THE LSP METHOD – LISTING, SHOPPING, PREPARING FOR AN EASY WEEK

January 23

I’ve always said that preparing is key. I remember when I used to skip a meal by accident because I had nothing with me, or a snack, and by the time I was around food, all of my armor had disintegrated to ash and I just needed food in my mouth. Not only should we eat 5-6 meals a day, every 2-3 hours, to keep our metabolism on fire, but we need to do so to control our cravings. You need to know what you can count on. You need to know what’s in store for you.

I’m sure that we can all find an excuse not to do what I’m going to ask you to do in this post, but my excuse used to simply be that I didn’t want to. I had other things to do and I felt lazy when it came to making food. So what I ended up doing all week was just torturing myself with quick and tasteless food so that by the end of the week I couldn’t even look at the food that I was eating.

So something happened a while ago. I found a couple of great recipes and I started spending every Sunday preparing them. Suddenly my life took on an entirely different feeling. I NEVER thought I could look forward to cooking in the kitchen on Sundays! NEVER. Can I say that again? Never.

Yet, here I am trying to convince you that it will be the best thing you will ever do for your taste buds and for your diet. In fact, I’ve been getting a lot of newcomers asking me how to even begin. Well, stop here. Here’s how you need to begin.

Start preparing your schedule on Sundays! Or whatever day is an indicator of the beginning of your week. Don’t worry about failure here, just sit down with a calendar and play. Pretend that you have everything under control and you don’t have to battle cravings during the week because you are so good at preparing everything in advance. Set up a schedule as though you are in control and know what you are doing.

My Sundays are spent like this: Listing, shopping, preparing. Let’s call this the LSP method. I need you all to begin the LSP method.

List all of the foods that you need to prepare before Monday. Check the cupboards to see if you have any of it and then make a grocery list.

Shop with someone or alone, it doesn’t matter…but get everything you need for a smart week.

Prepare your food and make sure to have little snack sized baggies. (I love cutting things up in my snack sized packets.)

Here is what I make weekly.

*Cereal/granola

*Protein Bars

*Meatloaf Muffins

I’ve already given you the recipe for the granola/cereal that I make. You can find it right here. http://www.tessavanwade.com/fitness-and-health/my-cereal-addiction/

The protein bars and the meatloaf muffins provide me with enough to have once a day for the rest of the week. I also cook all of these things for my mom so I usually double the recipes. I will just give you the regular recipes.

The Protein Bars. They are much like Jamie Eason’s protein bars, but I’ve changed them up a little bit. I simply cannot do splenda or any other type of fake sugar. You all know by now, how I feel about fake sugars!  It even took me a long time to be willing to test out Stevia. If you want to know why I don’t like fake sugars, check out this past post, http://www.tessavanwade.com/fitness-and-health/sweeteners-and-cellulite/chemical-cellulite/#more-555 If you don’t like the taste of Stevia, feel free to change out the Stevia for your choice in sweetener.

I call these my Spice Cake Protein Bars: (My aunt used to make this amazing spice cake and these take just like that!)

1 cup Oat Flour

2 Scoops unflavored Protein Powder or vanilla protein powder (Once again, you have to be careful with protein powder. Almost all of them will have fake sugar and additives in them! Try and find the most natural protein powder and you should be good!)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

4 egg whites

3/4 cup Stevia

8 oz. pureed carrots…or *Jamie Eason uses baby food

4 oz. water or almond breeze

–Preheat oven to 350 degrees

–Mix flour, whey protein, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt together.

–In a separate bowl, mix egg whites, Stevia, pureed carrots, and water (or almond milk).

–Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together.

–Spray 8X8 glass dish with non-stick spray.

–pour ingredients into dish.

–Bake 20-30 minutes.

Makes 16 squares. A serving is two squares.

Then I make the meatloaf muffins:

2 lbs ground turkey

3 egg whites

1 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons dry yellow mustard

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoon chipotle pepper spice

1 teaspoon salt

Jamie Eason’s, also adds: (I cannot because of slight intolerance)

2 tbsp of garlic powder

1 small onion (finely chopped)

2 celery stalks (finely chopped)

Directions:

–preheat oven to 375

–Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray

–mix all your ingredients together

–Roll the mixture into balls and place in muffin pan. Muffins should be about the size of a racquet ball.

–bake for 40 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Serving size for women, 2 muffins.

For men, 4 muffins.

Okay, so I prepare all of this on Sundays and it gives me really amazing tasting food for the rest of the week. I keep it all, including the protein bars in my refrigerator and take it out when I need it!

If you don’t know where to begin, start here! Sunday preparation day–The LSP method!

XO,

Tessa

Teeny Tiny Waist Video up tomorrow.