Nutrition
After sleeping, nutrition is the most important things you can work on to be healthier.
Time to get some healthy eating habits. Some people like to go on a crazy diet in order to lose fat quickly, but I don’t personally like this approach. It’s too much stress on the body for a short amount of time. I prefer developing good habits that is more of a long-term approach.
“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” – Goethe
Before going crazy and start counting your calories and macros, there are some good habit to acquire:
Step1: Reduce the quantity of “bad” food you currently consume. You will see and feel a considerable change in your body with this simple step. What I considered “bad” food are anything you eat that doesn’t give you the essential nutrients your body needs.
Quick Bad food list: The ratio between calories and good nutrients is very low.
Ultra-processed food: instant noodle cup, frozen food, snack packages, etc.
High bad stuff food: High calories, saturated fat, sugar, salt (sodium), etc.
e.g.: Starbucks fancy drinks, MilkShake, cake, Muffin, Pasta, Ice cream, Chocolate bars
Empty calories food: Give energy, but not lot of nutrients.
e.g.: candies, energy drinks, alcohol, etc.
Junk foods: high fat, cheap ingredients
e.g.: Chips, candies, donut, Pizza, burgers, hotdog, Bacon breakfast, pancakes with syrup, soft drinks (coke, 7up), etc.
e.g.: McDonalds, KFC, Chinese restaurant take-out, fried chicken, etc
Anything that is deep fried: French fries, poutine, onions rings, fried fish, fried shrimp, friend chicken
Toppings: Sauce, Nutella, cheese, syrup, etc.
Some good habits:
Say “no” or suggest an healthier alternative or eat less when a friend invite you out.
When you eat junk food, cut your consumption by half each time until you can control yourself. (Build habits)
Prepare your own meals instead of buying outside.
If you eat junk food that day, reduce your overall daily calorie intake.
Keep your junk food for a special occasion.
Fruits can be a good dessert replacement.
Step 2: Control your portion. Now that you got rid of most of the junk food that substantially increase your calorie intake, you can start thinking about portions.
Try to eat 25% less food than usual. This will help to reduce the amount of junk food. Even if the food is healthy, eating too much of it will definitely increase your calorie intake. Never eat until you feel full.
Try to have in your plate : 25% of carbs, 25% of meat and 50% of vegetables. This is a good ratio for beginners.
Meal example: half cup rice, 100g veggies, 2 chicken drumsticks
Step 3: Add healthy food in your daily meals.
Criteria for “Good” food: The ratio between calories and good nutrients is high.
Complex carbs, fibers > Sugar, simple carbs
Insaturated fat, omega (3,8) > Satured fat, trans fat, cholesterol
Lean protein source > Fatty ones
Water > any type of drinks
Vitamin, minerals > sodium
Healthy foods ideas:
Carbs: rice, potatoes, tortillas, pita, mungbean noodles, egg noodles
Protein: Chicken, beef, pork, salmon, beef balls
Veggies: Bell peppers, zucchini, Aspargus, Baby spinach
Fruits: red dragon fruit, strawberries, blueberries, banana, pineapple
Others: No sugar Almond milk, high protein cereal, kimchi, seaweed sheets, miso paste
Step 4: Simple Fasting
When you don’t eat, the body can use some of your stored fat to feed itself.
We naturally fast when we sleep.
Easy 15h fasting:
If you sleep at 10PM and wake up at 6AM -> 8h fasting
Aim for last meal around 6PM
Skip breakfast and eat at 9AM
6PM to 6AM = 12h, 6AM to 9AM = 3h
Total fasting = 15h
During the fast, you can drink water, almond milk, tea and black coffee.
For me, fasting is extra. If you can get your sleep, diet and exercise on point, you are already winning.
If you have a strong meal plan with nutritious food, you don’t feel hungry after your last meal.
Step 5: Macro and Calories calculation
If you did step 1 through 4, you’ve develop some pretty good eating habits. Nevertheless, you want to be LEANER and have more control on what you eat. You will actually need to do some calculation and work on your calories and macros. You want to eat just enough to reach your desired goals.
Some information you need:
Simple formula: Balance calorie intake and calorie spent.
1 lbs of fat = 3,500 calories = 500 calories x 7 days/week
1g carbs or 1g protein = 4 calories
1g fat = 9 calories
(1) Calculate your BMR: Calories you need to stay alive
online calculator link
e.g.: Need 1,800 calories to stay alive
(2) Calculate how much calories you need for weight loss to reach your desired weight:
Target weight: usually 5-10lbs less than your current weight is realistic. (Lose 1 lbs per week)
e.g.: 200lbs -> aim for 190-195
online calculator link
enter target weight as weight (e.g.: 190lbs)
e.g.: Take the average of weight loss and extreme weight loss = around 1,950 calories
(3) Calculate macros need:
Minimum protein = 190 lbs * 0.8g/lbs = 152 g protein
Minimum fat = 190 lbs * 0.4g/lbs = 76g fat
Calculate carbs:
Target calories = 1,950
Protein calories = 152 g * 4 calories/g = 608 calories
Fat calories = 76g * 9 calories/g = 684 calories
Carb calories = 1,950 - 608 - 684 = 658 calories
how much g carbs ? 658 calories / 4 calories per g = 165g carbs
Macros: 76g fat, 165g carbs, 152g protein
Simple excel table to figure out how much from each macros you need to eat for weight loss
Step 6: Simple meal prep cooking
Now that you know how much calories and macros you need per day, we can start working on meal plans.
(1) Decide when to eat and how many meals:
You can create a table on excel and write down your eating game plan for the week.
6AM: I like to start the day with 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk. It helps the fasting process continue and get my stomach ready to go poop.
9AM: Drink a small yogurt and eat a cup of fruits. Get the guts some good probiotics and vitamin from the fruits. Very light and refreshing way to break the fast. I also take 1 multivitamin pill and 1 fish oil pill for supplement.
10AM: Drink a protein fruit nutty almond milk smoothies. Get more fruits in the system, some protein and nuts. Another light refreshing meal. Really nice during summer.
Around 12:00PM: Eat the first meal prep. Usually the simplest meal prep would be 100g pan fried chicken, 100g baked veggies (zucchini, bell pepper or asparagus) and half cup white Japanese rice. I cook them and store in a glass container in advance, so I just need to re-heat it in the microwave. Simple and save time. Tabasco sriracha is a nice low calories sauce to go with it.
Around 3:30PM:
1 cup of Kashi cereal + 1/2 cup of almond milk. It used to be my breakfast, but decide to move it later during the day to keep the morning fasting longer. Really nice protein snack.
Or eat a protein snack bar (200 calories)
Around 5:30PM- 6PM: Last meal of the day. Either the same meal prep or switch chicken for beef. Just to get some variety of flavour.
No late night snacking. The fasting start after the last meal 6PM until 9AM next day (12h + 3h = 15h). On weekend, it’s easier to prolong the fast to 10 or 11AM+
Instead of rice, we can switch it up for a tortilla wrap or pita or bread.
The meal plan has to be realistic. Weekend usually it’s great to have a “cheat meal” or alternative that can be eating outside.
one meal prep is around 450 calories, so aiming for “cheat meal” with similar calories
e.g.: 2 drumsticks Jerk chicken with rice and veggies, one big slice pizza, Beef pho noodle soup, etc.
Meal plan for the week
(2) Create a database of your own meals/ ingredients:
The easiest way is to go on google and type “your ingredient” or “meals” and look for how much macros it gives you.
e.g.: Chicken meal prep 15g fat, 25g carbs, 34g protein
If you eat pizza slice often, then try to find the exact macros of that meal. It will help to see if it fits your daily macros.
(3) Add all your daily meals with macros and compare to your daily macros:
A lot of hard work and decisions here. I am missing some fat, carbs and lots of protein. Maybe I can add a protein shake or a snack, or add more meat to the meal prep.
missing some fat, carbs and protein
Maybe add a snack or increase ingredients in the meal prep
(4) Meal ideas:
In order to stick with cooking meal prep, it’s all about “convenience” and “variety”. The meal prep is so simple and easy to make and able to switch around that it’s more inconvenient to eat take-out. Usually take-out has less good vegetables, much more fatty, low quality ingredients and much more costly.
What if you can eat something cheap, healthy and tasty. And very quick to make and re-heat.
Focus on convenience:
After work, go grocery. 1h cooking max, 2-3 times per week. Usually, I have 5 meal box + 1 dinner per cooking session. Re-heat food 2-3mins in microwave.
Use rice cooker to make rice (active cooking 2-3mins, wait time 1h)
Use oven to bake veggies (active cooking 5mins, wait time 15mins)
Use pan fry to cook meat (relatively quick, cooking time 10-20mins)
To reduce the meal prep cooking from 3 times to 2 times per week, I started doing smoothies daily.
Simplest meal prep:
Carbs: Half cup white Japanese rice
Protein: 100g pan fry boneless chicken thigh (salt and pepper)
Veggies: 100g baked bell pepper (orange or red) and zucchini (salt, pepper and basil leaves)
Sauce: Tabasco srirarcha
Variety for simplest meal prep: You can easily switch ingredients to add variety to your meals.
Carbs: Rice, bread, tortillas, pita bread
Protein:
100g of Chicken thigh, inside round steak, chicken breast, Pork loin, etc.
120g Lean Ground beef 10%, 150g chicken breast, 200g salmon fillet
4 larges eggs (100g), 2 chicken drumsticks,
Veggies: 100g
Easy to bake: Bell peppers (orange or red), zucchini, Aspargus
Soup friendly: baby spinach, watercress, Chinese white cabbage, buk choy
Others: Avocado
Sauce: low calories, high flavour
Tabasco sriracha, soy sauce, sesame oil
Good for guts: Kimchi, miso paste, sea weed sheet
6x meal prep: 100g meat, 100g aspargus/ bell pepper, half cup rice
Smoothies meal prep:
Smoothies can be a great way for a quick easy meal and add variety to your diet.
My two best recipe are using banana with blueberries or sweet black cherry.
Convenience: Ingredients can be kept in the fridge/ house for a long time. Easily accessible when you need a quick meal. It takes about 3mins to put everything together and blend it 1-2 mins. Clean and you are good under 8mins.
Frozen fruits are relatively less costly ingredients than buying meat.
Protein powder really contribute to increase the protein for the macros.
Cons:
High fiber can make your stomach uneasy
Cold food in the morning can upset the stomach
Can be very noisy to use a blender in the morning
Slower than heating 2-3 mins meal prep (5-8mins vs 2-3mins)
Smoothies recipe
dragon fruit smoothies
Soup meal prep:
Very nice meal for winter. Very easy to make and healthy. Increase your water intake because of the soup. Very convenient. Can just leave the frozen food in the freezer and noodle in pantry. Buy fresh veggies.
Preparation:
Add 3 cups water, 1tbsp miso paste, 1tbsp soy sauce, 2 drop sesame oil
Add frozen meat, start boiler for 10mins
Add noodles and veggies, wait for 2mins
Add kimchi, sea weed sheet
Done.
Ingredients:
Protein: Beef balls, wonton, frozen meat slices
Carbs: egg noodle, Korean japchae, Mungbean noodle
Veggies: Baby spinach, buk choy, water cress, chinese white cabbage
Cons:
It takes more time to prepare than the smoothies or heating up a meal prep.
(15 mins vs 8 mins vs 3mins)
After eating soup meal, you feel really hot and sweaty. Maybe not ideal if you just need a quick meal.
Need to clean much more kitchen stuff than meal prep box or blender/ cup
Soup meal prep ideas
soup meal prep
Steam meal prep:
Using a small pot, it takes 12 mins to steam non-frozen food and 22 mins to steam frozen food.
This method focus more on the calories since most frozen food are high in carbs or meat.
Example for 450 calories: 2 x BBQ pork steam bun, 3 x Large Kimchi pork dumplings, 1x sticky rice dumplings (zong zi).
If you had a choice to eat take-out or steam some frozen food, steaming is the way to go.
Cons:
It takes more time than meal prep, smoothies or soup meal prep. Really need to think in advance and let the pot steam for 22mins.
Usually frozen food are high in carbs and low in quality veggies.
Good alternative, but only a few times per week.
Mexican meal prep:
Much more flavourful.
Carbs: 4 small corn soft tacos or 2 flour tortillas
Protein and veggies: Same options as normal meal prep
Flavour ingredients: Raw red onions, cilantro, lime, salsa green, salsa red, tabasco sriracha
taco meal prep
Tortilla meal prep
Lebanese meal prep:
Meat and veggies are the same as normal meal prep.
Carbs: Pita bread
Special ingredients: hummus or garlic sauce
Pita wrap meal prep
Avocado toast meal prep:
Some nice change of paste.
Very easy to make. Just need to smash half avocado in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add some lime or lemon juice.
I like to pan fry 2 large eggs to add more protein to the meal.
Aiming at 450 calories.
Macros avocado toast
Avocado toast meal prep
Pesto chicken sandwish:
I was trying a lot of sandwish shop lately and was inspired to try cooking pesto chicken sandwish!
Recipe:
50g Bread
100g veggies: Cherry/ grape tomato, red bell pepper,
100g chicken
Olive oil, mozzarella cheese, pesto basil sauce, salt, pepper
Pesto chicken sandwish
Chinese dry noodle (热干面）:
I was spending $15 for a simple bowl of dry noodle. Noodle soup is good, but a bit too hot for summer. How hard can it be to cook it? It turns out to be very quick and easy.
Steps:
Boil meat for 10mins
Add veggies and egg noodle, boil for 2mins
Mix the noodle with the sauce, add meat and veggies
Have a small bowl on the side for some soup
Recipe:
100g meat, 100g veggies, 50g egg noodle
2tbsp sesame paste/ peanut butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soup or hot water
Extra 1: chili oil, Fried Garlic, fried shallots, cilantro, green onions
Extra 2: pickle, kimchi, hoisin sauce, vinegar, Lao gan ma,
dry noodle
Eating outside:
Cooking is nice when we have time and everything is stable in your life. Nevertheless, sometimes things get busy and you want to be able to find good alternatives to your meal prep.
The goal is to look for something that mimic your normal meal prep around 450 calories
e.g.: one slice of pizza, some combination of meat rice veggies, smoothies, noodle soup, pita bread, etc.
If you know you are going to have a big dinner with friends, it’s good to skip a few meals/ snacks and have more calories available for the dinner.
You can also eat “enough” and take-out the meal for the next day.
e.g.: Eat half of a big plate of meat rice veggies -> keep the other half for next day.
As long as 80-90% of the time, you are following your meal plan, it’s fine to eat crazy once in a while. The average of your meals will compensate for it.
“We are running a marathon, not a race.”
Quick comments on grocery and cooking:
Once you know what you need, grocery shopping is almost always the same thing.
Grocery list:
Almond milk, small drinkable yogurt, fruits (good for 2 cups)
Looking to make 6 meal preps in one cooking session
Carbs: need 6x 1/2 cup
1.5 cups raw rice -> around 3 cups of cooked rice
Meat: need 600g cooked
450g raw boneless chicken thigh -> gives you 300g cooked chicken -> 3 meal prep
450g raw beef -> 300g cooked beef -> 3 meal prep
Veggies: need 600g cooked
2 bell peppers or 2-3 zucchinis or 1 batch of Aspargus -> gives 300g of veggies
Quick comments on supplements:
Whey Protein powder: Nice for protein shake or smoothies. Very hard to beat a scoop of 30g protein.
Fish oil pill: Hard to cook and eat fish in general, so daily fish oil supplement is very good
aim for 250 EPA + 250 DHA
Vitamin D or Multi-vitamin: easy fix if you miss any vitamin in your diet. The vitamin not being used are flush in the toilet.
Look for men or women and ages
Vitamin D aim for 1000 iu per day -> Good during dark winters
Some comments:
Meal plan is very personal. The goal is to make a simple, nutritious and tasty meal. That meal has to be easy to re-heat and eat. Depending on your lifestyle and time available to cook and eat, the meal prep can take many form.
It’s an trial and error process. You will have to switch between creating your database of foods and how to add them to your daily available macros.
I like to do easy fast. Early dinner and no night snacks. Skip breakfast too. Eat when you need to eat.
Some people living with others can’t cook, but they have control on the food portions.
“It doesn’t need to be perfect. You just need to start somewhere.”
SimpleLifeBalancing.