was basically vegetarian and protein powder was a major source of protein in my diet. During the challenge, I followed everything Bennett suggested from day one. And, I found it easy to do because I focused only on ALL the foods available to me, I high-lighted all the foods and ingredients I liked from the shopping lists every week, went shopping, and stocked my pantry. Because, if you don’t have basic ingredients like condiments, oils, etc., then, how can you cook meals you will want to eat for 45 days? It will get boring after just a few days and I hate boring.
I’m still on Paleo, and use the shopping lists and recipes Bennett provided. I don’t make exceptions at all, not on bdays or holidays, because if I make one exception, the second one is just around the corner. Bennett is awesomely supportive and will be great if he knows you are trying. He forever changed my eating habits, as result, I feel amazing! My performance during my wods has improved a lot! and because I recover faster, I can do 4 to 5 consecutive awesome wods each week.
I wish you all good luck; I know that if you focus only on what you CAN eat lieu of what you can’t, you will all rock this challenge.
Hi Elizabeth – thanks for the advice on the Yonanas machine! We have been thinking about getting one for a while and I’m happy to hear that it works well. We will likely get one for the summer.
Gina
I don’t know what this yonanas machine is, but… I just freeze a banana for about 24 hours, take it out and let it thaw just enough to peel, and then throw it in the food processor. It is easy and has the consistency of a really creamy ice cream. (It is making me drool just thinking about it.) Adding other toppings like fruit/nuts is a nice touch too!
Monday will be a day in the Firehouse which is always tricky. I will usually have a can of tuna and a salad on stand by in case I can’t have what’s on the menu but, usually the guys are easy going.
Monday is also grocery day so, for Tuesday and Wednesday I will have plenty of sliced turkey breast on hand for snacking, and sometimes I’ll have it for lunch. I also have a container of mixed nuts for snacks. For dinner we usually have chicken with either a side of baked fries or a salad.
I will be making the Primal BBQ sauce soon to have that a few times a week…
Oh, I almost forgot. I ordered some grass fed ground beef and ground bison from Tropical Traditions. Hopefully it arrives this week…
I love planning when it comes to ordering from fresh direct. Try to think of one huge meal to make for sunday or monday dinner that will last me a few additional days for dinner. From there I just try to make extra of dinner every night so I can bring the left overs for lunch the next day.
I’ve found that not only planning meals, but planning for time to make sure I eat before I’m out the door every morning is huge. Keeping yourself filled up and feeling good is the easiest way to stop yourself from grabbing just one bagel or one piece of candy in the office.
As a huge baseball fan who usually goes to about 20 Yankee games a season, I’ve also found it helpful to plan a “snack” to bring to the game. Everyone is eating hotdogs, pretzels, and peanuts and drinking beer, so a nice paleo nut mix along with an apple helps to avoid temptation.
I also make sure to always have plenty of lettuce and salad ingredients in my fridge. If all else fails and I really don’t feel like cooking, it’s easy to chop some veggies, open a can of tuna, and mix together some dressing for a paleo meal in 15-20 minutes.
Great post, Bennett! Yes, I prepare on Sundays. And during summer…this can get tricky because I would rather be at the beach than cooking in my apartment! So, here’s what I do. I buy a ton of vegetables and roast em on my non-beach day (Saturday OR Sunday). That way, all my veggies will be prepared for the week. I will just have to put em in the microwave and they are ready. Then, I plan my meat options for the week. And I just grill on my gas grill. It takes 10 minutes to grill anything. So, when I come home, I have all my roasted vegetables and fire up the grill for my meat. PS – I grill better than a dude.
Hi all!
Great posts from everyone. I too plan on Sunday for the whole week. I did this in a few ways today…I usually eat a couple of eggs (or 1 egg plus 1 white) as part of my breakfast so I boiled a dozen eggs for the week. I usually eat eggs with leftover chicken breast, turkey and/or avocado. For lunch, I always pack it the night before work and normally eat salads (along with fruit or a serving of raw almonds), which means that we keep raw spinach and baby greens in stock for the week. I normally add grape tomatoes, cucumbers, nuts of some sort, radicchio, and anything else that is paleo and on hand during the week to make it tasty. I chop up raw vegetables on Sundays and keep them in containers so that they are ready to get into a salad throughout the week.
For dinner, it’s usually a protein – fish or meat – and some level of vegetables. Today, I roasted vegetables including zucchini, yello squash, vidalia onions and asparagus in the broiler. I just season them with olive oil, salt and pepper and keep them in a container to warm up with dinner or chop into a salad. I also marinated organic chicken in olive oil, mustard and pepper and broiled them in the oven. We can eat this in salads through the week or on its own. I also marinated london broil in balsamic, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, which will take us through the next few days. And finally, I baked some sweet potatoes so that they are accessible post-workout and for dinner if we want them.
Snack-wise, I pre-pack any nuts that I plan on eating so that I have an actual serving and don’t overeat…I also snack on fruit like apples or grapefruit and keep berries (strawberries lately) cleaned in the fridge.
Planning takes the extra work and effort out of the challenge and makes it all much easier to stick with. I have been trying to increase my protein at breakfast, keep lunch light and then have dinner around 630 or 7. I workout at different times each day so my daily menu changes based on that. Overall, paleo is really benefiting me both at the gym and in the day to day, giving me more energy, endurance and strength.
This was a great homework assignment Ben.
Unfortunately, I was away at a CrossFit Level-1 Seminar,
so I did not have a chance to prep Sunday at all really.
This is what I accomplished on Sunday:
Cooked dinner, prepared food for Monday –
Breakfast/dinner prepared; I will have to buy
a salad at lunch. Dinner is prepared at home so
I just have to cook when I get home tonight.
Monday I will prep for Tuesday.
I will pick-up an order I placed with freshdirect.com on Tuesday,
which will last two weeks. Freshdirect delivers to my zip code but not
to my residence!
Tues night I will prep enough food until at least
Friday! Tuesday will be my prep day (my Sunday)
I would like to find a website that sells COOKED Paleo
Foods…to help with my busy days…does anyone have any ideas
or websites?
I may go cheer on Dan at Canton, Mass this weekend so
I dont know about this weekend yet.
I hope I can still buy a regional ticket!
I do all my prep work on Sundays. Do my grocery shopping in the early afternoon then spend a couple of hours cooking/prepping to make the week go by easier. This is without a doubt the biggest change I’ve made to my eating habits and it really helps keep the temptation of cheat meals down to a minimum since I know I always have delicious food ready to go.
I usually grill up or bake a couple of pounds of chicken thighs/breasts with a wide variety of seasonings. Some of these stay whole for salads and the like, the rest I shred/cube up. I’ll also cook up a couple lbs of grass fed ground beef with onions and garlic and store that in the fridge for Well Fed-inspired hot plates throughout the week.
Veggies will get washed and cut up right away. I used to always buy tons of veggies that got thrown out each week since I’d be too tired after work to prep – now whenever I open the fridge I can just grab a container of mixed veggies, add meat, and I have a salad ready to go.
Since starting this challenge I stocked my desk at work with a bunch of paleo kits and I keep baby carrots in the fridge. These are my go-to snacks and emergency lunches if I get to busy or have to eat lunch on the way to a client.
I had to travel to VA for a week right in the middle of this challenge for work – If I hadn’t planned out and pre-cooked a bunch of food I’m almost certain I would’ve been cheating left and right. Instead I was able to reheat a bunch of food in my hotel room each night and stick to the diet. My coworker definitely gave me some looks when I skipped out on the usual happy hour/expense account dinner shenanigans.
The payoff has been huge – dropped a bunch of weight, I’m sleeping better, and generally feeling awesome all day. The negatives: most of my pants and shirts are looser fitting now and I’m paying my tailor’s rent this month all on my own. #firstworldpaleoproblems
As I am new to planning out my meals, I have started to go Grocery Shopping Bi-Weekly. Since I started the Challenge, I have been going to Trader Joe’s and Sunday in Chelsea, and then usually I stop in Kings in Hoboken on Wednesdays. I also have a friend who owns a resteraunt, so he is going to get me some steaks and chicken breasts cut into 6-8oz pieces. I do feel that have a gameplan set up for meals has helped. We schedule our work days, why not carry that over to our personal lives? I feel that since I have the time to go bi-weekly, I eat more vegetables and fruit, and I also can look back and evaluate how I have been eating in the first half of the week. I am a creature of habit, so when I find something I like, I usually can stick with it for awhile before I get bored. You can cook chicken a thousand different ways, and it will never taste like pizza, and no matter how satisfying you feel doing WOD, it will never feel like sex, but we do it because we see the results.
Doing the Paleo Challenge and logging my food has made me realize that I eat at restaurants anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of my meals during the week (SCARY). I wish this could change but it is mainly for business with clients. When I am not prepping food for the week on Sundays I have started researching menus and what I can eat on them. I call restaurants in advance to see what things are cooked in, how they are prepared and what substitutes I can make. It works out pretty well knowing what I am going to order in advance, Sushi restaurants prove to be some of the hardest surprisingly enough – they put soy and rice in EVERYTHING. I think I have it down to a science at this point but anyone who has recommendations I cant wait to hear them.
I do most of my prep work on Sat — Wake up, WOD, food shop, cook. The nice weather will make that difficult so might end up switching that. I like to make things that freeze well so I don’t feel rushed to eat them (for example crock pot meals and meatlof) and I freeze them in portion sizes. I will generally cook my veggies on the spot at night. When I have time I will also grill up some meat/fish and have that so I can save the frozen meals for nights that I’m too busy. I always have some raw veggies in the fridge at work (carrots and cucumbers mostly) and I have an assortment of nuts in my drawer. If I get to the point where I need to hit the nuts (and I try to avoid it if I can) I will count out how many I want to eat and put them on my desk… when they are gone, I am done. Really helps.
Loved reading all your posts. Some great tips we’re all sharing! I exceeded my goal and lost 8lbs, feel great. Can see my abs and feel stronger and more flexible.
My game plan is a little different from most that have posted. Since I was typically away over the weekends, I have been doing my Fresh Direct ordering on Sunday evenings and getting delivery on Monday or Tuesdays. I must say that the shopping list Bennett sent was great and I made good use of it. Monday/Tuesdays were my chopping/cleaning and cooking days for the whole week. Sunday served as fridge clean out days where I tried to throw out food that went bad and eat whatever is left to make room for the fresh supply.
Doing this diet as a group really helped me fight of the urge to cheat and made me accountable for what I put in my mouth, getting to the gym often and to bed early. I can’t even count how many people asked me about this diet and wanted to try it. I plan on going at it alone from here on out but the group effort really made it easier to keep with it and create the habit. Although I have to say the likelyhood of me adding Jell-O back as my dessert is high! Although, I have been looking into making my own geletin based deserts which should be interesting.
I took getting to the gym very seriously missing only 2 days the whole month due to slight injuries. I have added yoga into the mix which has helped my flexibility. I even tried Bikram yoga which is great if you like to sweat. They say it clears the toxins but to be honest it was a very uncomfortable 3 hour experience (I went twice). Stephanie’s class is more my speed.
As far as sleeping I did find myself getting to sleep earlier than usual. Probably by about an hour. Since I wasn’t drinking there were more movie nights on the weekends which I think was a huge contributer to me losing 8 lbs and exceeding my goal of losing 5 lbs.
Lessons Learned:
FRESH DIRECT is a fantastic service! Prices are pretty standard and you’re paying a little more for the service but if you’re busy like me and don’t have the time its great. One thing to look out for is their 2 for 1 deals. You do end up paying a little more at the end, get more food that you have to plan for, and these items are usually the ones that are “overstocked”. Cucumbers went bad on me in under 4 days.
CROCK POT!! If you don’t have one, get one! We threw all our vegetables in there with some spices. Let it run overnight and in the morning we had soup for the week. There are endless recipes. On our fridge clean out days we put a bunch of things in. Sometimes we were pleasantly surprised. On the other days…more hot sauce.
HOT SAUCE. So many spices and makes the worst tasting foods taste good. No calories and the hotter it is the less you eat cuz your mouth just can’t take anymore.
The last 2 weeks of the challenge were much easier since I found myself planning. I started an account with Fresh Direct – it has been a life saver and I love having all the ingredients I need to get some variety throughout the week.
I cook my lunches and dinners in the morning usually before work and have veggies and fruit in the fridge at work for snacking. I’ve made more time to actually cook breakfast in the morning as a result of preparing my food in the mornings so it has worked out quite well. I often have to stay after work for events, so preparing both lunch and dinner ahead of time is essential.
I also let my coworkers know about my diet since we often go out to eat with clients or for team celebrations and I have been able to look at menus in advance to be sure I can eat at the location so they have been very supportive.
I appreciate the tips on making the meals more interesting and enjoyable!
I was eating pretty bland and boring the first week before I decided to actually take the time to cook some food and sauces.
This week is tricky for me as I’m on vacation in Puerto Rico until Wednesday so I’m just trying to be as Paleo as possible! What has worked for me both this challenge and the last is planning out my weekly menu and grocery shopping and prepping on Sunday. I hard boil a bunch of eggs for breakfast for the week. I also make 3-4 chicken breasts for the week and weigh them out into five 4-ounce portions to add to salads. For dinner I usually do something that I can eat for 2-3 nights and usually every week I have at least on night where I eat breakfast for dinner because it’s quick and easy! For snacking I try to stick to baby carrots or an apple and a handful of almonds. I love fresh ground almond butter from Whole Foods and use that to satisfy any sugar cravings. I know this may not work for everyone bc there’s not much variety to what I eat, but it works for me!
Thanks for sharing all your ideas! It’s always great to hear what works for others!
I’d have to echo those who use Fresh Direct – definitely on the pricey side, but in some senses worth it if you are like me and go to the store and have a hard time sticking to a prescribed shopping list (read: chronic overspender). By seeing everything laid out in your “cart” and having cost totals tabulated, I feel as though I can better plan out what I need across the food spectrum (vegetables, fruit, meat, etc) and minimize impulse buys.
The Crock Pot mention is also a tip I second: you can make a ton of different meals in a Crock Pot with very few ingredients that taste pretty awesome. Last Monday I made a Sweet Potato casserole in my Crock Pot that I ate for both breakfasts and dinners. Check it out:
http://paleopot.com/2012/02/hungry-man-sweet-potato-casserole/
Thanks for the helpful tips everyone. I’ve been buying my food for the week on Sundays as well. I’ve been working from home for the past month, so I’ve been lucky enough to have the time to cook each night on the weekdays. And by cook I mean marinate some chicken breasts and throw it on the grill. Cooking has never really been my thing, so I’ve been eating the same types of food since the challenge started. Chicken, eggs, turkey, avocado, apples, broccoli etc. Pretty boring, I know. I’m planning on continuing to eat Paleo throughout the summer. I appreciate all the recipes you guys have been sharing. Definitely gonna give them a try soon!
Hi everyone! I love to cook, so I usually cook each night when I get home from the gym. I plan my meals in advance and order from Fresh Direct. I generally order enough for 4-5 meals that will make dinner for two and leftovers for lunch. It means that I eat really late, usually after 9, but I don’t mind since I live to eat and get super bored if I don’t make something different every night. I usually start my orders with vegetables under “what’s good right now” and sale items, and same for meat, then add in other ingredients as needed. It’s kept my grocery bill around $100-$125 a week for two people. I’ve really enjoyed the challenge insofar as it forced me to be very creative cooking. I’ve incorporated vegetables, like kale, that I never had before, and made some really delicious paleo meals, like seared scallops with bacon and tomatoes in a garlic, lemon and parlsey sauce. So good! Good luck everybody with your last 2 days!