BEFORE STARTING A TRAINING PLAN
Since starting this back in June of 2023 and paying closer attention to what I’m doing for the sake of documenting the process, as well as the numerous nutrition and fitness starts and stops that have happened in the proceeding weeks, months and years, there have been a number of things that I’ve learned.
Upon reflection, these insights, apps and products that I’d like to share, my wife and I put into place slowly over time and have been hugely beneficial. These are insights that contributed greatly to the current success of our increased health-span and our ability to stay on-track amidst the hectic life we lead as parents, business owners and striving to make family time a priority.
Before embarking on a fitness and nutrition journey, I would love to share these insights with you so that they may in turn help you as well. I believe that you can fold these into the process of getting in shape and aren’t things that need to happen before getting underway, but rather in parallel.
Note: None of the companies or products mentioned have sponsored this article or any part of this site. These are solely my personal preferences.
Start researching a meal prep SERVICE, AND possibly two
I was initially resistant to the idea of prepped meals. My thinking was that we should be able to handle our regular lives and also be able to do meal prep on the weekends. I used to be much more type A before becoming a parent, but I digress. Upon researching larger meal delivery companies it also seemed cost-prohibitive and limited in dietary options and variety.
We tried our best at meal prep on our own but with our hectic personal and professional lives we just ended up throwing food out. Wasting time, money and food. Additionally we werent staying on-plan during the week and those un-planned meals easily offset any other working out or healthy eating we might’ve been doing. As Jeff Cavaliere of Athlean-X says, “You can’t out-work a poor diet.”
Once I beat my ego into submission in thinking that I should be able to handle anything I set my mind to, and realized this whole process is a journey of progress and not perfection, it started to make more sense that we needed the help to succeed. Through our trainer, Rachel Guess, she introduced us to Prepped For Days. A local, small business meal prep service. With the rising costs of eating out, and the premium cost of our time it really made sense in all ways. In addition, we get to help a small business grow.
In the end, a meal prep service has been crucial in our success week to week in keeping on target with our macros and being able to grab a container for lunch and bring it to work eliminates the temptation to eat fast-food. Currently we just use the service for lunches during the week when things can get chaotic and we insure ourselves against fast food.
I will say this however: I would look into a couple different services so that you might be able to switch up from time to time. One meal prep’s menu might get a little repetitive as we’ve found so being able to switch up is nice.
Get a good water bottle
One of the first things I attacked was my hydration. Since I was replacing sodas, energy drinks and coffee with water I wanted to ensure that I didn’t have the temptation or need to reach for anything other than my water bottle. But who knew that water bottles would one day become a style accessory? Who could’ve imagined there would be so many different ways to design something so straightforward? We have our fair share of these things in the cupboard and it’s taken quite of bit of trial and error to figure out what works best for me and the activities I do.
Hydroflask, Iron Flask, Waterdrop, Corkcicle, small ones, huge ones, glass, aluminum, squeezy, sippy, pour spout. How do you choose? Hopefully my trial and error will help. Here are some things to consider:
• Portability and VISIBILITY
Portability is probably the most important thing to consider as this little guy will become your new thirst-quenching sidekick. Whether you’re trying to fix poor hydration from too many sodas and coffee, or just making sure that you’re hitting your target water intake, you’re going to be building new habits. To this end, you’re going to need to have this with you everywhere you go.
You’ve probably all seen those guys at the gym lugging around gallons of water. There’s a part of me that understands the idea of lugging around your daily water intake, but lets be serious - we’re not in the Gobi desert baking in the relentless sun with the fear of never finding civilization. While I have a 64oz Hydroflask that I use on special occasions (specifically during martial arts belt testing which can last the entire day) I found it far too bulky to carry around on a typical day let alone carrying twice that amount to hit my 128oz of water.
I’ve found that a 24oz to 32oz works best. 24 ounces typically fits in car drink holders, however I find that I need to refill it a little too often. I finally settled on a 32oz. Enough to cover me on intense training days, but portable enough to carry with me just about anywhere.
• Easy to clean
Even drinking just straight water you’ll want to give your bottle a cleaning every so often and even more so if you use electrolyte boosters such as Liquid IV. As such, a wide-mouth bottle is much easier to deal with. The style of top becomes a consideration as well. Sip-style tops with straws end up being a pain in the butt in needing a bottle and straw cleaner. For this reason, and others that I’ll talk about below, I ended up gravitating towards a flip-up, pour-style top.
• Sustainability
The level of waste we generate as a society is very troubling and while we are making strides towards reducing our carbon footprint and the amount of resources we use for products, not just the materials for the product itself but also the packaging, shipping… So when I decide to buy something I’d do my best to find something that’s sustainable, and something I’m not going to have to replace one day.
I have a Special Edition Sea Shepherd 24 ounce glass bottle made by Waterdrop that I fill every night and set on my nightstand to drink first thing in the morning. Its made out of recycled sea-glass and the profits go towards Sea Shepherd’s on-going battle against illegal, and unsustainable commercial fishing practices.
•APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR TRAINING STYLE
For most this wont be too much of an issue, but for some, especially those that do combat sports like myself, this becomes a major consideration. Most bottles come with sip-style tops which work fine for weight training, walking and other lower-intesity workouts. Once you get into things like cycling, running, mma, and boxing, it can be extremely difficult to suck through a straw while catching your breath. For me, trying to get hydrated between 3 to 5 minute rounds of MMA while sucking wind nearly causes me to black out. Let alone trying to pick up and hold onto a bottle with gloves on.
I tried to find an old-school squeeze-style bottle and I got close looking at the medical style bottles tattoo artists use, but I didnt want plastic. Im on the hunt for a silicone, easy to clean, squeeze style bottle. But for now I went towards a pour-style top.
Water tracking app
The majority of Americans are dehydrated and get what water they do from coffee and sugary drinks. I decided to make this one of my top priorities when starting off on my journey. Replacing energy drinks, sodas and coffee with water or healthier forms of soda and coffee.
In order to do that, one of the tools I use daily is a water tracking app. Our memories are flawed so this has been crucial in my awareness of my hydration and hitting my target intake each day.
There are a number of apps out there that will do this for you, but find one that is easy to use, adjusts for your activity level and provides some sort of positive feedback.
Ditch the cook books.. for now
Time is a serious commodity, and one of the first goals for us was to get macros on target. Not to spend hours in the kitchen learning new recipies each week. That came later.
If you have healthy go-to recipies already.. then use em. Air fryer chicken and broccoli? Great. Single pot meals in 30 minutes? Fantastic. Even if they are not super clean and healthy, its better than eating out. Otherwise, take a trip to Trader Joe’s or Sprouts to find some quick meals that you can throw together. What weve learned is that youre building new habits, so consistency is key. You can add complexity later once youre in a groove.
Once there, you can start trying out new recipes on the weekend and fine tune them so you can whip em out quickly during the week.
Good cooking tools
You are going to be in the kitchen a lot, and youre going to want to enjoy it. Nothing makes more of a difference than having good tools to make cooking fun.
Pots and pans. I hate the idea of re-buying things. I prefer to save up and buy once. So when we were able to afford some good cooking pans I went with a set of non-stick and 7-layer stainless steel Demeyere pots and pans and couldnt be happier to be in the kitchen.
Kitchen knives. We saved up and purchased a set of damascus steel knives that look great and stay razor sharp. But we have a couple tried and true Henckles knives that my Mom gave my wife as a wedding gift.
Carbon steel pan. A small 6-inch pan that I use pretty much every day. Thats no exaggeration. Breakfast meats are fantastic in this thing that cook up with a nice sear like a cast iron. I just need to get a bigger one now that our son is eating like Pac-Man after a pwoer-up.
A Non-stick omelette pan. If you cant afford a full set of pots and pans, getting a good quality omelette pan is a great place to start. Versatile, easy to clean and you wont find a time when you dont need it.
Good blender
As I mentioned before, I prefer to research, save and buy something ONCE. Few things drive me crazier than poorly engineered, designed and disposable products. So I don’t have a comparison of one blender to another, or any experience on how well the Ninja series are.. all I can say is that our Vitamix has worked flawlessly for YEARS.
Cuz we use ours EVERYDAY.
Fast cooking tools
Air fryer.
Small countertop convection oven. Ours is a Wolff.
InstaPot.
With these three items, apart from the stovetop, we could ditch our oven. Our microwave has turned into a great, above-the-stove breadbox and we store extra pots and pans in the oven.
Good protien power
Though the end goal is to not eat as much protien powder, meal replacements and bars, when starting out these have been really helpful for us to maintain our target macros. Once you start tracking your nutrition youll quickly realize that its a challenge to get enough protien.
Theres some that are good for mixing in cold drinks, but dont cook up well. Some that cook well that dont taste good in drinks. Exotic flavors get too much after a while so we went with a basic chocolate and a vanilla. Either of which work well in coffee or mud/wtr.
GOOD MEAL REPLACEMENT
One of the more challenging things we’ve discovered in having a balanced diet and hitting desired macro targets is the ability to find so-called protein bars that don’t also contain a large amount of carbohydrates or are highly processed. Ideally, I’d want to eat as whole as possible but the fact is, it’s just not realistic and there are times where you need a meal replacement to avoid making a bad choice.
More balanced than a straight protien powder, a meal-replacement has a little more to offer. Some carbs in the form of fiber, and vitamins and minerals. We ended up going with Ka’Chava for all it has to offer and doesnt have a load of fillers in it.