Keep it SIMPLE, Stupid 😘!

So, this week my nutrition group is working on The FINAL Frontier... DINNER 🥗🍲🌮

Dinner should typically be the LIGHTEST meal on most days (unless you exercise late in the day)! And a great way to ensure dinner is light, but filling, and won't send you over your calorie allotment for the day? Whatever you are making for your family, take the vegetable ingredients and the protein and put it on a BIG salad or make it into a bowl or stir-fry!

Trust me.. this is THE best trick in the book. And will save you every time from:

👉 Overeating in the later part of the day, and blowing your calories after eating "so well" all day long

👉 Eating past fullness and feeling blah so you plop down on the couch instead of moving

👉 Getting to bed with a full stomach, affecting your quality of sleep (which leads to cravings, blood sugar spikes and overeating the next day, a vicious cycle!)

Give it a try! It takes very little planning and thought, you just need a box of lettuce and some veggies in the house, and a protein cooked for dinner (or already cooked from your prep day that week).

Quick protein ideas if what's for dinner ain't gonna work? I keep frozen, single servings of chicken, fish, meat patties (salmon, chicken) and shrimp in the freezer so I can quickly pull one out, thaw and cook it up in the air fryer for my salad. VOILA. It is that easy.

Use a light dressing or fun sauce for more flavor (we like apple cider vinegar sweet Thai chili sauce on bowls, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette on salads!), and sprinkle on some seed for more fiber and healthy fat!

These are literally all dinners I have had recently, SO many pics like this because IT WORKS 👇 MOST of these dinners are around 300 calories! 🤯 Simplicity = Consistency = Success

Keep it SIMPLE, stupid! (KISS!)

S= SATIATING! Meals should be built around lean protein, fiber and healthy fats, and leave you feeling satisfied but not stuffed.

🚫 Mistake! Most people under-eat their 1st two meals of the day, and then overeat at dinner, creating a cascade affect starting with poor sleep from too much food too close to bedtime.

I= INGREDIENT-DRIVEN! For most meals, keep things ingredient-driven instead of recipe-driven, which means batch cook ingredients separately, then combine in different ways for a meal.

🚫 Mistake! Most people get bogged down with trying to make each meal too creative, as the ingredient list and complexity grows, managing and measuring food becomes much harder.

M= MENU! Know what you will be eating throughout the day, make sure you have ingredients ready and a menu in your head, don't wait until you are hungry to make these decisions!

🚫 Most people don't know what they're going to eat each day, and often wait until they're too hungry to make a good decision! This leads to poor choices, too much snacking, and under-eating nutrients needed at the actual meal.

P= PLAN & PREPARE! Have an idea of the meals you'll be eating (Menu!), schedule in your grocery shopping to have ingredients on hand, and prep things like veggies, bulk cook lean proteins, and be prepared for the week.

🚫 Most people do not schedule time in their week to make sure they have groceries, and prepare those groceries for eating! Prep the veggies instead of stuffing them in the veggie drawers (or buy pre-cut/pre-washed versions!), batch cook lean proteins and be ready for the week/end!

L= LOOSE & FLEXIBLE! Life happens more often than not, don't expect to execute ANY plan perfectly, you must be flexible. Use a "blueprint" for meals instead of strict meal plans, have a plan B always available, and be ok with "boring" most of the time!

🚫 Most people fall apart when things don't go as planned, and perceive the same foods as "boring" or not creative. Most meals should be for nourishing the body, not for entertaining the mind, simple is boring and but simple can be consistent and consistency works.

E= EXECUTE: Plans, menus, schedules, none of it means anything if you don't take action! Take imperfect action first and let go of all the "should's," learn along the way, establish a system and practice the habits that work for you.

🚫 Most people wait for motivation to start, they wait until things are perfect or put off the work "until they have more time." Just start with one action, and that action will lead to another and the results from taking action will drive motivation.

Think you eat well but still struggle to see and feel the results you'd like from your healthy lifestyle? I challenge you to recognize areas of your nutrition that could benefit from this SIMPLE concept!