1. Start Here! | Nourish

HOW TO USE NOURISH KITCHEN

The Nourish Kitchen was designed to help you NOURISH your body correctly, create healthier lifestyle habits, teach you what YOUR body needs, the basics of a balanced diet and while achieving and maintaining your body and health goals.

I've designed the chapters so that you can work through them in 6 WEEKS, or less.

The idea is for you to read and work through 2 chapters per week.

If you have any questions my email is always open - please feel free to email me OR add your questions to our monthly Q and A session.

Follow the easy 5 steps below to get started!

EMAIL ME

Don't feel like going through the hassle of the 5 steps?

The recipes in the Nourish Kitchen have been designed with easy in mind (as a single mother, who's self employed I know very well how much of our time goes elsewhere!

You can jump straight into planning your meals for the week. You don't have to do all the steps below, only step one and step two!

Download the template meal plan and start planning or use the example meal plans to give you some inspiration.

The recipes have been created to fit into a balanced diet so you don't have to calculate your calories or protein requirements first before kick starting your journey to a healthier, more balanced you.

I'd recommend starting with 3 meals and one snack or dessert option per day.

STEP ONE - Choose Your Goal

Choose your goal, I'm sure for most of you, you already have an idea of what you want to achieve.

1. Eat healthier,

2. Lose weight,

3. Lose weight and build muscle OR

4. Maintain weight and build muscle

STEP TWO - Calculate Your Calories

Follow my suggested guidelines below that suit your goals the best. Click the button below to work out your calories:

1. Eat Healthier

The best part of the Nourish Kitchen is that all the recipes fall very easily into a healthy meal plan.

If your focus is on eating healthier and nourishing your body, go straight to the Meal Plan and choosing what you want to eat for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks.

When it comes to snacks - the intention is to help control hunger between meals. You don't have to snack, but you can have 1 or 2 per day. Plan a snack for the time of day you are most hungry. EG. If you starving by the time dinner comes - have an afternoon snack.

PORTION SIZES

FEMALES: have one serving as a portion size (if a meal serve 4, roughly divide that meal into 4 and have 1 serving)

MALES: have one and a half servings

2. Lose Weight and 3. Lose Weight and Build Muscle

Follow the instructions on how to calculate your calories here:

In order to lose weight you need to eat less than what your body needs to maintain your current weight.

The biggest mistake people make is this: REDUCING THEIR CALORIES TOO LOW, following a more moderated calorie deficit is more sustainable.

*I recommend follow these calories for 8 to 12 weeks and then reassess your progress. I strongly suggest periods of eating at your maintenance calories in between periods of weight loss calories.

Follow your weight loss calories for 8 to 12 weeks. After that recalculate your maintenance calories for your new weight.

NB: The amount of calories you need for weight loss/ weight maintenance and weight gain changes as your weight changes!

4. Maintain Weight and Build Muscle

Calculate your calories according to your current weight, height and activity level.

In order to maintain your weight you will need to eat maintenance calories.

If your goal is to build muscle you may need to increase your calorie intake slightly.

The 3 key aspects to building muscle are: eating enough calories, eating enough protein and progressively increasing your weight training either by increasing the weights you are using or the number of reps you are doing.

Calculate Calories

STEP THREE - Calculate Your Protein

As I've mentioned, I have done the work for you ;)

All the recipes in the Nourish Kitchen are balanced, if you are eating according to the recommended serving (see STEP TWO 1. Eat Healthier) you don't have to calculate your daily protein intake if you don't want to.

For those of you that do want to - please click the button below to calculate your daily protein range.

I recommend working with a daily range, if your total daily protein intake falls within that range you are on your way to achieving your results.

It is important to note that if your goal is to lose weight and gain muscle you will fall into the highest protein range or requirements

Calculate Protein

STEP FOUR - Split Your Calories and Protein

Split your calories and protein in between your meals. Decide how many meals and snacks you'd like to eat per day. If you aren't sure start with 3 meals and 1 snack.

I typically like to keep the lunch and dinner portion the same - this makes having dinner leftovers for lunch MUCH easier.

Whether you are having 2 meals and 2 snacks or 3 meals, divide your calories between each as well as your protein.

This helps make it easier for you to stay within your daily calorie range as well as hit your protein target.

I strongly suggest to have larger calorie and protein meals around the times you are more hungry (e.g if you're not hungry in the morning allocate a smaller amount of calories and protein for your morning meal).

Try keep the split as balanced as possible, don't have one meal of 300kCal with 10g of protein and another of 900kCal with 70g of protein. Protein is also best absorbed if its distributed evenly throughout the day.

AN EXAMPLE:

Daily Calories = 1700kCal

Daily Protein Range = 90 - 110g

STEP FIVE - Plan Your Meals

The last step - you're almost there...

Print the meal plan template, or use the example meal plans for inspiration.

Go through the recipe database and plan your meals.

I recommend following your plan for 8 to 12 weeks consistently before making any adjustments.

Please see the link below for direction on what to do once your 12 weeks is finished.

Meal Plan Template

Now What??