Week 2

Posted on: December 28th 2016

HOW’S THE JOURNEY SO FAR?  

Hope you’re feeling good and enjoying incorporating some new nutritional habits!

Don’t feel alone if you’re feeling challenged – old habits are often hard to break, but making a conscious decision to address them is an important first step.  Take your time, be mindful, and try to enjoy the process!

Here’s your WEEK 2 PLAN (more on that below!)

Speaking of habits, are you ready to add another one? *

This week’s habit will be fun and fresh:

EAT A VEGETABLE WITH EVERY MEAL OR SNACK  

Your mom was right – you should eat your veggies!  Eating a vegetable with every meal or snack (including breakfast!) is awesome for your body. 

Plant chemicals are pretty important when it comes to optimal human performance.  Fruits and veggies provide an alkaline load to the blood, which is important since proteins and grains present acid loads.  What does this mean for you?  Too much acid and you’ll lose bone strength and muscle mass – not ideal!  So make sure you’re keeping yourself balanced with lots of veggies every day!

Vegetables are a great source of non-starchy carbohydrates, making them a good energy source, and they’ll also give you some much needed dietary fiber. 

How can you make sure you’re getting enough?  A pretty good guideline is 2-3 servings with every meal or snack (a serving is about a 1/2 C – or about a fist size).  That means 10-15 servings per day!  Load ’em up!

* If you’re not ready to add a new habit yet (i.e. you’re still working hard on nailing Habit 1), that is 100% cool.  Studies show that tackling one habit at a time leads to far greater success than many habits all at once.  Take your time, and move on to this habit when you feel ready.

>> Quick hop back to the Derby Fuel Home Base

LET’S KEEP THIS THING ROLLING!

Here you can find: 

  • Your WEEK TWO PLAN –  this includes your Meal Plan, Prep Activities, Grocery List, and Recipes for the week! 
  • Your General Grocery List  (the staples you’ll need every week), and your Quick Fill-Up recipes (snacks, shakes, and bars) 
  • Some substitutions for special diets – vegetarian, dairy-free, nut-free and gluten-free options available for many recipes
    • Vegetarians: there are a few recipes in the weekly plans that are just for you (like the Veggie burgers), and there are also substitutions written into the individual recipes.  Make sure you check each of the recipes before you shop for food to ensure you’re getting all the swaps you need.
    • If you are substituting legumes for animal proteins, you may slightly want to decrease your serving sizes of other carbs, since legumes contain more starch than other protein sources.

Again, you can always change up the order of your meals, main protein sources and spices to suit your time constraints and personal tastes.  Also, pay attention to your body’s hunger signals.  Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re not – keep things simple for yourself!

Remember to swap like foods (proteins for proteins, starches for starches, greens for greens) – you can look through the recipes or the Swap Info to find appropriate switches.  If you’re eating out, just do the same thing when you look over the menu (before you go).  If fat loss is your goal, keep an eye out for the AT (Any Time) and PW (Post Workout) markers on your recipes.  Aim to keep your meals with starchy carbs after exercise.

And what are the Shakes of the Week?

CREAMSICLE

What’s in it:

  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • almond milk
  • orange juice (all-natural, no added sugar – or a seedless orange that you blend first)
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream or Greek yogurt
  • 3-5 drops vanilla
  • 1/2 chopped cucumber

Blend your cucumber with some liquid first, then add other ingredients. 

… And if you want to cram all your green veggies into one single shake:

GREEN POWER SHAKE

What’s in it:

  • ½ avocado, pitted and peeled
  • ½ chopped cucumber
  • ¼ C parsley
  • ½ peeled lemon
  • 2 C-ish spinach
  • coconut water
  • 1 scoop vanilla or unflavoured protein powder
  • ice

Blend your green ingredients together first with liquid, then add protein powder and ice.  Blend and add liquid or ice until desired consistency is achieved.

Feel free to refer to these shakes this week, or use the Quick Fill-Up guide for even more ideas.

Week 2 is ready to roll – are you?  Make sure to let us know how things are going!

-NoFair and Booty Quake