Day 2 — Diet, Meal Prep, and All That Jazz.
How it began
I started my fitness journey back in 2016. I hit the gym not because I wanted to look all buffed and muscular just like Arnold Schwarzenegger (I hope I typed his name correctly), but for health reasons. My grandma had diabetes and it was very likely it could be passed down to me if I didn’t take care of my lifestyle…So to the gym I went.
I wasn’t the fittest kid in the block back then — I looked like a walking cotton swab/q-tips with a fat belly. I’m serious! I mean, I was very skinny and had a curly, puffy-afro hairstyle…Skinny fat, I believe that’s the term. I tried to hit the gym occasionally to get them gains, but here’s the problem: after spending eons in the gym working out and beating myself up, I didn’t see any notable results. Like, none! I still looked like a walking cotton swab. Until to the point where I told this friendly gym manager my concerns, and he replied with “Did you know that working out in the gym is just 25% of the battle, the rest of 75% is in your kitchen?”. Yes, you got it right — your diet is the key to shape your body.
Wait, did he tell me to lose more weight?!
When I heard those words come out from the gym manager, I was taken aback. I mean I was already skinny, and he told me to go on a diet? Of course, I didn’t understand the meaning of the words back then. I thought I was supposed to cut down my food intake, but actually what he meant was I had to pay extra attention to the nutrition aspect of my fitness journey. What I didn’t know was diet can also refer to the food and drink a person consumes daily, and the mental and physical circumstances connected to eating. The misconception about diet is you should eat less, you will be grumpy and hungry all the time, etc. But it’s wrong! Diet is about choosing what you eat carefully. Sometimes you have to eat more than you usually do, but it has to be clean and healthy food.
To sum it up, I just have to choose wisely what I eat and restrict myself from eating food that I shouldn’t eat. Sounds simple, eh? It’s actually a battle with yourself and it’s a great chance to learn how to control yourself. Trust me, it’s really hard. That’s why I really admire people with well-built body because it takes a lot of dedication to be where they are right now!
My homework is I have to eat clean to gain weight, and I have to lose fat on my belly at the same time thanks to the countless excessive sugary food I ate years ago. And after struggling with building the habit of eating smart and tracking what I eat, I found the best way for me to control what I eat: making meal prep!
The solution
Meal preparation, sometimes called “meal prep,” is the process of planning and preparing meals. It forces you to think ahead on what you’re going to eat. As we know, everyone has their own macro nutrition that they have to fulfill daily which consists of three things: carbohydrate (rice, potatoes, corn, etc), protein (eggs, chicken, beef, fish, soybean) and fat (almond, peanut butter, yogurts, avocados, etc). Cooking meal prep makes sure your meals contain the three macro nutrition that your body needs. I usually cook my lunches on Sundays, so I can bring it to the office and I don’t have to waste time every morning/evening to cook just for that day. The best part of meal prep: you get to decide whatever you want to eat, but no processed food, canned food, deep-fried food, or something too fatty. But you can always be creative with the menu!
I usually store them in the fridge, not in the freezer. As long as the food is not too watery/you separate the watery food with the dry ones and keep the lid close tight, the food can last up to 5 days. Enough for your lunches in the office during weekdays. I started small by cooking just 3 lunch boxes, gradually increased them and then eventually cooked them for dinner too.
What I’ve learned so far
I learned how to control myself. Really, turning down invitations to go for lunch outside with coworkers was really hard…but now I can control my spending on food (hey I saved A LOT because I cook everything I eat!). I go out to eat sometimes, but meal prep has helped me to control what I eat. I think I lost 5 kgs of body weight during the course of 2 months doing this…This was good because it was clean weight loss — I burned the fat, but I kept the muscle mass and bone density intact! Apparently, if you diet the wrong way (just eating way less than you should and not reaching the target macros) might damage your body internal parts, something that you don’t want to happen.
I think an article wouldn’t be enough to share some tips about meal prep, so feel free to reach out to me through my Instagram if you have any questions or need tips on how to start doing this. My tips: start small, but keep on doing it until you reach your goal. Good luck!
This article is part of the HENNGE Advent Calendar 2019. An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting down the days till Christmas. HENNGE Advent Calendar 2019 presents one article by one HENNGE member per day for 25 days until Christmas, 2019.
