K.I.S.S

At Sisters Care, planning has been one of our keys to success, today we want to share a planning strategy that has saved us time and money. These suggestions and our weekly meal plans along with our recipes can help you stay focused on YOUR HEALTH and a successful weight loss journey.

As I look back in time and think about all the failed diets in my lifetime, I believe they failed due to poor planning. Diets of reducing calories and eating salads made me sick and tired of the new fad diet I was on, and would soon retreat back to eating all the wrong things; why because it's what I knew and what was EASY!

In 2018, I joined the Slenderiiz program. When I joined the program I was on my own no coach, no meal plans, no Facebook group, no recipes, just a girl who needed this to work. I went on a mission to find a way to make this easy for me and the more success stories I read online the #1 thing that kept these successful "dieters" on track was meal prepping and today I want to share this with you.

First and foremost you have to keep it SIMPLE. When you first start out on our program you are going to be given a meal plan with lots of recipes, however, we do not want to overwhelm you, so use the meal plan as a guide, there is no reason you have to try a new recipe for every meal every day. Look through the recipes for the ingredients you love and start out slow, choose easy recipes with easy prep. Or stick to the basics lots of veggies, protein, and healthy fat, then on weekends try a new recipe. When week 3 rolls around you are going to be feeling fabulous, you will notice more energy and you will be ready to take on new recipes.

Step One: Planning

Pick your planning day, I like to use Friday evening, so I have time to do my grocery shopping and meal prep before Monday rolls around. Plan your meals around your schedule. If you have things with the kids, plan to make the grab and go recipes so while you are at Mcdonald's with the kids you have healthy snacks that you can eat that won't tempt you for that Fillet o Fish or french fries...

You can find tons of meal ideas in the recipe section on the website and is a great place to start your planning.

Once you have your meals planned out for the week and you know what you will be having each day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (this is important to plan for ALL meals - and snacks!) it’s time to create your grocery list based on of the amount of food that you will need.

Step two - Shopping for ingredients -

Saturday is my day for shopping, so I always go through the fridge, the freezer, pantry, and spice shelf to see which items I have available for my meal plan. Trust me there is nothing more frustrating than thinking you have garlic powder and when you go to use it, you out so always check before you leave the house.

Once I get home from shopping, I put away my spices, however, I keep all my fresh veggies and proteins for the week in my shopping bags till Sunday morning.

Step 3 - Meal prep

I like to do meal prep twice a week - Sunday morning and Wednesday night. Turning on some music always makes this more fun. Sunday is meal prep for Sunday night, Monday night, and Tuesday night. Wednesday night is always a left-over night, which gives me time to meal prep Thursday, Friday & Saturday. I find I have more room in my fridge when I meal prep this way. Please find a way that works best for you.

Meal prep - Getting our meat ready:

• Prepare meat that you can simply reheat when you are ready for it - ie Chicken or beef that can be easily added to salads or heated up quickly for any meal.

• Prepare raw meat by seasoning and marinating it and storing it in the fridge. Raw meat will be ready to pop in the oven or on the grill for a fresher recipe

Meal Prep - Veggies and Sides

• Pre-wash and chop your salad vegetables in advance. This saves a lot of time when you're ready to make a salad.

• Cut up celery, peppers, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, etc keep them in glass containers in the fridge.

• Prepare your sides for the week (Rutabega fries/cauliflower rice or slicing the Brussel sprouts, or spiralize zucchini.

Meal prep - Salad Dressings/Mayo * twice a month*

Salad dressings will stay fresh for two weeks in the fridge so I always make two kinds, one for Caesar salad and one for a garden salad. I also make up any mayo that I may need for the next two weeks. Make up your favorites and keep them in the fridge for easy access.

Frozen veggies also work well as a side dish and can be easily sauteed with coconut oil or ghee with some seasoning and are sometimes way easier to implement when starting out.

Meal prep has become one of the most important steps to making this "EASY" and without EASY, I know these lifestyle changes may not have stuck for us. Almost 3 years and my husband Royce and I still meal plan, and try new healthy recipes, it has become what we know...,

I hope you implement some of these Meal Prep strategies and you find your new lifestyle changes bring more energy, more health, and more confidence.

Remember K.I.S.S - Keep it, Simple Sweetheart!