Fortis After Hours Podcast
Welcome to the Fortis After Hours Podcast!
Join Nate and Liz as they dive into unfiltered conversations about fitness, mental health, relationships, powerlifting, and everything in between. From navigating life as a married couple running a business together, to chasing PRs and personal growth outside of the gym, no topic is off-limits.
Expect honest insights, practical advice, and plenty of healthy banter as we redefine what strong really means in and out of the gym.
Fortis After Hours Podcast
FOUR | The Real Cost of Healthy Eating: Why Meal Prepping Saves Money and Time
Ever find yourself staring blankly into your fridge at the end of a long day, wondering what to eat? That daily struggle disappears when you embrace meal prepping, even if you don't particularly enjoy the process itself.
The concept seems simple enough: dedicate a few hours on the weekend to prepare your meals for the upcoming week. Yet a constant misconception exists that eating healthy is somehow more expensive than grabbing fast food or throwing together random meals. We tackle this head-on with actual numbers, revealing how a basic meal prep of chicken and rice can cost as little as $20-30 per week, a fraction of what you'd spend eating out.
Time savings are equally impressive. The math doesn't lie: spending 2-3 hours meal prepping once versus 7+ hours cooking individual meals throughout the week. Plus, there's the mental relief of eliminating decision fatigue around food choices. For those worried about eating the same thing repeatedly, we share practical strategies like preparing proteins plain and adding different seasonings daily to create variety without additional work.
We also explore how different fitness goals can coexist, addressing whether someone can successfully combine running with powerlifting. Drawing from personal experience, we discuss how strategic scheduling, proper recovery, and adequate hydration make this combination not just possible, but potentially successful.
Looking ahead, our powerlifting team is gearing up for PLU Nationals in Texas next May, and we're inviting interested lifters to join us.
Ready to transform your nutrition approach and reclaim hours of your week? Give meal prepping a genuine try, your future self will thank you when you're opening that first perfectly prepared container on Monday morning.
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HOSTED BY
@lizribaudo_fortis
@nateribaudo_fortis
What's going on you guys? Welcome to another episode of the Fortis after hours podcast. I'm your co-host, nate, joined by my wife, liz hey, and we have another awesome episode planned for you guys today. This is episode 4 of it's like, since our rebrand which I kind of like started a new season, rebranded everything, but this is the 200th episode of a podcast that I've ever recorded in my life Should we have started at a whole nother podcast?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I kind of just like that. I've ever recorded in my life. Should we have started a whole nother podcast? I don't know, I kind of just like that. It's the same thing. Maybe I should have started another one. I don't know, I'm not really like, I just like talking. We're just here, guys. Yeah, exactly, we're just here vibing. I don't really know how to grow a podcast or anything like that, but we appreciate all you guys that have stuck around this long or maybe have joined us along the journey. I feel like we have a lot of people that have just kind of come along over the years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And now we have a little bit of a following on here. So that's pretty awesome and we appreciate you guys tuning in each week that I drop one and yeah, so stay tuned for more. We do have today kind of a mixed bag of an episode, but I want to start off talking about some meal prepping, um, because I feel like I've been getting a lot of I don't know. I feel like that's just come up a lot questions, comments concerns yeah, so we're going to talk about meal prepping.
Speaker 1:Um, maybe give you guys some tips and tricks on how you can be successful with your meal prep. I'm also going to debunk the fact and myth, excuse me. Debunk the myth and prove to you that it is a fact that meal prepping is cheaper than not. I don't know where that came into existence somewhere, probably in like the early 2000s. Like, oh, it's expensive to eat healthy. No, it's not. It's literally cheaper. So I'm going to debunk that with real math.
Speaker 1:You're so good at math, yeah, nate math, but I mean it will include real numbers, um, anyways, yeah, so we're gonna be talking about that. We also put up a little question thing earlier and got some good questions and got a funny question, so we'll probably answer all those, I, I guess. Okay, but we'll do that later, okay, and oh, yeah, and stick around. At the end we're going to talk about our plans for powerlifting, for our powerlifting team, but we're going to do that at the end.
Speaker 2:It's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now will I remember all of this in that order.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:That's what Liz is here for? Uh-oh, I don't know that's what Liz is here for, uh-oh. So if it's not in that order, liz's fault.
Speaker 2:Uh-oh.
Speaker 1:Okay. So yeah, first thing. First let's talk about meal prepping, because I don't know, like Liz said, I feel like it's been like a topic hot topic as of late. So the first question before we get into it would be like did you ever meal prep before you met me, or no?
Speaker 1:no, uh, no, just simply no okay, yeah, I remember when I first meal, prep my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches yeah, I was gonna say she was like eating like cheetos and salads and stuff, no, for dinner you always say that it was literally a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and baked Cheetos and an apple.
Speaker 2:And sometimes I would have eggs and English muffins.
Speaker 1:For dinner. Yep, what the Really.
Speaker 2:Yes and kiwis.
Speaker 1:For dinner. Yes, okay, anyways, girl dinner, yeah. So that was liz before she met me. I was deep into meal prep already before I met liz, so I guess that's just a win for her. I guess so and I actually happen to be pretty good at cooking, which is also a win for her because she's very picky. So I could definitely yeah, I could definitely just eat like the same thing over and over.
Speaker 1:I have in fact done that I do eat the same thing for and over I have in fact done that, I do eat the same thing for several weeks in a row and then eventually, I need to change something Like four to six.
Speaker 2:But I feel like I've had the same breakfast for this entire year at this point.
Speaker 1:Well, your breakfast is pretty good though.
Speaker 2:I know I mean, they're all pretty good.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying.
Speaker 2:I do eat the same thing every day.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so I've been meal prepping, point being, I've been meal prepping for a long time, like a long time, I don't even know Definitely since I was 18. That was when I did my first bodybuilding show, which probably is. I've not stopped since. So how old I am now? 31 minus 18. You can do the math. I've been doing meal prep for that long, every weekend. I'll tell you a couple, a couple of key things. Number one I don't like it. So that's a common topic that has been coming up lately. Like, oh yeah, like it's just so boring, it's just not fun. Like I don't like doing it. Yeah, me neither.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like that's just kind of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I don't think, honestly, meal prepping is fun. I mean, the only way I guess, like if you're doing a meal prep company, you're making money, then it might be fun, but like meal prepping for yourself isn't really fun. But it's just one of those things. We've talked about this many times in the podcast.
Speaker 1:A lot of things like if you want cool results, that's what I think about when I'm meal prepping, I'm thinking about how much weight I'm trying to lift, or like how my body is looking or feeling, and I'm like all right, I can do this. And that's like how I motivate myself, because I'm telling you I never want to meal prep ever, but I just do it. And I'm like, however many years I just said over over 10, 13, 13 years deep into this journey of meal prepping and like said I don't like doing it, but I'll tell you this monday morning, as soon as I crack open that first one, I'm like good thing I did. And anytime we travel and I'm like I'm either like off kilter or like we don't have the meal prep.
Speaker 2:I'm like, uh, so I never feel as good yeah, I was talking about that to someone the other day, just like when people who, like I, don't understand how people just eat like random things every day like that's so stressful going out for lunch, going and getting fast food all the time, just like doing and eating like random things. Like first of all, my brain can't even like comprehend that and like also having to make the decision of what I want to eat every day also way too stressful.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, this is great, and time consuming.
Speaker 2:I don't have to think, I just eat it, um. And then the other thing just like, also I don't feel good, obviously, when I eat random things all the time. Yeah, um, and I always wonder, like the people who do eat random things like, how they actually feel. And then like, do they know that they probably don't actually feel? Good, they could feel better if they actually ate better.
Speaker 1:Why don't they feel great?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, that's what, like I really don't understand, but I feel like people.
Speaker 1:If Gary was here he would say that I'm sure he would.
Speaker 2:No, because he's actually eating better now and probably feeling better than he has been. So no, because he's actually eating better now and probably feeling better than he has been. So no, no, I still say that like you, but that's kind of my thing is like. I think some people probably feel like they feel great or like are fine or whatever, but like maybe they could feel better yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:it's just something that I always think about. When people tell me, like oh yeah, I just eat, you know, I go and get this for lunch at work and I go out for dinner here, we just pick up you know a quick thing at the store and pop it, you know, just whatever different things. Like everyone knows what I'm talking about but like I don't know, I just always wonder that, like do people know that they could actually feel better than they feel?
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:Probably not.
Speaker 1:I think they just think food is food, which it's not, and a couple of things just to kind of like wrap up this opening segment which basically I'm just trying to.
Speaker 2:I just kind of went on a tangent.
Speaker 1:No, it's totally fine. I'm just trying to kind of give a little bit of background to explain the breadth and depth of knowledge and the fact that, like I said, like you don't have to like it to do it. So that was my kind of my first point. But as far as what you're saying, I think that a lot of people think that there's just like no other option type thing. They're just like yeah, like I go to work, I go out to lunch with my friends. This is what I do. I go home, uh, my wife or husband cook something, we eat that you know, whatever, and this is the only way. And like it's just like, like you said, there's way more specific ways and different ways to like make your life easier. Number one like save time, save time, save money, um, and get better results, all while, uh, eating, you know, pretty simple food so and we meal prep all of our meals, essentially except breakfast.
Speaker 2:But like we meal prep everything. But I would say, like you wouldn't necessarily have to meal prep everything if you still wanted to like start meal prepping or starting to make like, yeah, I actually recommend like.
Speaker 1:When I have a client that's like getting uh, you know they're new to meal prepping I usually recommend them to do one meal on purpose because I think if you can just get one down and you can handle that, then you can add more in. And I think that's the key too is a lot of people they jump straight from like like let's just say we'll just call it Russian roulette eating like you're literally just eating whatever whenever straight into like full meal prep. That's going to be a lot Like. That's generally like if you're doing five days, three meals, that's like 15 meals, zero to 15. That's a lot. So I usually recommend people start just with one and then, if you could do that, add another one until you're up at whatever macros you know.
Speaker 1:You might not only need two meals or one meal, I don't know, depending on where you're at, but yeah, so I think as far as like actually meal prepping, like should you do it? I really do think if you have who, what is, who is meal prepping for? I would say if you have any type of measurable fitness goal, you should be meal prepping period. I would say if you are trying to lose weight, it's almost essential that you meal prep, like I. I mean, you have to be meal prepping to some assignments or eating the same food, um, or buying meal prep food, whatever, and then, as far as like performance, aesthetics, whatever, it's not gonna hurt, um, we'll just say that. But I I think, like I said, if you have a measurable fitness goal or you're trying to lose weight, which again is a measurable- or gain or gain weight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gain or lose weight, manipulate weight. Basically, you need to be meal prepping because you need to know exactly what's going in your body I mean honestly it sounds stupid.
Speaker 2:Or even just to like maintain your weight, like yeah, because if you're don't know what you're eating. It's easier you don't know how, like I don't know yeah, so okay.
Speaker 1:so here's, here's some math, uh, if you're still not convinced. So number one is the time aspect. Uh, now, you might be or you might just not agree with this, but that's okay. At some point in your life I think everyone kind of gets to this conclusion. And that is time is very valuable and it is the one resource that you cannot replenish on this earth. So everything else you can get more of, you cannot get more of time. And when you think about what I'm about to say, it should at least make you consider highly. Consider meal prepping. So like, let's just say most people eat three times a day, okay. So like, let's say you're cooking those. Let's not say you're going out, because that takes even longer, but let's just say you're cooking each of those meals. It's at least 10 to 15 minutes to cook a meal, maybe 20, depending on what you're doing, maybe 30 if you're terrible at cooking.
Speaker 2:I mean also a lot more, depending on what you're cooking.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So anywhere between, let's just say, 15 to 30 minutes for like a you know, median, because, like Liz said, what if you want? Oh, I got a hankering for this and then all of a sudden you're an hour deep into making meatloaf, like you know. So if you do 15 to 30 minutes every single day, that is at minimum, 45 minutes a day. At maximum, according to my little thing, that would be an hour and a half a day. That's per day. Per day, that's cooking or like preparing food. Okay, that's just one day. So we'll just say the one hour. We'll just say that just for easy math, because I'm not good at math.
Speaker 1:So you do that over seven days. That's seven hours, seven hours a week cooking food. That's not including eating it. That's not including like, oh, I had to go to the store, whatever. Oh, I didn't have cheese, I had to go get it. Seven hours of your life gone every week because you're not meal prepped. In the contrast, even if you are awful at cooking and you have to do everything from instructions and it's your first time meal prepping and this, and that I guarantee you, it will not take seven hours for the week If you like, you know, meal prep one day, maybe. Maybe it's going to take three or four. If you're like slow and like not good at cooking, I think that would be reasonable for you.
Speaker 2:I feel like it would depend on how many meals I was cooking. If I was starting out and only cooking one meal for myself, saying I'm obviously not great at cooking.
Speaker 1:No, but if you cooked for us, if you did what I'm doing, I feel like you could follow the instructions and get it done in two or three hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I was just saying like for someone just starting out.
Speaker 2:oh yeah, sorry if you're only starting like making one meal for yourself, because you've never meal prepped before and you're already like overwhelmed and you're starting with only one meal, like definitely shouldn't really take you much more than like an hour hour and a half, yeah like if, even if you aren't like super good at cooking and you're like overwhelmed by all of the things I mean obviously, again, it depends on what kind of food you're cooking but like there's also very simple things to cook that are like they don't taste bad either, but like they're very easy.
Speaker 1:So, point being on, you're slicing that like time and again. These are gracious numbers. You're slicing that time in half, so that's that's that like, instead of it being seven plus hours a week, and again, that's like split up during the days, each day. So you're like that's. Another thing is you have like individual interruptions instead of just like having one kind of bigger interruption for like one singular day. You're like that's. Another thing is you have like individual interruptions instead of just like having one kind of bigger interruption for like one singular day. You're having like throughout the week I got to go cook this, that and the other, so like that's already just on the time thing. Like meal prepping just makes sense If you have a busy lifestyle.
Speaker 2:If you're, you know whether you're like a parent, whether you're busy at work whatever you got going on and it might be hard to like fit it because like you are busy but like you can also, depending on your schedule and your time, like you can find like weird times when you're at home to cook too, like on the weekends or pick literally. Maybe like your weeknights are better for you because maybe you're doing stuff with your family all weekend, so maybe like one night during the week is a good time for you to meal prep and maybe you just block that off.
Speaker 2:But it's also. It's kind of just like anything, it's like your priorities, like if you say you're too busy to meal prep, like no, you're not necessarily too busy, it's just not a priority for you, yeah, so so, yeah, just something to keep in mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that really like the best way, the best way, the most time, efficient way to do that is to get that done all in one and then, if you again, if you go back and divide that, you're just talking about like a few minutes per meal technically for the entire week. So for me I can do all of our meals, which is five.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't even know 30. It's like close to 30 meals, I think, meals for us to eat all week yeah, it's like close to 30 meals.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna get it done, done and cleaned in, uh, two hours. So done and clean two hours. Liz doesn't have to do any of it, but I've been making her help me recently because I discovered that I had to chop the ground beef today, guys yeah, I discovered it could actually like make me even faster, but yeah, so that's the time argument.
Speaker 1:My other thing would be just cost, because that's a big one. Everyone's like, oh, I just don't have the money. Not everyone. But people are like, oh, I don't have the money or it's too expensive. Here's the deal. Meal prepping is like, without a shadow of a doubt, cheaper than any other way to eat. A doubt cheaper than any other way to eat. Um, period the end. At bare minimum, you can get cheap rice, like jasmine rice, um, for like I don't know 20 bucks, for like 30 pounds or something crazy, I don't even know, like a giant bag for like 20 bucks, um, and then you can go select whatever meat is cheapest. It might be ground turkey one week, ground chicken, the one next week, uh, it's probably going to be ground something there's some really cheap chicken breasts just straight chicken breasts like I can't remember.
Speaker 2:I was at the store the other week with my mom and we were looking at chicken breasts and she was asking me the different like basically like why I picked the kind we pick, and I don't know. I just said it's because I followed the directions that you told me to pick, so that's why I picked the chicken that I pick. But she was looking at some of the other ones and there was some that was like way cheaper than what we get, like almost like half of the price. But then there's some.
Speaker 1:We don't even get the. I know I was just going to say and then there's some that's way more expensive than what we get too, there's like the actual walmart yeah yeah, so and like I don't know, she bought it and said it was fine, so the cheap one yeah, so I'm just saying like there are cheap options for meat that's like I mean, you know, it's maybe not the highest quality of meat like yeah, but it's not organic, or it's not, you know whatever.
Speaker 2:some people are very concerned with those things, but if your goal is just, you know more purely like meal prepping and trying to do it cheap. You can do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, yeah, and that's, that's a great point. And yeah, just for this illustration, I'm just talking about absolute like cheapness because, because I don't like that but people are always like, oh, it's way more expensive, like, can it be more expensive? Absolutely, but if it's like, if you're trying to like save money, this is the best way to save money. So number one would be getting like cheap chicken. I just looked it up at walmartcom the average price per pound is 267. For a pound, now for like a normal person, aka not a a me person, you probably need a few pounds a week like for you know, one meal or whatever. Uh, but if you're absolutely again, if you're absolutely like, like trying to save money, you're eating chicken both times, sorry, so, like, maybe you get.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you're doing that, I would say you would not need more than one pound per day yeah, like maybe if you're very, if you are like bigger or if you have, like you know I don't know if you're heavier you might need, I guess maybe like two pounds max a day, but I would not see like most people would not need more than a pound of chicken yeah a day.
Speaker 1:So this is coming out to that's 16. I was ounces, I was just going to say and this is the highest price, and just again, this is just actual numbers. To like debunk this myth, there's chicken, so it's just. This is the cheapest chicken you can get at Walmart. It's basically 13 bucks, so we'll round it up to 15 for illustration's sake. That's going to get you 6.1 pounds. So that's about how much we meal prep for anyways. Five to six meals, and then you can get a bag of rice. You guys would be blown away with how cheap this is.
Speaker 2:I mean you could also buy more chicken than that for like $20. Oh, here we go $30, whatever, which is still cheaper than like a meal going out. Okay, this is just long grain and rich rice $30, whatever, which is still cheaper than like a meal going out.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is just long grain and rich rice, so nothing crazy Again you can get. No, we'll go with Jasmine. Here we go. We got Jasmine five pounds, so you're not eating five pounds of rice in one week, just so you guys know. But let's just say you were, this is only $7. So grand total for the week. This is not you know. Let's just say you were, this is only seven dollars. So grand total for the week this is not you know. Maybe a breakfast you get some eggs, but like this, this could definitely be lunch and dinner for, like a normal person like Liz is saying, like as long as you're not, like you know, eating a absolute metric ton. So this is a total of twenty dollars. Period for the week.
Speaker 1:I mean that's just the chicken and rice yeah, you would probably need some like seasonings.
Speaker 1:I understand, I understand, but I'm just saying, I'm just saying but yes very simply yeah, it's 20 bucks, you can break that down and my point is is just going out maybe like once or twice, is going to be way over 20 at point. So there's just no reason in 2025 why people should still be believing that eating healthier is somehow more expensive, because it's just not the case. So that's like obviously bare bones. Like Liz said, you probably want some seasoning, maybe some veggies in there.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say adding in some fruits and veggies.
Speaker 1:Maybe you want to get some vitamins or other things. But my point is just for absolute, bare minimum you can spend 20 bucks and get you know at least your chicken and rice and then throw in a carton of eggs. I don't know, that could be like 50 bucks. Who knows eggs are they're going down egg prices are going down y'all.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, let's say you add in a dozen eggs, um point being the twenty dollars, thirty dollars that you spend on chicken, eggs, rice. That is extremely cheap, uh, comparatively, if you were, you would easily spend that in like a day or a couple days if you're going out to eat I think the biggest argument I hear for not wanting to meal prep is that people can't eat the same thing every day.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to say next. So, yeah, so, financial thing, moving on, it's cheaper period dot. If you need help with that, hit us up Like let me know if you're. You know, if you're like Nate, I'm not spending. I'm spending $200. Let us know, I'd be happy to help. Like I said, I've been shopping for meal prep food for a long, long, long, long time and then Liz, by extension, has, because basically, I tell her what we need and then she goes and gets it. So, but yeah, financially it's definitely the way can save them. And also a pro tip that we just found out it's a little more expensive but honestly, if I had known it was like this affordable, I would have gotten it sooner. Is those glass containers on Amazon?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we found some glass ones on Amazon for I don't remember, but they were like decently priced.
Speaker 1:Like 30 bucks yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know. We bought a few packs of them. I mean, we definitely have a lot of them at this point but one, they're glass. So then two, they last longer and they don't get gross plasticky.
Speaker 1:So it's definitely, I would say, if I was giving advice like this was something that I probably would have done before. That I didn't really think made that big of a difference. But now that we have them, I'm like, oh, and it's like not much more than the plastic ones.
Speaker 2:So specifically because you have to keep rebuying the plastic ones, whereas the glass ones you kind of are. Glass is kind of good unless you break it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyways, all right. Moving on to yes, like Liz said, this is the most most asked about topic. Nate, I've been eating the same thing for two whole weeks. I'm already dying, all right. So I get that question all the time and, like quick disclaimer, there will be some repetitive nature in meal prepping period dot. There is repetitive nature in anything that requires the gym. That is just what we do here at the gym repeat things. Um, however, something that I have learned being married to liz, who is one of those people, that's like I've been eating the same thing for two weeks no, no, we just talked about this.
Speaker 1:I can usually get a good solid month out of something I feel like it's six weeks I would say like four to six weeks I will eat like the same meal and then and then she'll be like I decide I need to eat something else. Yeah so, anyways, because I'm married to liz, also by eating something else.
Speaker 2:Usually it's just consistent of changing, like the sauce or the seasoning or the flavor of the flavor like it's not fully like. I mean sometimes I like completely, I guess, revamp, like this week I'm having chicken for the first time in who knows how long, trying not to think about that, but that's okay. I haven't been eating chicken and now I'm going to eat chicken this week. It sounded good Weird.
Speaker 1:This is like a big thing for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I haven't had meal prep chicken in like months, that's so weird. Months, I don't know, in like months, months, um I don't know. Anyways, um I'm saying oh so like it doesn't have to, be some big, drastic change to like that would like implode your whole meal meal prep like, right, like, oh, I just learned how to make this date.
Speaker 1:I gotta change it, no like.
Speaker 2:No, just change like a seasoning or a sauce or whatever and, anyways, that's the key thing.
Speaker 1:So, liz, basically we have Liz kind of built in as my like reminder system for that Cause, like I could definitely eat the same thing for a long time. I actually recently switched up a meal, but prior to switching it up, I literally think I've been eating it for like five or six years, like a long time, every single day, I don't know.
Speaker 2:That seems like a long time time. I feel like it was like five years. We know your time estimates are usually not great, so it's three to five years. I was gonna say it's probably like two to three, if you think it was five no, it was definitely three years plus.
Speaker 1:No, I've been eating the exact same thing, living here and before, okay, so really I think it's like five, okay, anyways, um, but yeah, I've been eating like the same thing a monster mash meal forever and I just recently changed it up, but I went quite a while before changing it versus liz is about like six weeks, so that keeps me on my toes, got to get new flavors of things, and usually what I do is I just keep. So how do I do this? How do you do this practically without having to like look up a zillion recipes? So, number one, I do look up recipes for inspiration and then I just kind of like think of healthier ways to make that recipe. Sometimes recipes can be good, but other times there's extra stuff that I don't want in there for meal prep. Also, I'll look it up for different flavor ideas and I can go find that flavor in a seasoning or a sauce with minimal or no calories is.
Speaker 2:And then I can go find that flavor in a seasoning or a sauce with minimal or no calories, and then I don't have to have the extra calories from the flavors, because that's where flavoring gets you is all of a sudden I think what people could do, though, if they don't want to eat the exact same thing every week, which I give this suggestion to people, and I think people think I'm crazy by suggesting it but make, make like your chicken, your ground beef, your whatever ground turkey, whatever it is you're making, just make it plain, and then add the sauces and seasonings each day as you want them.
Speaker 1:This is true.
Speaker 2:I like tell people that sometimes and they think that I'm like I don't know. I get really weird looks sometimes when I say that.
Speaker 1:Pro tip if you do make it plain, put a little salt on there, because it will kind of help like reduce the fat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's fine like salt whatever like a little bit. But, like you, if you make it plain, or at least plain ish, then like one day you want italian seasoning, one day you want taco seasoning, one day you want like a hamburger type meal, like you can make it different things, so then you're technically not eating the same thing. One day you want taco seasoning, one day you want like a hamburger type meal, like you can make it different things, so then you're technically not eating the same thing every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that, and especially if you're a person that needs like that kind of Russian roulette style, like I need like different food every single day, that is the plan for you, right there. Make it plain and then just add the seasoning, and that's another thing is spend a little money on. You know that I don't know that's the math. You'd have to just do that yourself. But like you know, if you like are getting into meal prep and you spend.
Speaker 1:I don't know 20 30 bucks on seasonings and sauces. Not a bad move, because you could probably use those for weeks, if not months if you want some good sugar, low sugar, sugar free.
Speaker 2:I don't know. G hughes is a good brand of sauce yes but some of them are really high in fat even though they're low in carbs, so you still gotta look at that yeah, um, always check it out.
Speaker 1:But yeah, sometimes there can be some pretty good sauces from g hughes. Uh, they got some good barbecue sauces and I feel like they also have something else that I like uh, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I think they have it's like a sweet chili sauce. I think that's what it is that shit's fire.
Speaker 1:You know that stuff is so good. It's like, uh, it's like a sweet chili sauce that you would get, like, it's similar to what you would get with, like a spring roll or something like that. Uh, and it's amazing. So, yeah, g's, I would definitely check them out. I would check out the seasoning aisle. Um, some of our favorites, just to like put them out there, since you guys are tuning in. Uh, I like garlic, garlic Parmesan I think it's a Weber seasoning. Like garlic, garlic, parmesan I think it's a Weber seasoning. Very good, um, this chicken seasoning I think I'm about ready to switch it up, but I have had this for two or three meal prep cycles, I don't know. Like, uh, it's like a honey garlic seasoning. Um, that's really good for the chicken. Um, what other seasonings do we like? Like go to? Oh, like a kind of like a fajita seasoning or something like that.
Speaker 1:We've also used fried rice seasoning for both chicken and beef. Trying to just think of, like off the top of my head, but yeah, so those are some really good ones. Jihu sauce is a good place to start. Also a great place to start is mustard.
Speaker 2:Ew.
Speaker 1:Mustard is great because it has no calories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if, if you like mustard, it is really like it's a good thing, but I do not like if you don't like mustard it's not a good start liking it.
Speaker 1:I'm just kidding, um, but anyways, yeah. So, kind of, like liz said, if you do struggle with eating the same thing over and over, number one, you're to have to slightly get over that a little bit. But number two, there are many different ways that you can mix it up while not really mixing it up, so you can add in some different seasonings, different flavors. I would recommend one of two things Either one I do it like maybe every month, like Liz was saying for her, or two I would do kind of russian roulette style, and you can just start off with uh, start off with plain uh, protein and carb, and then just add in the seasonings.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's what I'll do it works um.
Speaker 1:Let's see other tips to get your meal prep journey started. I feel like that's pretty much it, don't you think?
Speaker 2:I feel like that's pretty good for like starting. Yeah, for starting, I mean of course.
Speaker 2:If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to us um yeah, because I mean it feels like I don't know, obviously everyone's macros and eating things are going to be different or their purpose of meal prepping is going to be a little bit different. So maybe just having food prepped is more important than like actually figuring out the macros and stuff for it. So if that's the case, then just get some protein, a little bit of carbs, maybe some veggies and like get started. Um, obviously, if it needs to be more nutritionally balanced, then it's going to take a little more work and effort, but definitely still possible or like whatever, these tips would still all apply to that yeah, 100 percent, um, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So that should be enough to kind of get you guys started on your meal prep journey. I highly recommend everybody does some sort of meal prep. It's gonna save you so much time during the week. Uh, honestly, anytime I actually try and do that breakdown, like I just did right there, and I think about how much time it would actually take to cook every day. It is scary. I can never live like that. There's no way, now that I'm used to it, and Liz doesn't even have to cook, so really she's just winning because her meals just appear.
Speaker 2:It's pretty great.
Speaker 1:If you're a Liz, then you don't have any time investment, although I've been making you chop up some beef.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Probably got to shred some chicken later. All right, Actually. Yeah, that needs to be shredded soon. So let's go ahead and answer some of these questions that we got off the Instagram. I don't know if I got any more because I haven't checked recently, but I'll check in a second.
Speaker 2:I say we really just posted this not too long ago, so I only got a couple come in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's okay, we'll probably answer the other ones on our stories. Well, I will. I don't know if Liz will, she loves talking to the camera. Anyways. So first one is a diet related, one Is a reverse diet, good to incorporate in the building season.
Speaker 2:I would say, yes, this person I just know this person is a power lifter, competes in power lifting. So obviously I think I'm assuming, as far as her like, building season would be referred to when she's not like in the last few weeks before a meet as far as meat prep, just to like kind of I guess clarify as far as like what a building season would be for someone. Um. So typically it kind of depends on, like where you've been at with your nutrition, whether you've been in a deficit, in a surplus if you're at maintenance. Um, so you kind of would have to like look at where you were like during, not your building season, I guess you could say during your preps. But typically when you are building, that is a good time to work on maintaining or even eating in a little bit of a surplus to help you build a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're trying to build, then that's.
Speaker 2:Because obviously if you are eating, you're able to you have to have the calories to be able to build the muscles um. So if you're eating in a pretty significant deficit, it is definitely going to be way harder to build muscle um at that point. So working on like reverse dieting if you were in a slight deficit, you know, doing that to kind of like add a little bit more food to get you up to maintenance, if not into a slight surplus, is definitely not a bad idea during a building phase or building season. What you want your weight to be Like. If a main goal for you is like simply weight loss, then it would.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't probably want to go into like a surplus necessarily but, you could do like a maintenance fate, like maintenance calories during a building season. Or if you're trying to lose weight as your main goal during a building season, it might be the ideal time to actually go deeper into a deficit now. You might not build as much like muscle during that like phase, but if a like, a higher priority or or even just like a high priority for you is weight loss or losing fat loss maybe overweight loss, like losing fat that would could also ideally be the time to do that, because you aren't prepping, so the weights aren't as heavy and you're not pushing as hard to like get you prepped for a meet so you could get down to a weight that you want to like train at and be at and compete at um, and then doing that outside of your prep time is also a good time to do that, so that way if you are feeling a little more tired or a little more run down, it doesn't necessarily impact your meat prep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's well said, like I think you know. Yeah, like Liz said, when you're building and you're in the off season whatever you want to call it, not off season, but building season that's a great time to kind of manipulate the diet in a little more of an extreme manner. Um, whether you know you were on a cut. You need to reverse diet out of that Um, which I feel like really you would only need a reverse diet unless, excuse me, if you are like in a pretty severe cut, cause reverse dieting is just simply kind of tapering back up to maintenance, um, or going into a surplus, if that's where you're headed, uh. But yeah, I think that's a good thing to do in the uh, building season, like liz said, and or like the opposite of that is true. So, like, if you are, you know, in competition season, you're close to a. That is not the time to be messing around with your food, pretty much ever.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people go into deep cuts before a meet to try and cut weight. But some people don't necessarily do that correctly. I mean, there's no really correct way to do that period.
Speaker 1:So yeah, hopefully that answers your question Alright. Next question is can you still see results if you're running twice a week, eight miles max and still power lift Maybe? So I would say I'll field this one.
Speaker 2:I mean, I will just give my like, my, what I would think answer. And then you can give from like your own, I guess experience. I would say, yes, you can still make progress, but it's not going to be as much if you're not doing both um, yeah, so I think just leave it there too long to read, I mean that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think obviously part of it kind of depends on how much you're eating, how you're fueling yourself, what kind of recovery plans you have like, how much stress is in your life, how much you're eating, how you're fueling yourself, what kind of recovery plans you have like, how much stress is in your life, how much sleep you get Like. There's a lot of like outside factors that could go into that. But I would say, yes, you can definitely still make progress. It just would probably be less than if you only chose one thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So from your experience, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think I mean that is the simple, simplest way to put it which is 100% accurate. So we'll just start with that, that is. I mean, that is the answer. Period dot. If I were to like break it down a little bit. So one eight miles is probably a little bit much, I would say, to be not impacting your powerlifting training. Now, depending on your experience running, I'm not sure what you've been doing. So, depending on your experience running, maybe that's fine for you.
Speaker 1:For me, I did at one point I was doing over eight miles. I was doing like 10 to 15 a week. So no, maybe 10 to 15 a week. So, um, no, maybe 10 to 12. So, yeah, I mean, I think it, I think it definitely can be done. I think putting those training days for the running um in the appropriate spots is key for me.
Speaker 1:What I did was I did it one on my rest day, which sounds funny, but I ran really early. So basically I counted it in my mind as almost like the day priors activities Uh, cause I would like go to sleep, wake up, run, and then I had the whole day to recover and then sleep, and then I have deadlifts the day after. I did that all last year and I did just fine. Uh, got my deadlift back up to snuff. There was a few times when, like I would feel the you you know run a little bit, but honestly it was fine uh. And then I ran saturday mornings as well. So basically I had how I did. It was I had a little bit lighter run or easier run in the middle of the week and then I had a harder run on the weekends after I completed all my powerlifting training.
Speaker 1:So basically my powerlifting training is monday through thursday yeah, but like mentally, monday through thursday was powerlifting, saturday was running and powerlifting, but like it was not, like you know, it's not as hard like mentally. So that's how I structured it. That worked really well for me, um, and I honestly, if I, like liz said, I have a very specific goal right now. Otherwise I would probably still be doing that, but because I want to hit the 1700 total and then I don't know what I'm going to do after that, I just want that's, I really want to hit the 1700 total, um, before I'm too much older. Basically, uh, I would like to hit it within the next year or two. So that is kind of my only goal right now. After I hit that, I might go back to running and lifting. I don't know, we'll see Um, but can you do it?
Speaker 1:Can you make progress? Absolutely yes, I think the biggest things that you need are, number one, like I said, where you're putting the runs. If you're trying to run right before you squat, it's not going to work. Um, so definitely it would be where you're putting the runs to making sure you're feeling your body appropriately. Pretty much guarantee anyone that's tried this before is not drinking enough water or have enough electrolytes. If you're like Nate, I am, then awesome, but usually people are not.
Speaker 2:Drinking enough, eating enough, getting enough.
Speaker 1:Specifically drinking enough water. Yeah, drinking enough water and getting electrolytes in is absolutely essential if you are going to be doing this, and that's another thing. If you're going to venture out on this, just know that it's going to cost you money and time. So, like, because I feel like running is one of those things where you're like, well, it's just running, it's no problem. But, like, if you're specifically trying to train powerlifting and run, it will be a little expensive because you need to get some good shoes. So that's another thing. I would definitely recommend going to either your local running store or trying on a few pairs for yourself. Get some good shoes where you virtually feel no negatives from the run. That's, of course, not fully feasible, however, you should get really really close. Like 90%, you feel nothing. Fully feasible, however, you should get really really close. Like 90%, you feel nothing.
Speaker 1:If you're, you know, trying to run barefoot or something like that and like minimalist shoes probably not going to go. Well, running is impact, no matter how good you are, no matter how light you are. It is impact on the joints and powerlifting. You're trying to keep everything as strong as possible, so it is kind of like a catch 22 situation. So you want to mitigate that by staying hydrated, making sure your body's properly fueled, like Liz was saying, making sure you're getting as much sleep as possible and then making sure you have the correct equipment for both things. So that would be, you know, shoes for running, having your belt, sleeves, etc for lifting. That's going to be essential if you are going on this journey.
Speaker 1:So, can you still see results? Absolutely, um, does it get a little more complicated than just powerlifting? Yes, um, but can anyone do it? I think yes, like, absolutely. I don't think there's like, oh, you gotta be this tall to run. Like you can do it? Um, you, just as long as you do what I was saying, and then make sure also that you are minding, excuse me, your speed. So a lot of people, they are like I'm running and they just go out the gate and they're like going super hard. Uh, you can't be going super hard out the gate. That's how you get hurt. Mind your pace. Mind your pace when you're first starting out, and I think if you do those things, you'll be just fine, um, so yeah, so let's see. Last question Is Nate ever going to pull 700 or 700 going to pull Nate again?
Speaker 2:To be determined.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, look at that at that lack of confidence from my own wife. Look toby's even shocked I know maybe just shocked my response probably I'm pulling 700. 700 ain't pulling me again, that's not happening. Uh, maybe pulling 700, hopefully late, hopefully later this year. Just switch back to the delaf bar and, not gonna lie, it felt nice. So we have a new plan coming up here which is kind of the last thing we're going to talk about real quick.
Speaker 2:Some plans for Fortis Powerlifting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some plans for Fortis Powerlifting and our team we're going to be, which we are speaking of. We're right now watching one of our athletes absolutely destroy Quick shout out on the podcast Lolly just crushed her second. That literally looked like an opener. So hopefully she goes for a massive third, because that was easy that was very easy um, okay, yeah, lolly's out here. Speed repping in the middle of this meet is outside, so also props to all the spotters, loaders, judges and athletes for competing in the heat it's in Anaheim, california.
Speaker 1:It's in California though, so it's probably not as humid.
Speaker 2:She said it was really hot though.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's still probably not as humid. Anyways, that was awesome to watch. And speaking about awesome to watch, it would be awesome to watch our team at Nationals. So we're going to go. Our goal is to get a big group of us over to the PLU Nationals in Texas next year. It's on my birthday, which is pretty cool. One of the days is probably the day I'm competing on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they haven't said how it's going to be broken down probably so.
Speaker 1:I think it's May 16th and 17th, which is on my birthday weekend. It's in Texas and our goal is to bring a nice group of strong humans out there from our Fortis powerlifting team, so we're going to be working on that. That kind of included a little bit of a change of plans for me. I've been talking about competing at a USAPL meet and I also signed up for it, which is sick, but now we're going to be switching and competing in the PLU meet that's here locally, so I can get a qualifying total because I got to qualify in that whatever Federation. Not going to lie. I kind of enjoyed 2020 or whatever. That was 2021, when you could just qualify or whatever. Was that last year, 2022?
Speaker 2:Last year was not 2022 but yes, whatever that was but yes that was a nice time.
Speaker 1:Now you got to go to the actual federation, so yeah, anyways, we're pretty excited to do that. Um, I think we got.
Speaker 2:We'll see how many people we end up getting we definitely have, I would say like 10 to 15 people at least interested as of now that are thinking about it or considering it. If I haven't talked to you about it or we haven't talked to you about it and you're part of our Fortis Powerlifting team or you want to be part of our Fortis Powerlifting team to join us.
Speaker 2:Let us know. We can help you find a meet, whether it's like local here. If you're local to here, you're going to probably want to do the one in Crestview in November. If you're not local to here, we can help you try and find a local one to you, or at least the closest one to you. So you have time to get qualified and the qualifying totals are all posted. If you go to powerlifting United's Instagram, they're all posted on there, broken down by drug tested or untested and by weight class. Yes, you can see if you qualify or if it would be easy for you to qualify or if it would be a little more challenging for you to qualify, cause that would also determine probably, if, if and when, like you, would compete.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, if you guys are interested in that and like we haven't already talked to you about that, let us know um, and, like I said, we can help you out in finding a you know meet that's convenient for you. Uh, but that is our goal. I think we'll have some other people competing at uspa nationals as well. Um, we're competing everywhere next year. As per lolly is competing at uspa nationals.
Speaker 1:That well, um, we're competing everywhere next year as per lolly is competing at uspa nationals that's why she's competing today um, so, yeah, so we will have people kind of everywhere, um, but yeah, I for one am actually I've decided pretty excited about this. I was kind of on a solo lone wolf journey in the usap land, uh, aka, just using a stiff bar, which I enjoyed and I still honestly do enjoy, but as someone I was talking to the other day about this said usap is not going anywhere, so you can always go back to it this is true.
Speaker 1:I never even went to it, but you can always go to it then yeah, this is true, um so, but I am super excited for this opportunity for our team. So that gets me going. So enough to just straight change my plans. So that's how committed and excited I am to this, and hopefully you guys are too. If you're part of the team or you want to join the team, like Liz said, let us know. Also if you are here locally and that doesn't seem fun to you but you want to do something else, or you maybe don't qualify yet and we're still in the hunt for a total, that is, you know, getting you to nationals and you can't make it there yet.
Speaker 1:Check out our winter meet, which is going to be December 6th, and there's a few spots left, but it is filling up fast. I want to say probably after this weekend, maybe there's there's a few spots left, but it is filling up fast. I want to say probably after this weekend. Maybe there's like 1315 spots left. A few more signups here this weekend. That is the USPA Navarre Beach Classic. We're going to be having that here in Navarre. Myself and Gary are going to be running it and it's going to be awesome. So we already got a bunch of signups. We're starting to really kind of get into the planning now. I'm pretty excited for that. If you're not already signed up, make sure you get yourself signed up. It's going to be cash prizes, it's going to be a lot of big energy.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a fun time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be a fun time. If the national schedule doesn't work out for you, don't worry. We have already signed up for that December meet and you can. You're more than welcome to join the crew on that as well.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Other than that, I think that's all we got for you guys today.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode. If you did, please remember to like, subscribe, Um, and if you ever have any questions about any of the topics we go over, reach out to us on Instagram. We're the most uh active on there and we love to communicate and talk with you guys and answer any questions so we can help you guys achieve your fitness journey, fitness goals.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, yeah, next couple weeks, I don't know. We'll be traveling, so it might be a couple weeks before we have another podcast yeah well, next weekend we're not traveling, but we're going to be busy getting ready to be traveling, because then we're traveling on. We leave on the 10th to go up to chicago, for me and lena to compete.
Speaker 2:We're not doing one that day and then we fly back the 14th, so there won't be one that day either, like that week. So it might be a couple weeks. It's just where it's probably. That's actually. Yeah, this is correct, just figured.
Speaker 1:I'd give a heads up no, that's good, because I always forget those. So it probably will be a couple weeks before our next episode, but this can maybe give you some time to check out some of our other awesome episodes, some of the people we've interviewed in the past. There's plenty of episodes like I said, 200, and they're all in one place. Since I never made another podcast and, yeah, hopefully you guys are ready, we'll probably we'll definitely do a little recap of our Chicago journey. Yeah, pretty excited for this.
Speaker 2:It will be live streamed, so if you are following, like, if you are listening to this and you are interested in following along with the meet, like. We'll obviously make posts and stories and stuff, so make sure you're following us on Instagram. But we will also post the link for the live stream and it will also be on lifting cast. If you have any idea what lifting cast is, you can follow along on there or watch the live stream that I'm guessing will be somewhere on youtube. But we'll post the links for that as we get them when the meet gets closer. But lana and I are both competing on september 13th. It's a saturday, I can't remember if lifting starts at eight or nine, maybe eight actually, and we're both in the first flight. So, um, it will be an early saturday morning.
Speaker 2:But if you're interested in watching it and that is central time- yeah because that seems to be a really big confusion for people that live here. They don't understand that illinois is also central time, so yeah, so you guys can join in on the action.
Speaker 1:We'll be out there, um, and it should be a great time. So, yeah, other than that, I think that's all we got for this week. You got anything else?
Speaker 2:I don't think so right, right on.
Speaker 1:Thanks again for you guys. Thanks again to you guys for tuning in to another episode of the podcast. If you guys are interested in supporting the podcast monetarily, we have our after hours plus subscribers subscription available. Basically, that money just goes directly to the podcast hosting service, which helps us deliver an excellent product for you guys week after week. That's, you know, hosted on Spotify and Apple podcasts and all the cool things where you can find your podcast. So if you're interested in supporting and kind of like defraying some of those costs for us, we appreciate that and we also appreciate those of you that have been supporting us. We have a few guys that have been with us for a long, long time uh monetarily supporting and we really appreciate that. It helps us cover the costs of the uh podcast hosting and, like I said, just delivering an awesome product each week. So thank you guys for tuning in and we'll see you guys in the next one. Peace Bye.