Told you the next blog would be about cake – but I still haven’t made any. Sorry about that. I’ve been a bit busy… MOVING IN WITH MY BOYFRIEND. Ahhhhwooooooooooo!

Yes, Chris moved in at the weekend, lovely lovely. He is waist deep in Ironman training which meant on Valentines day we went for a run. WTF? Seriously though, have two really strong cups of black coffee and a yummy breakfast and then go for a run. I felt like Usain Bolt and Mo Farah’s lovechild. Kind of. I have read loads about the benefits of coffee/caffeine prior to training but always though it was kind “meh”. I drink a lot of coffee anyway, it can barely keep me awake on a long day in the office, what difference can it really make to a run/gym session? Turns out – A LOT.

Couple of points to address today. Firstly, I signed up to my next challenge. A 10km swim in a glacial lake in Wales in August. I wanted to do it without a wetsuit but turns out that’s pretty much impossible given the water will be between 12 and 14 degrees = hello hypothermia. So it looks like I will be swimming WITH a wetsuit. Probably a good thing given I got this information yesterday:

Ahhhhh it’ll be FINE. I was in the pool this morning with Chris. Swam 1200m. Pahaha. Just gotta do that 8 more times and I’ll be laughing. Lucky I am finally kicking my butt back into training and eating properly.

So on the subject of eating properly I had a message from my friend Ruth this morning. Ruth is ripped. Always has been. The little beast had a six pack in high school for gods sake. I hate her. No no – I don’t really. She is a fairly badass footballer and is currently training to be more badass. Urgh! I posted a picture of my highly OCD food prep the other night and I had some questions about food prepping. So I thought I would write a sort of “you cannot f**k this up” guide to food prep.

Think of food prep as my friend Tom Wright thinks of it (https://www.facebook.com/TomWrightFit/?fref=ts) . It is essentially leftovers. But leftovers you can make 5 days in advance and then look forward to during the working week. I started food prepping around 2 years ago and I can honestly say it has made the biggest difference to my daily diet/nutrition/health/body composition. Chris is now in on the act too. Our lunches this week are basically miniature roast dinners. 1 large chicken breast, 1 medium sweet potato, couple of handfuls of mixed veg and a handful of spinach. That sounds boring as hell doesn’t it? BUT – the chicken was grilled with cajun seasoning, the sweet potatoes were roasted with garlic and sea salt and the mixed veg has real butter on it that melts into everything when you heat it up at lunch time.

Total calories and macros for the meal? 485kcal – 43g carbs – 8g fat – 60g protein. Now if you are not swimming/running/gymming every day then you can happily ditch some or all of the potato and replace it with butternut squash. Butternut squash is the low carb cousin. Roast it until it’s crispy on the edges (aka almost burnt) and you won’t really notice much difference.

So things to consider for weekly food prep. Make sure you like the food you are prepping. Sounds like a stupid thing to say but there is no point making a ton of food you’re going to dread eating after a couple of days. I get burnt with this quite a lot as I am very into my food and get bored eating the some stuff. Best way of avoiding this is box up the ingredients separately e.g. a box of chicken, a box of sweet potato, a box of tomato with olive oil and balsamic etc etc. This way you can pick and choose each morning what you want that day. If you are not so bothered then go ahead and box up the actual meals for the week.

A lot of people are worried about food being “off” or “weird” after a few days in the fridge. I have NEVER been sick from food I have prepped earlier in the week. Ever. Not once. Nil. Nad. Doesnee happen.

Step by step guide to food prep…

1. Make sure you have plenty of decent tupperware. I like these from Amazon http://amzn.to/1Vj4RaJ
2. Keep it simple. You can add dressings etc when you are eating the food. Stick to a protein source, carb source and some veg in the tupperware. Take your dressings and sauces seperately (obviously ignore this if you’ve made a big batch of curry/chilli)
3. Get good at multitasking:
   1. Get your chicken breasts and lay them on a tray, sprinkle over your cajun or salt and pepper or spices of choices. Pop them under the grill and keep an eye on them.
   2. Peel and chop your sweet potatoes if you need the carbs. Little bit of oil, salt, pepper, in the oven at 200c until browned/soft.
   3. Whilst they are cooking lay out your tupperware tubs and pop a handful of spinach and some raw veg in there e.g. frozen peas/brocolli/peppers/tomatoes.
   4. Check your chicken and turn it over if you need to.
   5. Think about adding extras to the tupperware. If you are having fish put a wedge of lemon in the tub. If it’s plain veg get a teaspoon of butter in there (better to keep oils etc in the office to add when the food is going to be eaten).
   6. When everything is cooked let it cool and then divide between your boxes.
   7. Put boxes in fridge. That is basically it.

Some really good options for food preps are chillis, curries, stews and soups. You soon get used to eating chilli or curry with spinach instead of rice. I think I actually prefer it now. Especially if the chilli is topped with some cheese and avocado. Drool.

I think I’ve covered the basics here. If you think I’ve missed anything though or you have questions then just give me a shout. Oh and the internet is amazing for recipes (like you didn’t already know). People ask me for recipes all the time but the truth is I get most of mine from Pinterest or just googling “low carb chilli” or “healthy chicken curry”. Just steer clear of anything that promotes “low fat” too much. Don’t be scared of fat. It tastes good and it makes you feel more satisfied with your meal.

Wordcount says I’ve gone over 1000 words. Oops. This was meant to be a quick guide to food prep!

Let me know how you get on. Tupperware army.

C xx