PiYo Meal Plan and Self-Accountability

I am working with a fun Challenge Group of 21 women who are headed into their second week of PiYo.  I am enjoying this new program right alongside of them!  After having spent four months working with the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan, I decided to go ahead and switch things up and follow along with the PiYo "Get Lean Eating Plan".  Earlier this morning I put together the image above (I used the picmonkey site which is so versatile!) in order to keep myself accountable with my own planning and progress here at home.  The stars represent how many servings I am looking to take in from each of these categories.  The serving sizes vary by category, of course!  I may be eating 5 cups of veggies but NOT 4 cups of "healthy fats"!  That category is measured in teaspoons!  :)  I then took that image and plugged it into a word document that is now printed and is hanging on my fridge.  Check it out below!  I will begin filling it in tomorrow!  I am a visual person and this sort of approach is what is most helpful to me.  Others really enjoy using the app called "My Fitness Pal" as they track calories and work to stay on course with their goals.   

The first step of meal planning is the part that changes a bit each week.  I begin by putting together a meal plan which is then used to generate my grocery list.  This process is kind of like putting together a puzzle!  You have all of the pieces and have an idea of the  completed project and it is just a matter of making it all fit properly within your own routine.  Once you get a feel for how to organize your days, this part becomes much easier than it may feel at the very beginning.  I am still playing around a bit with my own approach.  Five protein servings can be quite a bit to fit in within one day!  But as I recently shared in Protein: Why it Matters to Get Enough this is an important area to stay on track or else other things will start to go downhill!  With my veggies, I have found that if I pull out a serving of veggies and place it on a plate on the counter and snack on it while in the midst of doing other things, fitting in those five servings is not as difficult as it would be otherwise!  Veggies are also a very easy thing to eat while on the go, which is oftentimes the status of things around here.  The key step is having them R-E-A-D-Y.  Otherwise they will sit in the fridge indefinitely... until they are no longer looking so fresh!  I recently did the 3-Day Refresh and this was super-helpful with getting my mind and taste-buds in order as I begin my second week of PiYo.  I'm ready!     

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