Week 1

Congratulations on beginning your journey towards a healthier lifestyle! Developing healthy eating habits and fitting in regular exercise that includes cardio as well as resistance training sessions into your routine is important part of becoming healthy and fit. We are going to keep the first week simple. If you have any questions at all along the way, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Week 1

The Nutrition Plan

With this simple meal plan, you should never be hungry. Although this is a basic plan to get you started, I will be adding delicious recipes each week to show you that eating healthy meals does not have to be boring or bland.

You will eat 5-6 small meals or snacks each day. Meals/snacks will consist of protein, fruits and vegetables and carbohydrates. I suggest you limit carbohydrates to breakfast and lunch. After workouts, you should eat a snack/meal that includes 20-30 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbohydrates, for example a protein shake and fruit.

You should also drink water throughout the day. 8-10 glasses of water per day will keep you hydrated. If you enjoy coffee or tea at breakfast, that is fine. Just don’t overdo it with heavy cream and sugar.

Also, feel free to enjoy a crave meal/snack once a week. So, once a week eat pizza, a cheeseburger, a piece of cake, some cookies or whatever you really like to indulge in and don’t feel guilty about it!

Protein foods would include: protein shakes, egg whites, chicken breast, lean turkey, very lean beef, water-packed tuna, low-fat fish, and non-fat dairy, such as cottage cheese and yogurt.

Vegetables can include any green vegetable with limited amounts of corn, carrots, cauliflower, or other non-green vegetables.

Carbohydrates include oatmeal, brown rice, or sweet potato.

Minimal amounts of non-saturated fat are included, such as natural peanut butter, olive oil, avocado and almonds.

Example meal plan:

7am Breakfast
1-2 slice of rye bread toasted with a tsp of almond butter or peanut butter on each slice
6 egg whites and 2 whole eggs – scramble or create omelet with veggies
or
1 cup oats, veggie omelet, strawberries

9am Snack
fruit and a serving of non-fat yogurt or greek yogurt
or handful of almonds

12pm Lunch
4-6 oz chicken or fish
1-2 cup green veggies
sweet potato with butter or avocado

2-3pm Snack
Protein shake and some nuts
or cottage and grapes
or apple with peanut butter

5-6pm Dinner
4-6 oz chicken, lean steak, or fish
1-2 cup green veggies

9pm or so (if hungry)
Protein smoothie

The Workout Plan

Plan on doing 3-5 cardio sessions each week. Cardio should be intense and last 20-40 minutes per session. You should also do 3 resistance training sessions each week. You can do the cardio and resistance training on the same days or on alternating days.

Cardio suggestions:

• Most cable companies have free on-demand workouts that you can do right in your own living room. Choose a different cardio workout each day so that you don’t get bored
• Go for a run using interval training.  Here is an example of an interval training workout that can be done outside or on the treadmill.
• Jump rope