Eating correct meals?

[Danielle L]

Hello. I am on day 18 of my Whole30 journey and am not noticing huge changes and my clothes seem to be getting tighter, or maybe the same but definitely not any looser. My skin is starting to clear up slightly so that is a major benefit. However, I'd like to know if I am doing this correctly!

I haven't stepped on a scale so I am not sure weight wise if I have gained or lost. I do drink about 90+ oz of water a day usually.

Anyway, I'm looking for guidance if my meals are correctly portioned. This is what a typical day looks like lately.

 

Breakfast: 3-4 eggs scrambled in ghee with broccoli & kale, a banana, 1 tbs almond butter, coconut flakes, and a sprinkle of walnuts

Lunch: 1 and 1/4 cup of A mixture of ground turkey, mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, onions, kale and garlic sauteed together, a clementine and a hard boiled egg. Handful of celery sticks/carrots with tessemae's ranch

Dinner: Spaghetti squash with homemade sauce (tomato puree with blended celery carrots and onions) and homemade meatballs (ground turkey, ground pork, carrots, celery, onions)

OR Chicken, broccoli and half a sweet potato with a salad (lettuce/spinach with cherry tomatoes and one hard boiled egg)

OR turkey burger with a salad (lettuce/spinach, cherry tomatoes, hard boiled egg, tessemae's ranch) and steamed veggies (broccoli, zucchini, sweet potato)

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

[jmcbn]

Hey @Danielle L - how long are you lasting between meals before you feel hungry?

Just running a quick over what you've listed I'd say you could drop two of the fat sources from breakfast (say the walnuts & coconut flakes), and maybe switch the banana for more veg, leaving your fruit intake until later in the day.

Is your lunch 1.5 cups worth total? Or 1.5 cups of just the turkey? Just trying to figure out if you need that hard boiled egg in terms of protein... 

Again, dinner wise, whether or not you need that HB egg depends on how much chicken you are eating. How does it relate to the size of your palm?

Are you working out at all?

[Danielle L]

@jmcbn My lunch is about 1 and 1/4 cups of the entire mixture of ground turkey, kale, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and garlic. So not 1.5 cups of just the turkey, I make the mixture together if that makes sense?

For dinner the chicken is probably 2-3 "tenderloins" size so smaller. I have very tiny hands haha so it is the size of my palm.

I typically workout 5 days a week and will eat a hard boiled egg before (I don't ever exceed more than 2 hb eggs a day. So if I eat one before working out I omit it somewhere else)

I am not hungry between breakfast and lunch, but I eat lunch at 12:10 and start getting hungry by 4:30-5

[jmcbn]

22 minutes ago, Danielle L said:

I typically workout 5 days a week and will eat a hard boiled egg before

When do you work out?

You may not actually need the preWO unless you're working out first thing in the morning...

How about a postWO meal?

[Danielle L]

@jmcbn It depends on the day. Some days I workout first thing in the morning, and in order to get to work on time I workout, eat breakfast, get ready for the day and leave.If I workout after work it's around 4 in which I will eat a pre workout meal of like hard boiled egg and workout, then it will be time for dinner (I eat dinner around 5-6.

[jmcbn]

I'd try switching that up...

The preWO is not fuel per se as it takes the body around an hr to convert the protein into fuel, so if you're WO is later in the day I'd try upping the fat & protein content of your previous meal to see you through satiety wise, then have a few bites of a lean protein when immediately you're done to help with muscle protein synthesis, then eat your next meal when you get home.

If your WO is early in the morning and you're used to training fasted then train fasted, but again follow up with a few bites of a lean protein once you're done & then follow that with breakfast. A few bites in the changing rooms is all it takes... If you're not used to training fasted then take a few bites of protein/fat (your hard boiled egg will do here), WO, then have your postWO & then breakfast.

The general rule of thumb with early morning WOs is that if NOT having a preWO means that your first meal will be more than hour after wakening then you shouldn't skip it.

Combining postWO & breakfast is counter productive as the fat (especially as much as you had in the breakfast listed above) will slow down absorption of the nutrients & prevent recover/repair of the muscles.

Hope this helps.

[Danielle L]

@jmcbn Okay so other than the workout meals, the lunch and dinner looks okay? And I'll switch breakfast to just eggs/veggie bake cooked with ghee instead.

[jmcbn]

1 minute ago, Danielle L said:

@jmcbn Okay so other than the workout meals, the lunch and dinner looks okay? And I'll switch breakfast to just eggs/veggie bake cooked with ghee instead.

Yep, I think breakfast looks fat heavy, and lunch/dinner are maybe a little fat light - unless you're being generous with the ranch... Spread the fat intake out over the course of the day, tweak your pre & postWO meals & let us know how you get on.

[Danielle L]

@jmcbn Okay, just to clarify... If I workout in the morning (wake up at 6, workout 6:15-6:45 and breakfast  around 7-7:15) I don't need a pre workout, just post lean protein followed by breakfast at 7-7:15

And if I workout from 4-4:30 (with lunch at 12:10), no pre WO, just add more protein or fat to lunch and then lean protein after working out then just have dinner around 5:30-6?

[jmcbn]

Yep, that's it - provided you're eating your postWO within an hour of wakening you should be fine. You should be fairly well fat adapted by now so your body can tap into your fat stores for fuel....