Nutrition Call:01

If meal planning keeps falling apart by the weekend, it’s usually not willpower, it’s a system problem. We walk through a straightforward nutrition coaching approach that starts with one non negotiable: hit your daily protein target. We explain why a protein shake can be the easiest, cleanest way to lock in protein (without feeling like you have to eat chicken all day), and how to place it into your day so the rest of your meals get easier, not more complicated. 

Next, we get tactical about meal prep and “no time” lunches. Our go to method is simple: pick a core protein, grab a handful of supermarket pastes or marinades, and rotate flavors so the same base meal never feels boring. With one marinated protein you can build wraps, salads, rice bowls, couscous plates, or a quick baked potato dinner in minutes. We also answer the question everyone asks, which fruits and vegetables are “best,” and why green, leafy veg and berries often give the biggest payoff for fullness, fiber, and lower calories when you’re tracking macros. 

Then we tackle the real world Q&A: vegetarian protein and dairy, how late you can eat, sugar in MyFitnessPal, fiber targets, and whether calorie timing changes weight loss. We also get specific about breakfast and workout fueling, especially for women managing morning cortisol, hunger hormones, and blood sugar swings that can trigger afternoon cravings. If you want a practical high protein meal plan that fits real life, subscribe, share this with a friend who’s struggling, and leave us a review.

Transcript

Why This Call Exists

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Good evening. So, this call now on Thursday is going to be all about nutrition and helping people with their nutrition if they're struggling to get through the weekend or struggling with planning, understanding nutrition, anything like that. It will all be about nutrition on Thursday evening. So you can call me with your problems, put your questions in the group, and I'll answer them. And yeah, hopefully, you know, with the feedback form, a lot of people have spoken about nutrition being a part where they still struggle with it. So I wanted to kind of bring in some more support on this call. So one

Protein Targets And Protein Shakes

SPEAKER_01 0:41

thing I wanted to quickly just touch on before I just answer a few questions in the group is when it comes to like making your meals, obviously, we have this meal plan kind of guy. We need to hit a certain amount of protein a day. Now, if you're ever struggling to hit your protein, you always are probably going to need to have a protein supplement. Now, there's a lot of things about like, is protein good for your brother? It's like protein shake, sorry. It is. I promise you, the amount of things that you know come and gone, but protein is like it's a solid way to get protein in your body, protein shake. It is like the easiest way for your body to digest. Protein is, you know, your body will get through a protein shake just like it gets through a chicken breast. I would say chicken is probably a bit a bit more unhealthier than chicken, um, than uh protein shake, just because meat is dirtier. It just is. So make sure you're you have that protein smoothie in your diet on a daily basis. And that can be like in a smoothie, in a yogurt, in just some water, but it will always give you that base of protein that you need throughout the week. Now, when it comes to your other meals, obviously we've got breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack. Either your breakfast or snack is gonna be that protein shake or protein smoothie, yeah? So the other one needs to be some sort of yogurt or or something that's that's high in protein. Now, when it comes to the lunch and the dinner,

Fast Lunches With Marinades

SPEAKER_01 2:21

if you eat with your family, dinner is probably gonna be the one that's kind of changed on a daily basis. Um, so always put track that fruit meal first and work backwards. But when it comes to your lunch, I'm gonna make your lunches so so simple. You are either eating chicken, prawns, tuna, white fish, maybe. But the majority of the time is gonna be chicken or prawns, something like that. Get yourself a paste from any supermarket and get five different flavours of this paste. Then you can marinate your prawns, your chicken, your card, your tofu, whatever it is in these pastes. They have calories, but very minor. Then you've got a marinated piece of protein. With that marinated piece of protein, you can then do a million things with it. You can put it with rice, you can put it with couscous, you can put it in a sandwich, you can put it in a wrap, you can put it in a salad, you can put it in a pitter, you can put it with potato on a jack and potato. You know, there's so many different things you can do with it, and you can build that meal around the flavor of the paste. I might have a, I was gonna say jerk, but I thought that'd be stereotypical. Um, I might have a jerk paste of chicken, yeah? And then I'll do rice, maybe have a mango salad on the side. I might have a teriyaki paste, I might have some sticky rice with that, and have some pickled cucumber on the side. I might have a Moroccan paste and then have some couscous with feta on the side. Like you can make so many meals with a marinated piece of meat or protein. And that can be prepped for the day, the week, whatever. But the best thing about that is it can be done in literally 20 minutes. But not actually 20 minutes of you chefing it up. You literally go chicken breast in a plate in a bowl, paste in there, that's 30 seconds, in the oven for 20 minutes, come back in 20 minutes, take it out of the oven, put the rice in, put the bread in. You're making meals in four minutes. So that you know, there is no real excuse to not get that meal right. Even if you're out all day, like in the morning, spend that time in between brushing your teeth and showering, whatever, getting that meal ready in a park to take with you. It would make your life so much more easier, so much more simple. Get pastes, get marinades, get spices, get your protein, make that, and then build the meal around the spice, the marinade, or whatever is on top of that. So

Best Fruits And Vegetables For Dieting

SPEAKER_01 4:59

let me go through some questions that I've been asked um this week. This is a weird one, but I have been curious about it. Is there a ranking of fruits nutrition-wise and vegetables? Are some way better than others? Yes. So when it comes to vegetables, we always, always, always, always want to go more towards green vegetables. Green, leafy vegetables. It's gonna make your life a hell of a easier because we don't have to track these, yeah? We don't have to look at the nutrition. They're high in iron, they're high in um fiber, low in calories, and they can really bulk out of a meal, yeah. So when it comes to anything green, that is the the one we go for first, other than obviously avocado, which has a bit more calories. Anything from that goes to root vegetables. So when it after root vegetables, they're gonna have more calories in them, more carbohydrates. So it's gonna take up more of the plate, but from carbohydrate. So take more of your rice, for example. Where I could have 100 grams of rice and a big bunch of broccoli, asparagus, green beans, whatever, and the volume of my plate is gonna be bigger, the rice doesn't have to go down. If I have rice and I put peas, carrots, etc., with it, the rice portion should have to go down because then peas and carrots are gonna end up elevate in the uh carbohydrates. And it's similar with fruit. Berries are gonna be your biggest bang for book. When you're on a diet, you're looking for volume. You're looking for volume for lowering calories. So we want things that are they're gonna keep us full, but lower in calories because we don't want to take too many calories from certain things, so we can get it from elsewhere. So berries are the lowest in calories, easy to digest it, and have good fiber. And then you go up that scale. We've got apples, we've got grapefruits, we've got kiwis. These are like, you know, they've got their added benefits to it. They've got fiber, they've got things like that, but they will have more carbohydrates. So when you are on a diet or when you're trying to eat healthy, the the the two that are gonna be the best are green and leafy veg and berries. You can have them two in your diet all day long, and you're gonna be absolutely fine when it comes to macros and stuff like that. Some fruit that you you can have will help with sugar cravings. So that's where I kind of use fruit on the other side, so but it will have calories, but if I'm like craving something really sweet, I just grab like half a warm and smash it. Um, and it's sweet, and I feel satisfied after it, you know. Other

Dairy, Sugar, Fiber, Meal Timing

SPEAKER_01 7:42

questions? So we have got how much daily dairy is it okay as protein? How late can we have our last meal? Best high protein vegetarian source. So the best vegetarian source of protein is dairy, um, hands down. Tofu, tempa, things like that, they're gonna carry more fats with it. But with a vegetarian diet, you're gonna have to be really smart with getting your protein in. But yes, you're gonna have to have more dairy. Now, if you're not intolerant to dairy, you can have as much dairy as you want. It makes no difference. Um, but I'd be having a protein smoothie, I'd probably have that from a vegan sauce, so I've not got that as dairy. I'm then gonna have my yogurt, big yogurt, and then gonna have like things like peas, tofu. Um, you can get like the fake chickens, but I kind of just think like if you're gonna be vegetarian, you may as well get it from like veg. So you've got to be a bit more savvy with them protein sources, but you could have as much dairy as you want from protein as long as you're not um intolerant, because there's nothing wrong with dairy as long as it's clean dairy. How late can you eat your last meal? You can eat 10 minutes before bed if you wanted to, if that suits your lifestyle, but it might affect your sleep. So if you're eating like half nine and go lying down, it affects your digestion, then you're gonna be like, I had a terrible sleep, which mess your recovery up and not make you feel good. So they say you want to be like a few hours, three or four hours before going into bed is good for your digestion. I could eat a roast dinner and go for a sleep after, not have a problem. So there's no like right or wrong answer. As long as you're getting in your calories, there it, you know, you shouldn't really be needing to cut off food as you get uh closer to bed. How much sugar should we aim to keep it below in mind fitness power? Good, good question. Now, the majority of your diet should be coming from starchier carbohydrates. The sugar in your diet should be coming from fruit or vegetables. So realistically, I wouldn't worry about that marker because if it says the sugar's high, it's coming from vegetables and fruit. Now, if you're having something outside of vegetables and fruit that is causing your sugar to go up in my fitness power, I'd be keeping that down to the closest to zero as possible. So if it's coming from fruit, if it's coming from vegetables, don't worry about that sugar marker. If it's actually coming from real like confectionary sugar, I'd have that as close to zero as humanly possible. The reason I say that is if I'm on a paleo diet and I don't eat any grains, all my carbohydrate is going to come from sugars. Sweet potatoes, root vegetables, fruit, all that kind of stuff, all my carbohydrate is going to come from them. There's nothing wrong with that. Your body will digest it really well, use it, perfect, no, no, no problem. But if I'm eating like Skittles and stuff like that, that's just causing my blood sugars to spike no nutritional value. I need that down to as closest to zero as possible. Uh, what are some great foods for fibre and how much should we have daily? So, fibre realistically wants to be anything like 25 to 30, um, which is quite difficult. Now, real simple brown rice, brown bread, pears, avocados, cheer seeds, dark chocolate, um dates, but they will ride your carbohydrates up. But yeah, if you change most of your carbohydrate sources for whole meal, you will be okay when it comes to um fiber. Does the timing of the calorie intake significantly influence weight loss? Not at all. Um, timings of eating does not affect weight loss whatsoever. Like, doesn't affect it at all. Um, obviously, we want to be spreading out protein so it makes it easier for us to digest it. The only meal that's super important is making sure that you have breakfast in the morning. Yeah. So it's all about getting them calories in as an overall basis. Is there a best time, say creatine, or any time is good? Five grams a day at any time. Realistically, in morning is better, but as long as it's five grams a day, you're absolutely fine. So that was all the questions in the

Breakfast And Workout Fueling Q&A

SPEAKER_01 12:14

group. Now, ladies on the call, um, do you have any questions that you want to put in the chat? Do you have anything with your diet that you want to kind of go through now? Um yeah, let me know. Because if not, we're done. But I am here. So you're getting my time. How soon do we need to eat in the morning? I'm not hungry. I try and space my meals out. Um within about half an hour to an hour, but you won't be hungry right now, but you will when you start to eat breakfast. So as soon as you start to have that breakfast, your body will start to remind you, hey, I like this meal in the morning, and then you start to have it more. So where you're not hungry now, it's just a habit that you're into. Let's just have that, you know. It's like every time you go past this restaurant, um, it will spark each one one other thing, you know? So why is it important? When you wake as a woman, when you wake up in the morning, so you'll hear a lot of things about fasted, fast it, fast it. That's all based off men. When you wake up in the morning, as a woman, your cortisol levels are high. Yeah? So what we want to do is have some food to bring them cortisol levels down. If we have high cortisol level, it's gonna cause more hunger. Um, and your adrenaline grounds are gonna be high. If you think of caffeine, it's gonna cause even more hunger. So you're basically stressing your body out before we've even had a chance for it to kind of lose weight. So it's a it's a hormonal thing. Then also, what's happened is you have no breakfast, your blood sugars are slowly crashing. When you hit that low blood sugars, your body's gonna cry out for more things. So we're trying to control blood sugars, we're trying to control hunger hormones, and we're trying to control cortisol levels. And the best way to do that is making sure that you have some breakfast in the morning to make your body feel relaxed and allow it to do its job. You said to eat within an hour after trading, but this doesn't always work for me at the weekend. Is it really bad? I would take protein shake in the morning. Um, it's it's it's pretty bad, yeah. Similar to like the morning thing, you're not getting the recovery after your workout, so your body's gonna go into fight or flight. Um, why would that not be possible? Like, literally, you can just take a banana to the gym or have a banana after. Like, that would be the most simplest thing in the world. Um, so it shouldn't be that difficult. It doesn't need to be a full meal, but you need to be having something after. So I normally start the day with a kiwi or an iron supplement. How much food is needed as the first meal? I would normally have a kiwi electrolytes. They don't have my and then don't have my breakfast until 10:30. Yeah, that's not great. So you need at least 15 grams of protein in the morning, and I'd say at least 25 grams of carbohydrates. Um, before if it's before you work out, or if it's just breakfast, at least 15 grams of um protein in the morning to make your body just feel relaxed. So that's why I do sometimes put in collagen or protein shake. But yeah, kiwi, I'd be having before you go to bed. It's better for sleep. Um, but yeah, you just don't want you don't want a kiwi on its own in the morning. It's just sugars. So your blood sugars will spike. Not so much of the kiwi, but they will spike and there's got nothing, then it will drop down, it will cause hunger in the afternoon. And that's where binging starts in the afternoon. Um, because you you're not stabilizing your blood sugars in the morning. Any other questions? It could be about your weekend, it could be about your your diet, it could be about anything that's going on for you, like any planning that you need, anything that you're struggling with. Feel free. You know, you've got my time here. So use it wisely.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Can I ask a question just on what you were saying about protein in the morning? Sorry, I'm immune to my um just the protein should be after we work out, though, correct?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

No, no, before.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Oh. Okay, cool. I've been making my protein shake, like usually protein, um, like whey-based, um, a banana almond butter with water. Like I feel like I got that off through Instagram. And I typically do that after my workout.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Do you have anything before you work out?

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Sometimes, like like a teaspoon of honey or something, just for a bit of like quick release carbs if it's quite early.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yes. So I would have, I would basically do a no, I'd do I'd literally in the morning have half a scoop of protein in some oat milk, drink that back with a bit of honey, go to the gym, and then finish the other half of that protein after in the in the shake with the banana, the almond butter, and all that kind of stuff later. Because basically, you don't want to go to the gym unfueled. Like you might feel good, okay, right now, but you you have no idea what you'll feel like when you have got breakfast in you.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Okay, cool. Should there be downtime to you? Because for some reason I felt like protein I shouldn't be doing right before working out. It's like you can go straight into the workout after drinking that.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can drink people drink protein. So you'll hear things like BCAAs or that and the people have when they work out. That's that's a that's an amino acid, that's protein throughout the workout. You can drink protein whenever. Like it's not so there's nothing in the protein shake that does anything sp uh specific or or special. It's you could you could in it, you know, it could be a chicken breast, tuna, whatever, but it's just an easier way to um to get the protein in with the protein shake. So yeah, you can just have it straight before.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Okay, cool. It's just fats.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Fats, we should then fats are not the best before because it slows the digestion down, yeah. So it's not like you know, it's not gonna do anything too much.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

All right, perfect. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

No problem at all. Um, so can we to help the iron supplement absorb the vitamin C, I assume, protein shake, and a date or two enough for the first meal. Perfect. That's literally perfect. We'll then have yogurt, cheer seeds at 10:30. Fantastic. Is it okay to split the meals that way? Yep, that's exactly what I would do. That that that there would change a lot within your day. So two dates in the morning with a protein shake and then having your yogurt later with chia seeds, boom. What a what a way to start the day. You've got fiber in there, you've got good um sugars for your workout with protein, stabilized blood sugars, and then afterwards you get more protein with fibre, and then you then you uh you're on to your your main meals later on. Because also chia, like you know, you that's gonna bulk out a meal as well. That's gonna help with digestion. Remember, protein shakes are like what 100 calories, 30 grams of protein, so it's just clean protein, then we don't have to run around eating chicken all day long after.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Anything else? Okay, I'm gonna start the recording now.