No tags yet.
OK, so you've made the decision to start building healthy habits. Maybe your daily goal is to drink more water. Maybe, you're working on being active for 30 minutes a day. Perhaps, you've taken it even one more step further and decided to follow a meal plan. That's great! But now what? When we are so motivated it can be exciting to embark on a new plan to health; but once we start that plan or get it written down on paper, we're lost. It can get difficult when we are unsure how to assimilate these new habits into our daily lives, or our meals for that matter! One question I have been asked, recently, is "how do I get more protein in my day, outside of the basic meals (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.)" After years of attempting to build the muscle I so desire through weight-training and "eating to grow," I have found a few fail-safe protein rich snacks that have helped me reach my daily protein quota. Best part is: they still taste great!
When you're main goal is to gain muscle and lose fat (remember, we want to focus on body composition, not on the numbers on the scale!) you need to look at your daily caloric intake first. Depending on your activity, your daily calories may be anywhere from 10 - 17x your body weight. This means that if you weight 140lbs, you may be taking in anywhere from 1400 calories to 2,380 calories. If you're goal is GROW, you'll be eating in the higher range of this scale. Of this, your calories may be split amongst the three macro nutrients: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Your daily grams of protein intake for muscle growth would be anywhere from 1 - 1.2x your body weight. So, in our example, you're looking at 140x - 168g of protein, and in some cases, even higher!* With all that protein as your daily goal, how can you expect to get it all in with 3 square meals a day?! SNACKING!!!!
When I am focusing on building my muscle, I eat 5 - 6 small meals a day. These meals include complex carbs alongside a regular portion of protein (20 - 30g protein) and healthy fats. This is easy to accomplish with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - chicken breast, steak, eggs, etc- but can be harder if you're trying to build variety in your daily lunchkit. If you're bored with the regular protein sources, here are a few snacks below that may help you out:
Kodiak Power Pancakes:
Whip these up using 3/4c egg whites instead of the egg for every 1c of powder and a little less water. Premake these ahead of time, freeze, and pop them in the toaster when you're wanting a quick and tasty snack! (roughly 21g of protein!)
Plain Greek Yoghurt Parfait:
3/4c Plain Greek Yoghurt (18g of protein!)
100g blueberries
1/4 c oats
1/2 Tbsp Honey
Layer yoghurt, blueberries, and oats, drizzle honey on top! Easy peasy
PB2 Chocolate Shake:
Your favourite chocolate protein powder, or mine: IsaLean Pro - Chocolate (38g protein!)
2 Tbsp PB2 (5g protein!)
Handfull of ice
1/2c water
Broccoli and Beet Tuna Salad
112g of tuna (30g of protein)
1 c sliced beets - I like mine pickled
1/2 c chopped raw broccoli
1/4 c chopped apple
2 sticks choped celery
1 Tbsp mustard
2 tbsp pickle juice - I use the beet pickle juice
Mix mustard and juice into tuna. Add in the remaining ingredients and devour! If you want some crunch, spoon on top of multigrain crackers
2 Hardboiled Eggs and 1/4 chopped avocado
10g of protein
Looking for more? Check out here for some tasty looking recipes to help you get in your daily macros!
Note: diets should not be standardised based on the average population. Do your research and find a professional to help guide you and build an individualised macro-nutrient plan that is created for your personal goals and lifestyle.