Episode 148: Will Macros Work If I Hate to Cook?

If you've hung out in the world of MindStrong before, you know that I (Rachel, Founder & CEO of MindStrong) am not a chef. 

Here are my favorite tips for sticking with your goals when the kitchen is not your happy place ;) 

Grab a copy of 8 Ways to Add Protein to Meals You're Already Eating right here: 8 Ways to Add Protein Guide

To schedule your free 1-1 Strategy Session visit:
www.MindStrongFitness.com

Transcript

Becoming MindStrong: 148: Will Macros Work If I Hate to Cook?

0:00  
Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast. My name is Rachel, and I'm the founder and CEO of mind strong, where our goal in life is to educate every single, very and post menopausal woman on the face of the earth. It's a lofty goal of not just how to heal their metabolism, not just to lose weight or gain muscle or whatever their personal goal is, but most importantly, as an educator, to have what I call the keys to the kingdom, to understand the how and why. So on the other side of this, you don't need us or anyone else. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that your girl hates to cook a chef. I am not. I do not enjoy it. I have no interest in getting better at it. And with that said inside ignite our signature 12 week program. Of course, we have recipes, right? How could you have a nutrition based company without some recipes? And every single recipe that we have, I have hired someone to help me put together. Because when people say to me, Hey, Rachel, can you give me a recipe for this? My answer is, you are barking up the wrong tree. You do not want my recipes because, number one, they don't exist, and number two, they're about the equivalent of a recipe that a three year old would put together with their little kitty knives in the kitchen. So in today's episode, it feels appropriate that we're talking about how to hit your macros when you hate to cook. Check it out.

1:22  
You welcome to the becoming mind strong podcast, the official podcast of mind strong fitness. My name is Rachel, and I'm the CEO of mind strong and we are here for two things. We're here for hope in a stage of life where it feels like we are doing everything right and nothing is working. I am here to tell you you are not broken. This is fixable, and I promise there is hope. And number two, we are here for truth in an industry that is designed to keep us confused with shake systems and point systems and frozen meals. I promise you, it doesn't have to be that difficult. Someone can teach you the skill of riding a bike, someone can teach you the skill of knitting, and I can teach you to master the skill of nutrition. So are you ready? Let's rock and roll. You.

2:25  
Anytime I do an episode about macros, specifically, I like to put a little little pause at the front and say, if you are not familiar with macros, pause this episode. Go back in time. I've got tons of episodes that go deep in the weeds about what macros are, why I consider them the most sustainable approach to nutrition? Why? If I, as a teacher, differentiated learning is real. If I believe there were 10 approaches to nutrition that were sustainable, I would, I would teach 10 and say, let's pick what works for you. In over a decade in this industry, the only thing I teach is macros because I consider to them to be the single most sustainable approach to nutrition, because they're not based on restriction, and they are the necessary temporary training ground to get to intuitive eating. So all that said, if when you're hearing me say the word macros, you're a little deer in headlightsy and Rachel, I don't know what you're talking about, pause this episode. Do not start with this as your first introduction to the mind strong podcast. Go back. I got lots of them there. I think there's a two part series that's like everything you need to know about macros. That's a good one to start with, and then come back here. So as you heard me say in the intro, yeah, girl is not a chef. I do not enjoy it. There was a time in life kind of like cardio. This is a similar conversation to cardio. When I was younger. I went through a period where I loved running. I went through a period where I love to cook. That version of me does not exist anymore. Food for me now is pretty black or white. As someone who doesn't like being a black or white person, it's black or white. Either it's get food into my body because I just need to eat and fuel it, or I do love really good food. It's a Bougie restaurant. It's my partner's one of the best chefs that I know, like, I can sit down and enjoy some good food. I just don't want to be the one that cooks it. If I'm cooking for myself, it's like, just get food in my body to feel me. So I often get asked, you know, can I track macros in our world is, can I do ignite our signature 12 week program if I hate to cook? And when I get asked that question, it's, oh, now you're barking up the right tree. Now you're talking to the right person. Because big, big, same, I do not eat three square meals a day. If I can get a square meal in, I am here for it. So if you are someone who hates to cook, we're going to talk through, you know, I love a three tips, right? We're going to talk about, got it three tips of how you can, quote, unquote, do macros. Number one is a meal prep service. And that sounds so simple, but a lot of people don't think of it. There are tons of meal prep services out there that are not crazy expensive, if you look at if you think about what you spend in groceries, and you swap it for a meal prep service, because essentially, that cash is going to be replaced by this cash.

5:00  
It's not drastically different for a lot of people. Obviously that depends on your family size and how many meals a day you're doing, but I think sometimes people hear that and jump straight to that's expensive. Run the numbers. Let the data speak for itself. Sometimes it's not that bad. What I love about a lot of these macro or these meal prep services are a lot of them are macro specific, so you can actually customize your meals to if you're looking for protein, heavy, if you're looking for less carb, which I don't ever want. So in doing low carb, but maybe you want to fill in your carbs with snacks, not with the meals. Whatever specifications you want. The vast majority of these these meal prep companies now you can specify real quickly if you need some help with protein, one of my favorite guides that I have out there is called eight ways to add protein to meals you're already eating, and it even includes a whole bunch of vegan and vegetarian options. You can go to mind strong fitness.com/protein,

5:56  
guide, or just use the link in the comments below to grab your copy. Now let's get back to the episode, and those go to extremes, right? You've got the companies where they have pre designed meals that they'll show you the macros, and you can filter by low carb, high protein, gluten free, whatever the case may be. And there are even meal prep companies that are macro specific, like, I want 30 grams of protein. I'm going to do six ounces of chicken, and I'm going to do one cup of rice, and I want a cup of veggies, like you can customize to that level. So if you're someone who hates to cook, this is what I used to do when when I was single and I was not going to cook for myself, and it was either not eat all day or get some help somewhere. I used to use a meal prep service. My kind of hack for those, the most expensive part is the shipping, right? Because they're trying to keep the food fresh, so it's overnight shipping. So I would buy in two week batches and just freeze them. Not exactly ideal, because now you're basically having microwave foods. And we all know microwaved chicken isn't the greatest and if you're trying to be cost effective, which, back then I was, it was about, I say, back then, just because I don't use them anymore,

7:08  
then I would order two weeks at a time and just kind of freeze them. But I love a meal prep service, because then, if you're busy, right? And then, by the way, even if you are someone who loves to cook, it's still a great idea, because if you're busy and you're working all the time and you don't have time to pause and make lunch. You just grab it, you heat it up. Maybe you don't do a full week. Maybe you just do a few days at a time. You can keep them in the fridge. They're a little bit more fresh. So if you ate to cook, meal prep service is a fantastic way to go, especially in this day and age. We've got tons of options for how specific we can be.

7:38  
Option two and three, kind of go together. Meals don't have to be complex, like there are two meals that I can cook, and that is eggs with some some sourdough toast or a bagel, or whatever I'm going to do on the side, and pasta. I love chickpea pasta, lentil pastel. They tend to be higher in protein. I can cook those two things. So if I am going to be left up to my own devices and cook, I'll have eggs at, say, in the morning, but it's usually more like mid afternoon by the time I get to it. So I'll make myself some eggs and sourdough toast. Let's call it for ease of conversation. And then if I'm still up to my own devices and I have to cook for myself, I'll make some pasta for dinner. Then here's why two and three go in together. I'm going to fill in the day with snacks. I personally, as someone who hates to cook and someone who works a lot, I rely heavy on snacks when, when we go to the supermarket or we order Instacart, and it's like, what do we need? And then 80% of my order is my go to snacks. So I'm always looking for higher protein snacks. It's I have episodes about this in the past. I love, like, dried edamame. I am someone who will do protein bars and shakes now and then. I love having fruit in the house, because it's a great way to get carbs in with with fiber, with vitamins, with minerals, so and it and I don't have to cook it. I can grab a banana and come right back to my office right I can eat a banana while I'm typing. So the way that I hit my macros, I don't use meal prep services anymore.

9:06  
If I were left up to my own devices for weeks at a time, I would go back to that. I will do one simple meal, maybe two simple meals in a day, and then I'll fill in the rest of the day with snacks. The other thing I love about snacks is it gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility, right? It's a lot easier to be like, Well, I have 12 grams of protein left, and again, I'm getting in the weeds here. So if you're new to Macros, like, plug your ears, ignore this part, right? But if I only have 12 grams of protein left at the end of the day, that's a lot easier to fill with snacks than how do I balance my dinner plate to hit my macros. So snacks just have a lot more flexibility with it. The last thing I'll say, and I'm going to kind of tie all three of these together, the meal prep, simple meals and snacks, is even in the days that I was doing meal prep, I only got, I think, one or two meals a day. I did not do breakfast through them, because I can make eggs, and I like eggs, I would do.

10:00  
Their lunch and dinner, or even just dinner some days, because here's where it ties in. I would fill in the rest with simple meals, like my eggs and snacks. I've always been a person. I'm saying the word snacks a lot, but I've always been a person who relies heavy on snacks to fill it in, because it's super simple. It's grab and go. I can sit at my desk. I don't have to think about it. And with time, you learn your go to snacks, and then they introduce something new, or a friend tells you about a new one, and you're like, oh, that sounds delicious and simple, and you add in a new snack. I'm not going to go too down, deep down the snack rabbit hole, because I have lots of podcasts on it, podcasts on it in past episodes. But there's, there's these little packets of, like, dried edamame that I love. Dried chickpeas are fantastic. You can get them with some, like, flavoring, which are delicious. Again, I'll grab a protein bar and a pinch. I'll grab a protein shake and a pinch. You heard me say I love fruit. All these little simple, easy things that help me hit my macros so quick and quick and punchy today, if you are someone who hates to cook. The question I get a lot is, can I still do macros? The answer is, you preach into the choir. If I can do it for over a decade, you can do it too. I love a meal prep service to get more of a heartier meal in. So we're not relying on simple meals and snacks. If that's not in the cards for you, simple meals will do the trick. You can tweak and adjust them, right? If you are someone who eats eggs, add some extra egg whites in there. It's a great way to get more protein. If you're someone who doesn't do eggs, you can make a tofu scramble, right? These simple meals can can be beefed up, so to speak, pretty easily. And then my lifeline, the way that I live life, no matter if I'm using simple meals or meal prep or not is finding and by the way, your snacks do not have to be protein based, and most of us struggle the most with getting protein in which is why I lean heavy in that direction. But obviously you heard me mention fruit that is a carb based snack. The more, the more variety of snacks you can have, the less, the less board you're going to get. And then you can pick and choose depending on which macro you need to fill for the day. So can you do macros if you hate to cook? I'm living breathing proof. The answer is absolutely yes.

12:12  
For more information on mind strong fitness, or to apply for a free one to one strategy session with my incredible all female team, visit www dot mindstrong fitness.com, you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai