It has taken me a long time to get into any type of routine for preparing my meals for the next day. One of the things I'm pretty proud of myself for is the dedication to the dietary side of the program. P90X is very specific in terms of amount of servings for each food group. Then, within the food group, there are specific foods that are and are not allowed. Weighing and measuring is the only way to guarantee that you are eating the right proportions. There's a book that helps you determine the portion sizes based on everyday products. A 3 oz. serving of protein is roughly the size of a deck of cards. A serving of vegetables should be roughly the size of a DVD case, etc. For some, I guess that works, but for me...I need something more tangible. When I was a member of weight watchers years ago, they drove into your head the notion of weight and measurement. It used to drive me nuts because the scale at my parents house was small and you had to zero it with a little knob on the back. When I didn't live with my parents, a food scale was an unnecessary purchase.
So, in the spirit of progessing through the P90X program, I went on the search for a food scale. I went to Walmart and found 3 scales. The first was like the one my mom had years ago. It was a dial scale with a measuring cup on the top to put food in. It cost less than $10.00. The 2nd that I saw was the middle of the road scale at approximately $14.97. This is the scale that I purchased (picture below). What I really liked about it was the flat top of the scale....and that it was digital. The rest of "bells and whistles" were discovered the first day of use. Because it is a digital scale, the numbers can be clearly seen. Also, by pressing one button, you can scroll through different units of measure. Mostly, I measure things in ounces, but from time to time I have to switch to grams. The other great feature is that you can set a plate on the scale, hit the zero button, put your food on the scale. Then, hit the zero button again and put more food on the scale. You can weigh each individual food item on the same plate by zeroing between each item. Fewer dirty dishes and more precise measurements. It's really revolutionized my mealtimes.
The other thing that I've learned to do is prepare regular items days in advance. In a previous post, I mentioned that I'm a creature of habit. I eat almonds, jerky, and whole grain goldfish daily as a snack. When you prepare your lunch, snacks, and supplements every night, you can spend hours in the kitchen. When I find that I have some extra time, I take my trusty scale and a box of baggies and "go to town". I measure everything out and put it in baggies. I usually do 8 at a time since the package of jerky I use is 8 ozs. That has saved some time. I do that with salad for lunches also, but you can't do that too often as lettuce does tend to get a bit weird if it's in the refridgerator too long.
I know I covered this in a previous post, but my next tip is the Blackberry notebook application has been helpful. Once I know what I'm eating, I put that into the notebook on my phone. Then, when I get home from dinner, I know exactly what I have left to eat so that determines how much of what dinner item I can eat.
By planning ahead and having a pretty cool food scale, I've been able to keep pretty good control of my diet. On a sidenote, I've actually increased the times I eat a day. Meals are "normal" sized and the snacks are small. Here's the breakdown:
1. I eat a small snack after my morning workout.
2. I eat breakfast (right now, it's 3 cups of oatmeal with 1/4 cup of sugar-free syrup).
3. I have a snack (usually a serving of almonds).
4. I eat lunch (salad with some form of protein and a piece of fruit).
5. I have a snack (jerky and a piece of fruit).
6. I have dinner.
7. I have my last snack for the day around 8:00 PM (usually 2 Pure Fruit Bars from Breyers)
Truthfully...I never get hungry. This is a plan that works for me! Preparation is time consuming, but worth it. I just don't trust myself when I have to "guess" how much a serving size actually weighs.
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