Hello Runner,
Welcome back to your weekly moment of endurance nutrition!
Happy Weekend!
Everything ok? I hope so!
I don't know if it's just me, but I had the impression that this week went by extremely fast!
My workouts were very good - I'm still making progress with my running! - and I've been working hard.
Next week I'll be traveling and will be away for a long time, so it's normal for things to be more hectic pre-travel. But I'm trying to keep my routine normal, and so far everything is going according to plan.
With the trip approaching, next week's market shopping will no longer be the same. However, to avoid falling into temptation or breaking the plan, I often end up turning to ready meals.
Ready-to-eat meals are useful to prevent excessive snacking, splurging on takeout, or simply keeping you nutrition on track when life gets too busy.
Traveling or living a very busy lifestyle doesn’t mean all of our nutritional goals have to go out the window!
Here’s a little guideline of what to look for in pre-packaged meals for when it’s too difficult to cook at home.
GUIDE
Ready-to-Eat Meal Example
Calories and macros should be tailored to your individual needs (especially to runners), but here’s a checklist that may be used as a guide.
You may not find meals with balanced macronutrients, and that's normal (unfortunately). But if you follow the checklist above roughly, that's good enough.
If you know how many grams of carbs and protein you should eat at each meal, you can look for the options that come closest to your daily needs.
Also, you can consider these options to add to ready meals.
All of the above options are good to have at home and add to meals if needed. This is especially true for frozen vegetables and legumes, which most runners don't eat very often.
Remember that you can also store-bought items to help tailor them to your protein/carb needs or to add plant diversity.
Wishing you a great weekend and week ahead!
Here’s to health and good runs⚡️
Ana Paula Alonso