Vegetables and excitement… they really DON’T go hand in hand. Plus you have to peel them, cut them, cook them. Yawn. Yesterday I said I would write about food prepping, again perhaps not the most exciting of topics but it IS very useful and a good thing to learn. If you are still going to Boots on a lunch time for a meal deal of a “light” sandwich, “light” crisps and a diet coke then I beg you to try this for a few weeks.

The thing about doing a big weekly cook in is that if, like me, you prefer to be organised for work (I will be gentle – I am bordering on OCD for a number of things) then this will be a revelation for you. I am often asked “what do you eat?” “how are you organised?” “how have you made such big progress?” (progress isn’t that big – I am just good at taking ab selfies). Well the honest answer is it isn’t easy. You have to be prepared to put effort in and exercise a bit of willpower – as Arnie says “Put the cookie doooooooooooooown”.

Anyway, enough about that – let’s talk roasting. So usually on a Sunday I go to the shops (We heart Lidl for veg and chicken) but this Sunday gone I was busy babysitting a friend who had overindulged the night before. So, my own advice went out the window and it took me until last night (!!!) to finally get myself organised. Now a pre-warning, I called this piece ‘extreme’ because I wouldn’t expect anyone else to do what I did last night. My lovely friend had been round for dinner (are you spotting a pattern here?) and when she left and I had loaded the dishwasher I realised I still hadn’t sorted my food for work. Now bearing in mind this was now 9:45pm – but – to give you an idea of how much you can do when you get good at it I managed to make the following: 1.5kg of chicken (I put a few tablespoons of water, one of these mental jelly stock cubes and a smushed up clove of garlic in the frying pan then throw the chicken in, give it a stir, cook it until its only nearly done and then throw it in a tupperware box to finish cooking – means no dry chicken – because it’s rank), 3 trays of roast veg (see image attached to give an indication of the amount of veg), a berry protein cake loaf and a huge pan of chia seed “jam”. I was asleep in bed by 11:45pm. Don’t try this at home. Instead, maybe this weekend, go to the shops on Sunday and buy as much veg as you can carry, pick the ones you like. I regularly do tomato, red peppers, aubergines, courgettes, butternut squash, mushrooms, red onions and garlic. Hack the whole lot up (Tip: You don’t need to peel butternut squash) throw it in a tray with a tablespoon of oil and a whole bulb of garlic cut in half, a big pinch a sea salt and a big grind of pepper. Roast at 200c until things are soft and starting to crisp at the edge. Cool. Tupperware. Fridge. Now you have veg to add to your chicken and you just need a few bags of salad leaves for the week. Feta cheese is a nice little addition too.

This regime has been my go to for over a year now. It changes from time to time. Sometimes I do frittatas, sometimes I do curries, soups, salads, tabbouleh. It always gets done in bulk and used Monday-Friday. I cannot stress how important the food you eat is to your overall goals. Trust me on this. Ten years of training three times a week in the gym but not eating right saw ZERO improvement. 6 months working with a professional (you must surely know him by now) and hello abs. Jus’ Sayin’.

So – food prep! As big and extreme or as small and simple as you like. Oh and also start buying frozen berries. I will tell you why when I write about desserts and sweet things to stop you mugging the newsagents when the cravings take over……… C xx