Week 4

Posted on: December 28th 2016

HOME STRETCH!  HOW ARE THINGS GOING?

You’ve made it so far!  Congratulations!  We hope that over the past few weeks, you’ve been incorporating the habits and making some lasting changes to the way you look at your meal planning.  Remember, you’re an athlete and you deserve to eat like one.

Here’s your WEEK 4 PLAN (more on that below!)

Are you ready for your week 4 habit? *

It’s one of those habits that’s easier than it sounds (honest!):

BALANCE YOUR HEALTHY FATS 

We’ve already dealt with eating more frequently, adding in more veggies, increasing our protein intake, so what’s left?  Healthy fats! 

Generally about 30% of the calories in your diet should come from fat.  To review – there are three kinds of healthy fat: Saturated fat, Monounsaturated fat (MUFA) and Polyunsaturated fat (PUFA).  Your fat intake should be balanced evenly between these three fat sources.

You get your saturated fats primarily from animal proteins, your monounsaturated fats from nuts, seeds, olives and avocados (and their products), and your polyunsaturated fats from a couple of different sources –

PUFAs can be divided into Omega 3s and Omega-6s.  Omega-3s come from fish and fish oil, krill, algae, and some other non-seafood sources.  Omega 6s come from vegetable oils (and the animals that eat feed-lot diets).  Western diets tend to skew 20:1 Omega-6 to Omega-3.  An ideal balance is more like 1:1.

To counteract the abundance of Omega-6 in our diet, we need to make sure to be choosing Omega-3 rich foods like walnuts, dark leafy greens, chia, flax and fish and fish oil (you can even supplement if you’re struggling to get enough from your regular diet).

Even though all of that might sound complicated, it’s pretty easy.  Your saturated fats will generally look after themselves.  If you’re mindful about adding in healthy MUFAs (like extra virgin olive oil and avocados) and PUFAs (like fish and fish oil) into your already balanced diet of fruits, veggies, lean proteins and well-timed carbs, the rest should balance itself!

Now that you’re making sure you’re considering the fats that are included in your diet, let’s dig into Week 4!

* If you’re not ready to add a new habit yet (i.e. you’re still working hard on nailing Habit 1, 2 or 3), just keep at it.  Remember, even one or two new skills is a success!  We’re here to help you add more tools to your kitchen toolbox – take things at your own pace and celebrate what works for you.

>> Quick hop back to the Derby Fuel Home Base

LET’S HIT THE ROAD!

Here you can find: 

  • Your WEEK 4 PLAN – Meal Plan, Prep Activities, Grocery List, and Recipes for Week 4! 
  • 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.

Just as you have through the rest of the program, you can always change meal order, or make comparable swaps (proteins for proteins, starches for starches, greens for greens) – you can look through the recipes or the Swap Info to find appropriate switches.  And remember, if fat loss is your goal, you want to keep your meals with starchy carbs (marked PW) for post-exercise.

Your shakes for Week 4 are:

HOME BAKED APPLE PIE

What’s in it:

  • ¾ cup almond milk
  • 1 chopped apple
  • 1 tbsp almond butter or 2 tbsp almond meal
  • 1 tbsp flax meal (YAY MUFAs)
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • handful spinach or scoop greens powder
  • 1 banana
  • dash cinnamon
  • ice

Blend everything until smooth and creamy.  Top it with crushed almonds and/or cinnamon. 

… And :

TROPICAL PEACH-ORANGE-AVOCADO SMOOTHIE

What’s in it:

  • 2 cups sliced peaches, fresh or frozen
  • 1 banana
  • handful spinach or kale or scoop greens powder
  • 1/2 an avocado, cut into chunks (MORE MUFAs!)
  • 1 1/2 cups orange juice, or juice of your choice
  • ice

Blend your fruits, veggies and avocado together first with liquid, then add protein powder.  Add ice and water until desired consistency is achieved.

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

Week 4!  Let’s do this!

-NoFair and Booty Quake