Do you eat the same things every day? Here are 4 ways to create variety in your recipes while in a deficit phase. Includes: free recipes!
Eating the same thing every day while in a deficit phase can be very beneficial to your end goal because this way of eating can provide structure and accountability to your nutrition and will most likely get you to your goal faster. Because why? Because you have a plan to stick to! But we all get bored of eating the same things day after day, so I’ve created some ideas on how you can take your usual foods and manipulate them in a new way without risking a whole new calculation of macros.
Goal: manipulate your favourite food items without changing your macros at the end of the day.
1. Chicken
Here’s a creative way to cook chicken breasts. Same macros as plain chicken, different cooking style with this pro tip: shred your chicken! Place in an instant pot or crock pot cook as directions suggest. Drain, place back into the pot and spin with a hand mixer (dare you to try this!) There, now you have pre-made shredded chicken to put on your tacos, pasta, salads, rice cakes or whatever your usual method is.
2. Protein powder Let’s say you consume protein powder every day (I know I do!) How would you normally use it? Smoothie recipe? Combine it with greek yogurt? Try this very filling smoothie “fluff” instead:
Pro tip: make protein fluff! Recipe found here: smoothie bowl by Coach Courtney 3. Vegetables Tired of your salad recipe because you need that volume or maybe you’re needing to add more vegetables in your diet? Try this quick veggie saute packed with over 300g of vegetables! This not only has lots of flavour, but tons of volume to keep you fuller longer.
Pro tip: mix up the following:
- 200g of from frozen cauli, broccoli, carrot RICE (make sure the bag says riced or you’ll get diced, and that's not the effect we’re going for). Here’s a good one for Canada: Riced Veggies / and for USA: GG Riced Veggies
- 50g fresh baby spinach
- 50g bagged shredded cabbage Now combine all into a non-stick pan and saute for 5-10mins. Add cooked diced chicken. This may give you less macros over your usual salad in the end - so what will you do? Sneak some extra fats in here if needed- like avocado or hummus! This recipe is great because you could make a huge batch and take servings on your road trip or to the office.
4. Raise your hand if you love tacos!
Ok, confession time: I eat tacos for lunch every day! After a while I do get tired of them, but not for long- trust me! But when I do, I take my exact same taco recipe and create nachos! Here’s how with my pro tip: turn tacos into nachos. Note that these are best made with 100% soft corn tortillas (just like bagged Tostitos are but without the fried part). Take 2 x 8-10” corn tortillas, cut them into triangles (use scissors if you want!), lay them on a baking tray, spray with cooking oil, sprinkle with salt, bake on 375f 8-10mins- careful now, don’t burn them! Lay baked chips out on a plate and add what you’d add to your taco shell! Enjoy!
I really hope you liked these suggestions and can use them in your meal structure. In the least, try being creative with the foods you love in different ways!