Preparation is the Key to Success!

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Tips for getting ready for a week of Health and Wellness in your daily life.

  1. Buy lots of fresh vegetables.  And I mean lots of vegetables, the amount of vegetables you will eat is immense.  There is not a single wellness diet in the world, with any credibility, that does not require the egregious consumption of large amounts of vegetables.  This being said, most people cannot eat 142rutabagas in a week, so use your head.  In our life, this is our typical load of stuff that we get for ourselves:
    1. 5lbs of whole carrots
    2. 2 bunches of celery
    3. 5lbs of onions
    4. 2lbs of sweet potatoes
    5. 6-8 cucumbers
    6. 5lbs of fresh spinach
    7. 5 or so different squash (spaghetti, acorn, delicata, butternut)
    8. 1 stalk of Brussel sprouts
    9. 2lbs of grape tomatoes (fruits, yes, but for our purposes, they go in this list).
    10. 2-3 packages of fresh herbs
    11. 1 big bunch of broccoli
    12. 1 big bunch of cauliflower
    13. 3-4 other random items
  2. Buy lots of fresh fruit, but less fruit than vegetables. Keep in mind, that eating large amounts of fruit, while not altogether bad for you, will defeat the purpose of this particular diet in that your glycemic index will fluctuate a great deal more.  In all reality, you need to limit the amount of fruit you eat to about 3-4 servings per day.  Here is typically what we get for ourselves:
    1. 5-6 apples
    2. 1-2 bunches of bananas
    3. 5-6 oranges
    4. 2lbs of whole dates
    5. 2-3lbs of strawberries
    6. 3-5 random fruits depending upon season.
  3. Now, you that you have bought all of this stuff, you need to prep it. I would recommend getting some good music and doing as much of it at once as possible.  Prep all of the stuff that would be more convenient to use during the week.
    1. Carrots > peeled and cut into sticks. This will let you either eat them or cut them in to cooking pieces.
    2. Celery > peeled and cut into sticks. This will let you either eat them or cut them in to cooking pieces.
    3. Cucumbers > Peel and halve. Don’t go further than this.
    4. Brussel Sprouts > take off the stalk, wash, halve.
    5. Strawberries > core, meaning take the stalk out and remove the stem.
    6. Broccoli > cut all the florets off of the stem. Break into bite size florets.  Peel the stem, cut into ¼ to ½ inch chips.  Seems weird, but you can easily get addicted to this.
    7. Cauliflower > Couple of things here. Depending upon what you are going to do with your cauliflower dictates how you prep it.  Too much to go into here, search cauliflower on our site to get more info.
  4. Package all of this stuff in 1 cup servings. For instance, you will have a lot of baggies in the fridge when you are done.  I mean, a lot of baggies.  This way, when you make your lunch, you reach in grab 1 baggie for each 3-4 hour section you will be gone.  8-hour-shift = 3-4 baggies.  Now this is not an exact science here.  Don’t weigh it out or anything, guesstimate.  Guesstimate on the higher side will be better.  Put all of the stuff that does not “fit”, like say you have 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 3 radishes, 2 mini celery stalks left.  Guess what, chop it up and put it on a salad.
  5. Package dressings into to go packages as well. Depending upon your diet and where you are in the LTL plan, you need to be careful here.  Keep an eye on the ingredients here because it’s easy to get out of hand.  Typically, package about 1/3 cup of something as a dressing to use either on salads, dips or flavor.
  6. Like #5, be careful here as well. Bake off 3 or so pounds of chicken and cut into strips and package into either 2 or 4 ounce servings.  The strips will go well on salads, alone or great into the dips you packaged for #4.
  7. Make 2 extra adult servings of everything you make and immediately package for the next day. Food will keep for about 5 days or so in the fridge.  There will be days when you are too busy to do anything at all and need some quick meals available.  There you go.  If you are on day 4 and have not eaten yet, then take out and freeze.  Majority of dishes, when there is not preservatives or high levels of fats, will freeze well.  The texture will be different, but you would be surprised how things are when you freeze them.  Plus, keep in mind, veggies require coolness to keep well in a lunchbox.  If you grab a frozen dish for your lunch, then it will keep everything cool.
  8. Date everything you prep!! Date everything you prep!! See above point for the main reason.  But you will have a great piece of mind.