5 days of packed and ready food

I have talked a lot about how planning out your meals in advance will make your life and your success 1000 times easier but sometimes a visual, step by step is what it takes to make it all click into place.  While I was preparing my food for the week yesterday I took a few pics to help you out along the way.

1) Plan the meals (myfitnesspal.com), make a shopping list, go to the store.  I make one larger shopping trip every 2 weeks and a smaller one in between for more perishable items.  Since I started doing this I buy pretty much the same thing over and over so I have my list down to a science.  When chicken or turkey are on sale I buy a few extra to freeze or if it is rice cakes etc.  I just stock up because they are definitely not going bad anytime soon.  In the long run this whole process can really save you a lot of $$$.

2) Cook the food you will need
     Once a week I will make a crock pot of boneless, skinless chicken breast or 99% lean turkey meat in tomato sauce to last me for the next 5 days or so.  If I make too much I freeze the rest in a Tupperware until I will need it next week.  Be careful not to let your prepared food sit in the fridge for too many days after you cook it because you do not want to be sick.  5 days at a time is my personal rule of thumb, yours may be more or less.

3) Now that you have planned, purchased food and cooked the other food you will need it is time to pack.  
   
The first thing I do is lay out my 5 days worth of containers. This is a picture of the larger one with a removable ice pack that fits into the lid.  The smaller ones behind it fit perfectly inside, 4 small ones fit inside of each large one. These are made by fit and fresh and you can find them at target, bed bath and beyond, amazon.com and fit-fresh.com.  There are many different kinds available.

For dry, non-cold items that could be crushed inside of my bag, cooler or purse like rice cakes I simply use glad ware and lay them out, fill them and stack them.

I use a digital food scale that measures in ounces, grams and kilograms to weigh out my vegetable and meats. Which I then place in the small fit and fresh containers so they will fit inside of the larger ice pack container and stay cool while I am out of the house.

I then pack go through and pack up the 5 days of food I need for the week, I put my string cheese, yogurt, laughing cow cheese wedges and anything cold inside of the larger containers. I pre- bag my protein shakes into zip locs and place it inside of each container.  The rice cakes and my daily 1/2 PBJ sandwich are packed separately but kept next to the larger containers in the fridge so that I do not forget them when I leave the house.  The only meal I do no pre pack is breakfast because I am always home to eat breakfast so it is not going anywhere with me.

These are smaller containers that have individual ice packs, they also make special ones for salad, cereal and fruit.  I place these inside of the larger ones as well for extra refrigeration.

Now that all of the food is packed, ready and in the fridge how do you take it everywhere without looking like a complete dork?  Thankfully there is a wide variety of fashionable cooler choices available online and in stores.

The bag on the left with large polka dots is from thirty-one bags and I like it because I can fit 2 whole days of food inside, it has an outside pocket and a long cross body strap. ($30 from thirtyonegifts.com)  When I use it I also use it as a purse.  The small green bag in the middle fits one day of food, has an outside pocket and is not too bulky if you have other bags to carry or need to put it inside of another.  It is made by fit and fresh and runs about $20 they also have similar ones at target and bed bath and beyond.  The black and polka dot bag fits 2 days worth of food, has a short strap, outside pocket and I also use it as a purse/cooler to cut down on items to carry.  I purchased this on clearance at target for $7!

It may seem like all of this takes an entire day and the first one or two times that you do it it will take longer but once my food is cooked this entire process takes me 30min, every 5 days and saves me the time of making a lunch daily, going out to find food during the day and makes sticking to my diet 1000x easier.  When all of your food is by your side there is no excuse to make a bad choice and others will follow your example.  Purchasing fancy containers and coolers is not a necessity either, glad ware and icepack and the $7 cooler do a great  job of keeping you prepared.  Just find a system that works for you and use it.

Links
http://www.fit-fresh.com/?c1=GAW_SE_NW&source=USA&kw=fit_and_fresh_exm&cr5=14328025691&gclid=COzKkbOet7ACFQ8CQAodRTpz6w

http://www.thirtyonegifts.com/