When you ask most coaches for advice, they tend to fall into two categories:
- The “This Worked for Me, So It’ll Work for Everybody” coach who only knows one way and proudly denounces all other methods as inferior
- The “It Depends” coach who refuses to provide any actionable advice, but rather goes on a useless tangent about complex theories to try to sound smart
Neither of these coaches are helpful. And when most of my clients ask for nutrition advice, they’ll often say, “Just tell me what to eat and I’ll eat it.” Their enthusiasm is admirable, but when they actually hear what they should be eating, they back away slowly, realizing that they’re not ready to totally revamp their nutrition habits from nothing to something.
I do think it’s important to understand the basic methods behind the madness. For nutrition, that means learning about calorie balance, macronutrients, meal timing and food composition. But I also think it’s helpful to see what someone else does who’s been successful with nutrition. Success leaves clues, after all.
A common thread among people who have a handle on nutrition: they all have a solid meal prep routine. They make their food ahead of time so they have complete control over what they eat every day. So today I share with you my personal meal prep routine that I do every Sunday. It covers the foundational nutrition principles for someone who wants to be healthy, train hard and stay relatively lean. It won’t be perfect for everyone because I’m just one person, and we’re all different. However, I think it’s a good example of what it takes to prioritize nutrition and should give you a jumping-off point for your own routine.
STEP 1: THE INGREDIENTS
My meal prep includes the same category of ingredients each week:
- Lean protein (chicken breast)
- Fattier protein (beef or chicken thighs)
- Vegetable (kale, spinach, broccoli or collard greens)
- Carb (rice)
- Seasonings (salt, pepper, olive oil and marinade)
Working within these categories rather than sticking to specific foods lets me add variety to prevent boredom while knowing that my calories and macros will be fairly consistent.
I prep two protein sources for two reasons:
- I love steak, but I’ll end up eating too much fat (and therefore too many calories) if I eat it as my protein at every meal
- My wife is vegetarian, so I prep extra protein to add to my dinner at night
STEP 2: PREP THE PROTEIN
Once I have all the ingredients, I prep the protein sources. These are two crucial steps so the meat actually tastes good. And if your prepped food tastes good, you won’t hate your life and be tempted to go off your meal prep plan.
A few hours before I’m going to cook, I marinate the chicken in olive oil, salt and pepper, and let it sit in the fridge. Then I season the steak with salt, pepper and a light marinade (usually a combination of teriyaki sauce and soy sauce) and put it in the sous vide for a couple hours.
The sous vide is an absolute game changer. If you say you like cooking steak but don’t have a sous vide, I don’t believe you actually like cooking steak. The temperature control lets you cook the inside to the exact doneness you want (medium rare unless you like ruined steak), avoiding the typical burnt outside/undercooked inside conundrum that often comes with broiling or grilling. It takes the cheaper, leaner cuts (like the London broil I used here) and makes it tender and delicious. And it makes fancy cuts like rib eye and New York strip taste like heaven on earth. Here’s the one I use.
STEP 3: FINISH THE PROTEIN
I usually let the beef cook in the sous vide for 4-5 hours at 120 degrees. When there’s about 20 minutes left, I grill the chicken (and drink a beer). I don’t time it, but I set the grill at medium-high heat and use my grilling instincts to know when it’s done. Is that even worse advice than “it depends”?
Once the chicken’s done, I sear the beef on a cast iron skillet. I get the skillet as hot as possible, then sear each steak in butter. If the skillet is super hot, this will only take about 30 seconds per side to get a crispy sear.
Here’s the finished product, including a shot of the perfect medium rare center. This is the sexiest thing you can look at without a NSFW tag.
STEP 4: COOK THE VEGGIES
As soon as the steak is done, I reduce the temperature on the cast iron to medium-low and toss the veggies in the same pan. There will be juicy goodness left over from the steak that makes the veggies taste better. I toss in a ton of veggies and season with salt and pepper. Just before they’re done, I add a little balsamic vinegar. Leafy veggies like kale and spinach cook really quick, but broccoli takes a little longer.
STEP 5: COOK THE RICE
While I’m cooking the steak, I set a pot of water to boil and season the water with salt. Once it’s boiling, I put in 2 cups of dry rice, reduce to low heat and cook for 13-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
STEP 6: PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
I like to package my meal prep food into a big container and leave it in the fridge at the gym, then scoop it out into smaller containers when I’m ready to eat. I prefer this to packaging all my meals individually, but it’s just personal preference.
This requires me to chop up all the beef and chicken, which can be a pain in the ass. However, it only takes a few minutes and makes my eating experience better throughout the week.
When it’s all said and done, I have a big “bucket” that I leave at the gym, plus extra beef and chicken to add to breakfast and dinner at home. There’s tons of kale at the bottom of that bucket, I swear.
DAILY MEALS
So what do I end up eating on a daily basis? Here’s how it usually breaks down:
5:30 AM: Coffee with a tiny bit of cream
7:30 AM: 3 eggs scrambled with beef, cheese and veggies (peppers or greens), oatmeal
10:00 AM: Chicken and either fruit or veggies (pre-training meal on my drive to the gym)
1:00 PM: Whey protein in water (post-training)
1:30 PM: Beef, rice and veggies from the bucket
3:30-8:00 PM: Another beef, rice and veggie serving whenever I can sneak it in between coaching groups
9:00 PM: Dinner at home, adding chicken to whatever my wife cooked
That’s a very typical day of eating for me. I tend to make terrible on-the-fly nutrition choices if I have to stop to buy food during the day, so the meal prep ritual on Sundays is non-negotiable for me.
If you’re looking to start your own meal prep routine, or you’ve been prepping your food but need some refinement, I hope this gives you some insight.
