How To Eat On The Go

Eating on the go has never been a favorite of mine.  I like to sit comfortably and enjoy my meal, tasting every ingredient and savoring every morsel, like the French do.  However, I constantly stay on the go.  Whether I’m running from one meeting to the next at work, going to the gym, volunteering with youth organizations, church, going to the gym, the grocery store, writer’s workshop meetings, book clubs, going to the gym (there’s a pattern here), I have to have food with me wherever I go.  I’m timed and scheduled to eat every 2-3 hours, 5-6 meals per day.  I cannot afford to skip a meal.  This is mostly important when I am in competition prep.  That is why I pack and prep my meals Sunday evenings for the entire week.  

Meal prepping saves time throughout the week.  No matter your profession, corporate, in the field, etc., having your meals prepared ahead of time and stored in ready-to-go containers makes eating on the go painless.  Now, when I say meal prep, I do not mean prepping pasta or any other heavy foods that will essentially drag your energy levels down because of the amount of carbs.  Since I am a competitor, I eat clean and my meals consist of foods that aid in muscle gain, muscle retention and boosts energy.  So, the million dollar question; how do you meal prep?  Think of your basic healthy eating needs:

·         Protein – chicken breast, turkey breast, fish (tuna, salmon, tilapia), egg whites, lean ground beef, protein shakes

·         Carbohydrates – sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa, squash, oatmeal, black beans, strawberries, melon, apple, orange, yogurt (greek or fat-free)

·         Vegetables – broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, carrots, spinach, kale, celery, artichoke, green beans, green peppers, cucumber

Seems a little simple, right?  It gets even better.  Now, think of the meals you eat throughout the day.  I do not encourage anyone to eat 5-6 meals a day, especially if you are not a competitor.  This can be a lot of food for a non-competitor to consume.  I suggest focusing on breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between.  If you are on the road to a healthy, clean-eating lifestyle, which I strongly encourage for everyone, you want to plan your meals accordingly.  This is just a breakdown of how I go about the thought process for prepping my meals:

·         Breakfast – I boil a dozen eggs, eating one or two within the day. I also have my oats for oatmeal.

·         Lunch – I usually like to eat tuna with fat free mayonnaise (it’s not for everybody and definitely an acquired taste) with spinach.  I also have lean turkey breast on hand as an alternate on other days to eat with a whole wheat wrap.

·         Dinner – One week I may prep chicken breast or fish because it is easier to take out of the package and line on cookie sheet and bake in the oven.  I eat that with asparagus spears, broccoli or kale spinach, alternating and switching up meals within the week, along with brown rice or quinoa.

·         Snacks – My snacks consists of assorted nuts, and by assorted I mean almonds or walnuts, plain greek yogurt with fruit, celery (I have to have a dip such as cookie butter or almond butter to eat this) and fruit (strawberries, apple, orange).

When you package everything together, meal prepping can be one of the easiest things you can do for getting your week started.  If you live an active lifestyle, such as I do, where you have to have food ready at a moment’s notice, having your meals prepped can make your week run much smoother.  It is about finding balance and what works for you.  Making healthier eating choices as opposed to unhealthy not only does produces positive results for your health but makes you feel good that the meals you are eating on the go do not consist of fast food, bad fats, and heavy, loaded carbs.  Competing has taught me how to master meal prepping, and I know there are others out there that have busy lifestyles that could benefit from meal prep as well.  Try it out and see what it can do for you.

Corporate Woman by Day, Fitness Freak by Night

I live your average, everyday corporate lifestyle between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm.  During competition prep season, I like to prep my meals for the week on Sunday evening.  I grab my containers, which contains my lunch, snacks, protein shake, another meal, and an extra meal just in case I do not make it home for dinner, and off to work I go.  I usually take up the most room in the refrigerator at work, and I’m ok with that.  I would try to remain inconspicuous and act as if I’m not the owners of all the food containers but, ideally, my initials are conveniently marked on the corners of each container.  My brilliant idea, so no one would suddenly feel the urge to “eat healthy” and snag my food.  Nonetheless, I’m eyeballed each time I step into the kitchen.  No one can understand how someone of my stature, 5’8, 130 lbs, could put away all that food in 8 hours.  “Oh, what ya got there?” “Moving in, are we?”  I avoid the glaring eyes and cute comments and proceed to the refrigerator to stock my food.  I have found that if I tuck my food away in the food crisper drawers, no one notices.  When it’s time to eat, my reminder goes off, and off to the kitchen or my desk drawer I go.  Whenever I’m meeting in someone’s office, my mental clock goes off and I have to ask the time.  If it is feeding time, I politely but hungrily say, “It’s time to feed the beast.  Excuse me.”  And I leave. 

I had a hard time coming to grips with the fact I had to eat every 3 hours, and be ok with it.  I did not eat that much regularly so I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do this during work hours.  I am fairly busy at work and I have been known to skip a meal or two, but I did not think my healthy lifestyle and my work lifestyle could co-exist.  I tried to eat healthy at work, substituting cookies and chips for fruit and veggies, and I thought that was enough.  I was so very wrong.  If I did not eat on a schedule, every 3 hours, it showed in the gym and posing practice, and I could not let that show on stage.  Not to mention the fact I was a bit self-conscious about bringing in so much food and hogging space in the fridge, and also smelling up our kitchen with my fish (I do not microwave my fish), eggs, or vinegar salad dressing.  That changed.  A colleague came to visit our office from another office one day and she confessed to me, after we both shunned the cupcakes and cookies my job had on display in our break room, that she too was a fitness competitor and showed me that she had packed a whole day’s worth of food in her cooler.  I couldn’t believe it.  Not only did she look amazing but she didn’t let her busy schedule or comments from anyone stop her from bringing in her competition prep meals.  I said right then and there I would not be ashamed of bringing in a cooler and truck loads of food into work.  I wouldn’t care how it looked, how awful it smelled, I was going to bring in my food and eat on a schedule. 

After 5:00 pm, it’s beast mode in the gym time.  The makeup, corporate-pleasant attitude and corporate casual attire are stripped.  My hair gets pulled in a pony-tail, covered up by a hat, tights or shorts on, sneakers, and a grizzly bear is before you ready to do some damage.  If I really wanted to be dramatic, I would put some of that black paint under my eyes, but that’s a little extra.  If I’m on schedule, I have my snack or protein shake while I’m there.  If I did not eat, I’m something of a handful with my trainer, or anyone for that matter.  If some of my work associates or even some clients saw me in the gym, they probably would not recognize me or would be very shocked to see hidden under all of the corporate clothes, this “skinny chick” has muscles.  I am extremely focused when working out.  There are times when I “zone out”.  I’m talking no one else is in the room, it’s just me and the weights.  My trainer isn’t even there, just a voice in the distance. 

When I’m focused and on a schedule, I feel much more content.  For those who think you cannot balance work life with a healthy lifestyle, I’m here to tell you that is false.  You can, if you really want to. It takes finding what works for you and setting a strict schedule for yourself, and ultimately sticking to it.  I had a hard time managing stress at work because there were times it would spill over to my workouts.  I found when I eat, take my breaks when I’m supposed to, decompress when I have to, do not skip meals, and work hard in the gym, I’m able to handle things much better.  Try it out and you’ll definitely see it works.