My work schedule has recently changed, and that has brought with it some unpredictability in my daily schedule. I try to stick to a consistent eating schedule, and where possible I encourage my personal training clients to do the same. It helps with planning, adherence to an eating plan, and achieving fitness goals.
BUT, we don't live in a perfect world, and often times we have schedules that change from day to day. During these periods it becomes easy to fall in to the habit of eating prepared food or fast food.
Calories from convenience foods add up fast, and it's easy to eat more than is necessary. It's also easy to miss out on crucial nutrients.
So, in this post I'm sharing one of my strategies for eating on plan, on the run. It won't taste like a burger, but it'll keep you going and keep you on plan.
What do you need?
What you need for this is simple. You need a slow cooker, cans of veggies, a durable container with a sealable lid, and some protein.
Protein should be something that doesn't go bad quickly. Pre-cooked and shredded chicken breast is a frequent go-to for me. Make a lot at once, and use it throughout the week. For vegans, try seitan. Beans don't count as a main protein source, but we'll be using them in today's example as a carb.
On days where you're away from home, having a protein source that won't go bad if left out of the fridge for a little bit is important. Eggs and fish won't cut it. I'm at home all day today, so I'm using pre-boiled eggs. Super easy. Enough about protein.
Keep it simple.
All we're going to do is toss our chicken or seitan into the slow cooker. How much? Take your goal maintenance weight in pounds and multiply it by 0.8. That's how many grams of protein to shoot for. (Now you see why beans don't count.)
We're going to fill up the rest of the slow cooker with canned veggies. Use a variety. And fill it up until you think you can get about 3 meals out of it. I've used 1 can of corn, 1 can of black eyed peas, 2 cans of green beans, and 2 cans of diced tomatoes.
Stir it, season it however, turn on the slow cooker on low.
You can cook overnight while you sleep, which works especially well with frozen veggies instead. But we're going for simplicity.
Serve it up.
If you're at home most of the day, you can turn on the slow cooker in the morning and just serve yourself out of it throughout the day. Eat when your hungry. Grazing throughout the day is fine. Add a few pieces of fruit, and you've probably got yourself a simple, no hassle pot of food to pick at through the day.
If you're on the run, let things cool, and put them in 1 or 2 containers or jars. Keep them with you along with a utensil, and eat as you can. As long as you eat all of your food during the day, you'll hit your calorie needs.
If you choose the right foods, then you'll be able to transport your nutritious goop to work and place it in a locker, keep it in a fridge, or otherwise handy while you work. Warming it back up is optional. Cold food won't kill you.
Super Simple
If you're SUPER busy, don't even bother with the cooking. Just have some of those cans of veggies handy, open them, and eat them out of a can. Seriously. It's not glamourous, but this is the kind of thing that busy people focused on eating on plan resort to on occasion. A few pre-cooked hard boiled eggs and a can of veggies with an apple is a sufficient snack if you need it. And no cooking necessary.
Wait? That's it?
I know, you were probably hoping for some super aesthetic food hack worthy of Instagram. But I've been a personal trainer long enough to know that some of the most successful people fall back to this very same method of eating. Use it when you need it. Cook very little, have a plan.
As for exactly how much food to eat...
I mentioned a lot of cans of veggies above. An easy way to hit what you need is to do the following:
- Take your goal weight in pounds, and multiply by 12. That's your total calories.
- Take your goal weight in pounds, and multiply by .8. That's your protein in grams.
- Take your protein and multiply by 4. Subtract that from total calories, and that's how many calories you have left. Do what you want with them. Fruit, veggies, nuts, whatever is easy. Just keep adding food to your base amount of protein until you have enough.
Don't complicate it, just make sure you have enough volume of food to keep from feeling hungry. For example, 100 calories of green means is a lot more food than 100 calories of peanuts.
Again, this seems too easy to be effective, but it works great as an eating plan for busy people.