Aug 15 2012

3 Weeks To Awesome – Grocery Shopping

Today is day 15 of my 3 week program to get you into the best shape of your life. For your workout today I want you to pick an upper body workout here on BPM.Tv on your own and try to get through it by yourself.

That’s right. I’m fostering independence in you. This is your goal. I want you to work it. You are getting to the point where you don’t need as much hand holding. Time for the training wheels to come off!

What workouts do I recommend? Today I would try anything that includes pull ups. Can’t do a pull up yet? Try the workouts that are geared to help you learn how. Can already do a few? Try the programs that push you to do more.

How do you find these workouts? Go to workouts. Click on back (the body part not the “go back” button). Scroll down and pick one out.

Want something even easier and more direct? Type “Pull Up” into the search section on the home page and see what comes up. Pick a workout and go to it.

So what I am here for then, if you’re picking the workout on your own and gaining independence from me? Well, today I’m here to teach you how to follow through with your nutrition. For the past 2 days I have asked you to take a long hard look at your nutrition, then take a look at the nutrition program I follow myself.

I have asked you look within yourself, see yourself as the leading expert when it comes to your own body and make some tough realizations. Today we’re going to take that knowledge and put our money where our mouth is. Literally.

We are going grocery shopping.

xoxo ~ Cori

VIDEO: 3 Weeks to Awesome – Grocery Shopping

VIDEO: 3 Weeks to Awesome – Grocery Shopping

Invoke Your Super Power: Become a Super Shopper

I am not going to tell you to bring a list, shop the perimeter of the store and never shop while you are hungry. Those are rudimentary basics you have heard before. I am going to show you specific steps that I personally have taken to make this lifestyle work for me. Then I’m going to challenge you to do the same in your life.

I have given you copies of my competition prepping diet and my off season diet. Now I am giving you my grocery shopping list. Click on the image below to download the complete google document.

Just like the google document that showed my diet, the left side of the page shows the list for my competition diet plan. The right side shows the list for my off season plan. This is exactly what I need to buy for 1 week of food for myself. My family is not included.

I make sure to eat only organic, wild caught, grass fed, free range food while I’m prepping for competitions. The quality of food is important because I’m asking my body to go above and beyond my capabilities, while also reducing food intake. I need the food to have the absolute most nutrients possible. I am not going to get that from eating livestock raised in a pen it’s whole life, never running out in the open air or seeing the sun, fed who knows what.

While prepping for a competition, my weekly groceries total about $120. That includes 42 meals. That is about $2.85 per meal. If ever you buy a meal (or latte) worth more that $2.85 you cannot argue that it is too expensive to eat this way.

During my off season, I would love to keep on eating the absolute highest quality food. I would have better results. I would grow faster. I would feel better. I would be healthier. Here’s the reality of the problem. It’s more food. It really is more expensive.

If you are like me and have a hard time justifying the extreme cost of buying all organic, wild caught, grass fed, free range food year round, when you have other expenses like braces for your kids, vet bills for your pets, car payments, etc., here’s my advice: Do it as often as you can and don’t feel bad when you can’t.

That’s just good advice for life in general. Do your best. As long as you do your best all of the time, never slacking, never giving half of an effort, there is absolutely no reason you should feel as though you are failing.

How much?

My off season groceries come to about $100 each week if I don’t buy all organic and grass fed. I still try my best to buy wild caught fish. Again, that total is for 42 meals and includes my rejuvenation meal (which I usually make myself). That is $2.40 per meal. I do not ever want to hear that it is too expensive to eat healthy. Ever.

How did I come to the quantities on my grocery lists? Well, first of all let me say that America is ridiculous when it comes to portion sizes. A huge part of that is because we have so many different methods of measuring. Grams. Ounces. Pounds. Liters. Servings. What exactly is a serving anyway? Do you know? Does anyone know? It’s a totally arbitrary amount. We make it impossible to know what our portion sizes should be.

Unfortunately the the FDA packaging requirements and nutritional labels in America are usually totally useless unless you are a robot who can quickly convert grams to ounces to pounds in your head… or walk around the grocery store with your smart phone calculator… or carry a scale with you at all times.

This is where you have to decide that you aren’t going to let America’s lacking labels dissuade you and apply a little ingenuity.

Here is how I create my list:

• I took the total amount of ounces for each item on my daily diet plan.
• I multiplied it by 7 to get the total amount of ounces for the week.
• I converted it over to lbs so I could make sure I was buying the right amount since that is usually what is listed on the front of a package or what is available when weighing produce.
• I added the amount that I know is usually reduced by cooking for the items I cook. Why? Water evaporates. 1 lb of chicken will become less than 1 lb of chicken after it is cooked.

That’s how I do it. Yes, it takes planning. Yes, it takes deliberate thought. Yes, it takes a little bit of grade school math. What is the pay off for that tiny bit of work?

Serious results.

I know that if I buy exactly these foods in these amounts, I have a weeks worth of food. I’m not running to the store the rest of the week. There is no guess work. I have a plan. I follow it. I get results. Boom.

Right after I go grocery shopping, I cook it up, weigh out my serving amounts, separate it into baggies and it’s done. My meals for the entire week are prepped and ready to go. Fast food? There is nothing faster than grabbing a couple baggies of food on my way out the door.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work, determination and discipline doesn’t it? People don’t really live their lives like that do they? Well, no. Most people don’t. That’s why we have a huge obesity problem in America. People are not being accountable for their choices. These choices are within your control.

It is much simpler to stroll into Subway and order a “healthy” sandwich. It feels like a treat to go into Starbucks and buy a “protein plate.” That’s all healthy isn’t it? People don’t really have time to make every single meal they’re going to eat for the entire week, do they?

Listen. If you don’t choose to make the time to cook your own food, you don’t get to wonder why you’re not getting results. If you don’t make the time to take control of your diet and create your own grocery list just like I did, but you do make time each day for 30 minutes of television, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., then you don’t get to say “I don’t have time.” You do have time. You just have to choose to spend it doing a little math, converting amounts, going grocery shopping and cooking.

It doesn’t take long once you get a system going. At first, schedule a full day for yourself. As time goes on you will create a system for yourself and become extremely fast and efficient. I prep the weekly food for my whole family (not just myself) in about 2 hours. I will be honest, I pay my daughter to clean up the aftermath as a part of her chores. It can be a bit like the Tasmanian Devil went to town in my kitchen after I’m done. Regardless, it gets done. Every week.

I’m not better than you. There is absolutely no reason why I can do that and you can’t. I have a business, a blog, a family, pets and a social life. The reason I am able to do this is I make it my choice. I don’t sit down to write a blog, watch TV, or even workout until my food prep is done every Sunday. It is a priority in my life. I make sure it gets done.

These same foods on my grocery lists might not appeal to you. Even if they do, my same personal diets might not be right for you. We are each different and unique. What I want you to do is look over my grocery lists and my diet and understand this is how it’s done. This is what it takes. This is how you plan it out and make it work for your busy lifestyle.

Follow Through

I like to post something about cardio and nutrition at the end of every post because it is important.

Cardio and nutrition are going to be two of the most important parts of achieving your results, no matter what what your goal is. You can not work off your nutritional decisions with exercise. What? You can’t eat a donut, then just do 2 hours of cardio and *poof* it will be like it never happened? That’s what I’m saying. Come on. No. You can’t.

Your body doesn’t work like a simple addition or subtraction problem. It is not calories in vs. calories out. What you eat has a chemical effect on your body. Even if you do cardio to ‘burn it off’ the chemical effect is still present. Different sugars have an affect. Different proteins have an effect. Different fats have an effect. When you take a vitamin, you understand that it has an effect in your body that cardio will not ‘work off,’ right? Food works the same way. Different foods have positive and negative chemical effects within our body. You can’t just work them off.

You have to unlock and unleash the body fat by working with your body in every aspect. Your body works in harmony like a symphony. When one instrument is off, the entire song doesn’t sound right. A good steady drumbeat can’t make up for a guitar that’s out of tune. 2 hours of cardio cannot make up for a donut. Or pizza. Or macaroni and cheese. Or wine and a baguette. Got it?

Cardio

I recently cut my cardio to a minimum of 30 minutes of stairs with intervals as cardio 5 days per week. When I’m trying to lose fat I usually do two separate 45 minute cardio sessions a day, but one session is really more like light activity and less like cardio. I love my cardio and I like to stay conditioned. I personally prefer to do a little more cardio than the average figure competitor, then also eat a little more. It takes more time and effort, but I feel the pay off is well worth it. The pay off is that I feel awesome. It might take me a little longer to build muscle because I do love my cardio, but it’s the cardio that helps me to keep focused and positive for the long haul. It’s important to know what keeps you motivated for the long haul too. I feel energized by cardio. I love it.

Post Workout Nutrition

When I was trying to gain muscle I finished every workout with a protein shake, animal protein, and some complex and simple carbs. These are healthy choices for gaining or for performance. These are not the right choices for me for trying to lose fat, define and sculpt muscle. Trying to define and sculpt muscle is different from gaining muscle. This means I need to eat something different.

When I am trying to lose fat and sculpt muscle, I am much more strict with my diet. Only true food sources. No protein powder.

I finish up every workout with lean protein from true food sources (a little red meat, white chicken, white fish and egg whites are best) and some dark green veggies or Super Greens mixed with water only. Again, no protein powder. If you are a vegetarian you would most likely need to supplement with protein powder. If you are not, let me say again that true food sources work best for losing body fat.

Even when I am trying to lose fat, I still FEED my body.

Want more information about nutrition? Check out BPM.tv Nutrition 101.

You can also look at my current personal fat loss diet in order to get ideas on how to develop your own nutrition plan.

Cori Ann’s Prepping Fat Loss Diet:

You can click on the image above to link to my fat loss diet to get details about what works for me, but here is the basic breakdown.

This is my meal plan while I am trying to lose fat and define muscle. My carbohydrates come from complex sources only and are kept to about 100 grams per day.

My sugar is kept at about 18 grams per day. That’s it. That is less than what is in one banana. That means fruit is not in my fat loss nutrition plan. My sugars come from minimal amounts that naturally occur in veggies and in the complex carbs I eat each day. No matter what your goal, I highly recommend you watch your sugar intake, even ‘healthy’ sugar like fruit, and moderate it to a minimum based on your own personal goals.

My protein is kept at about 250 grams per day and comes from high quality, organic, free range (or wild) lean animal sources. My fats are kept at about 40 grams per day and come from my protein and complex carbohydrate choices (not additional plant sources like olive oil, coconut, nuts, or avocado).

That equals about 1800 calories per day. I don’t drop it much lower than that.

I eat natural, organic, whole foods that I cook myself, or if possible I eat them raw. I drink 1 to 2 gallons of water and a couple cups of either coffee or tea. There is no mysterious, magical diet. If you want to lose bodyfat you need to eat a fair amount of lean protein and A LOT of green veggies at every meal. Period.

Did you like this post? Tell me in the comments!

Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments. Don’t be shy! Your comments may help to inspire another. Your questions may help someone else who has the exact same question, but is too shy to ask. I love hearing from you!

By Cori Ann Lentz • Food & Diet • 13 • Tags: Diet, Food, Gluten free, High protein, Lactose free, Motivation, Nutrition