Here's what a 1600-1800 Calorie Meal Plan looks like

One of the biggest keys to success with your nutrition: keep only good food in your house and you'll only be able to eat good food! Save your treat meals for outside your house or in the car ride home and make sure you only stock up on the good stuff. This week I'm happy to share a 1600-1800 calorie meal plan.

If you're new to counting calories, I would suggest consulting a doctor before choosing a calorie range for your body.

Things to keep in mind:

Before we dive into this week's meal plan, I wanted to share some basic nutrition principles I follow summed up:

1. Eat Whole Foods - If there's only one ingredient in most of the foods you're buying, that's a good sign.
2. Avoid processed foods - That's where you really run into trouble & fake chemicals. If you're looking at "healthier", minimally processed foods, make sure to read the label thoroughly.
3. Eliminate refined sugar - I stay away from heavily processed sugar and use stevia sparingly.
4. Cook your own meals - This is how I ensure the ingredients & oils in my food are up to par.
5. Stay hydrated - This is key as often times we can confuse hunger with dehydration. Also your body needs to be properly hydrated to be running efficiently.
6. Portion control and smaller Meal Prep containers are a major key. Read more about portion control here.

Now let's get into this week's meal prep breakdown.

Here is what an 1800 Calorie Day Looks like:

• 7:00am Pre-Workout: Beachbody Performance Pre-Workout + Kaged Muscle Pure BCAAs
• 9:00am Meal 1 (post workout): Overnight Oats: ½ cups oats, 1 scoop chocolate protein, water & ½ cup strawberry
• 11:00am Snack 1: Sacha Inchi Seeds
• 1:00pm Lunch: 4oz ground turkey seasoned with Everything Spicy Flavorgod, ½ a yellow bell pepper, ½ a red bell pepper, & ½ cup cherry tomatoes + half a lime.
• 3:00pm Supper: 4 oz chicken, half cup green beans, ½ cup purple cabbage (sauteed in 1-2 teaspoon olive oil), & micro kale.
• 6:00pm Dinner: 4oz ground bison (seasoned with turmeric, cumin, garlic powder & black pepper), ½ cup purple cabbage, 1 cup cauliflower rice & ½ cup broccoli.
• 8:00pm Night Snack: 1 cup cottage cheese & 3 cups popped popcorn

Some highlights from this week's meal plan:

1)  Cauliflower Rice - While there's nothing wrong with rice, Cauliflower rice can save you calories and carbs for other meals like oatmeal or sweet potato. 1 cup of cauliflower rice = 33 calories & 5.3g carbs 2.6 g fiber VS. 1 cup white rice = 206 calories & 45g carbs 0.6g fiber. Plus Cauliflower is packed with vitamin C, also has vitamin K, vitamin B6, folate, choline+ more. All you have to do is blend/pulse Cauliflower to make it!

2) Sacha Inchi Seeds - ¼ cup has 170 calories 13g fat | 5g Carbs , 5g Fiber | 8g protein. The seeds are packed with omega 3, 6 & 9, alpha tocopherol, vitamin E, and carotenoids (Vitamin A). The omegas and healthy Fats are perfect brain fuel & help to fight off inflammation which reduce the risk of depression, fatigue, & memory issues.

3️) Micro Kale - A recent study shows that microgreens may have up to 4-6 times the nutrients of the mature plants. I love any excuse to get on more greens and these mini plants go well with a variety of meals.

1800 Calorie Meal Plans:

Here are 4 Sample meal plans. Each menu targets the calorie range between 1800-2000 calories. Click on each image to go to the menu

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Sources:

• https://draxe.com/cauliflower/
• http://www.superlife.com/sacha-inchi/
• http://healthfullyeverafter.co/food-nutrition-recipe-blog/2012/11/05/trendy-greens-micro-kale-nutrition
• https://www.instagram.com/meowmeix/