Sample Meal Plans

Eating balanced meals every 3 to 4 hours doesn’t have to be difficult; the key is being prepared and choosing meals that work for your lifestyle and schedule. Use the following “Sample Day Meal Plan” as a guide to help you plan the meals and meal times that work best for your busy day.

If you have time in the morning, start your day with a fast, high quality breakfast like eggs and oatmeal to boost metabolism. If you are pressed for time, have a quick protein smoothie.

Quick tip: Stash protein bars in your brief case, purse, at work or in the car so you always have a balanced meal available.

For a balanced mid-afternoon snack, try plain Greek yogurt sweetened with vanilla extract and Stevia, fruit and nuts. Other quick snacks like a protein bar or turkey with cheese and fruit or cottage cheese and fruit would work as well. If you are used to sitting down to dinner, take advantage of it by fueling with a high quality meal. Prepare easy staples like sweet potatoes, brown rice, vegetables or a salad in bulk for easy dinners all week long.

A balanced meal one hour before bed time will boost metabolism. If not hungry, eat protein and fat only (skip the banana, in the example below). If hungry, eat a whole meal. Always avoid complex carbs like pasta, brown rice or bread before bed and stick to simple carbs, protein and fat only.

The following nutritional parameters and sample meals are an example only and are not necessarily based on your personal goals or nutrition needs.

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Foods to fuel your workout

To keep energy high and maximize your results, it’s crucial to stabilize your blood sugar with the right nutrition before, during and after your R.I.P.P.E.D. workout. Though many people mistakenly believe that they need to follow a different eating routine before and during exercise, the goal should always be to stabilize your blood sugar to keep your body in balance.

The only difference between a workout day and any other day is that your body uses more energy. And because your body is a “re-fuel as it goes machine”, you simply need more fuel on the days you workout. To fuel any intense workout, the goal is to continue to stabilize your blood sugar and make these 3 simple adjustments.

Pre-workout fuel

Since we all have different digestive systems, you should experiment with pre-workout meals and adjust your portion size depending on how you feel. Ideally you should eat a balanced, high-quality meal consisting of:

• 1 complex carbohydrate such as oatmeal, brown rice or sweet  potatoes
• 1 small portion of simple carbohydrates like fruit or vegetables
• 1 high quality protein such as chicken or egg whites
• 1 high quality fat such as avocado, nuts or nut butters

Try a protein bar:  Try cutting a balanced protein bar into pieces and eating one piece every 10 minutes

Drink a protein shake:  Sip on a protein drink made with a high quality recovery carbohydrate solution

During workout fuel

Your R.I.P.P.E.D. workout is considered “high intensity” and requires more fuel during activity. One of the most common nutrition mistakes people make during high intensity exercise, is consuming gel packs (an all-sugar supplement) or carbohydrate loading.

The reality is, whenever you eat too many carbohydrates or an all-sugar meal, your blood sugar spikes and then crashes…hard! This wreaks havoc on your energy levels and severely hinders performance. Again, the goal should always be to stabilize your blood sugar during activity with balanced nutrition. Now, of course the food needs to be delivered in a portable and easy fashion.

Your serving size depends on your conditioning, size and intensity level of the exercise; we recommend that you experiment to find what works best for you.

Post-workout fuel

Your after-workout meal should follow the same guidelines as your before-workout meal to replace any depleted glucose (sugar) stores. Depending on the intensity level of your workout, you may have an increased appetite the remainder of the day. Eat a balanced meal every 3 hours (or sooner if hungry) for the rest of the day for optimal recovery.

Protein shake formula

1 scoop of protein powder (we recommend Protowhey by BNRG which has some fat in it). Mix with one scoop of a high quality carbohydrate recovery drink (we recommend Recoverite by Hammer Nutrition). Add water to taste.

2. Choose one fat ...

• nuts / nut butters
• oils like olive or canola
• avocado / guacamole
• salad dressing
• mayonnaise
• flax seed
• butter / margarine
• egg yolks

​​​​3. Choose one or two carbs ...

If having 2 carbohydrates in one meal, such as brown rice and broccoli for example, aim to have smaller portions of each to keep your blood sugar from spiking.

Please Note:

Though cheese contains a small amount of protein and mostly fat, consider it your source of fat. Add additional protein and carbohydrates to create a balanced meal. Please note that cottage cheese is very high in protein and therefor considered a protein.

Milk has a combination of protein, carbohydrates and fat (unless using fat free or skim). To add milk to a meal, it’s best to read the nutrition label and then add protein, carbohydrate and fat to make a complete meal.

All food items are either a protein, carbohydrate or fat (or combination). Because of this, all foods can be included in your plan by figuring out what the food is (protein, carbohydrate, fat or combo) and then adding the missing macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate or fat) to create a balanced meal. If you are unsure what the food item is, simply check the nutrition label.

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Create Healthy Balanced Meals

Learning how to create meals with a balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat is an important part of stabilizing your blood sugar and reaching your goals. The following step-by-step instructions will teach you how to easily create balanced meals, whether at home, dining out, traveling or on the go. After, check out our Food List & “Cheat Sheet” to get started creating your own balanced meals.

1. Start with the PROTEIN ( must be a COMPLETE PROTEIN* )

There are 2 groups of PROTEIN: LEAN PROTEIN and NON-LEAN PROTEIN

LEAN PROTEIN: High in Protein and LOW in Fat
Lean protein sources include food items like chicken breast, turkey breast, protein powder and egg whites, for example.

NON – LEAN PROTEIN: High in Protein and HIGH in Fat
Non – Lean protein sources are higher in fat and include food items like red meat, salmon and pork chops for example.

If you choose a LEAN PROTEIN, add a FAT and CARBOHYDRATE to make a complete meal

If you choose a NON-LEAN PROTEIN, add a CARBOHYDRATE ONLY (protein already contains the fat)

* Complete protein sources include animal protein or soy protein and contain all of the essential amino acids (building blocks of protein) that you need to stabilize your blood sugar. Non-complete proteins such as plant, grain or nut sources should not be counted as your protein source in your meal because they do NOT contain essential amino acids.

For example, though peanut butter contains protein and fat, it should be counted as your source of fat in your meal because it is not from an animal or soy.

2. Next, add a FAT ( add FAT to LEAN PROTEINS only )

FATS include nuts, nut butters, oils, dressings, butter, mayonnaise, avocado, etc.

Though you can include any fat in your meal, natural, unsaturated fats from non-animal sources like nut butters and olive oil are heart healthy and will yield you the best results.

3. Next, add a CARBOHYDRATE

CARBOHYDRATES include fruit, vegetables, grains, potatoes and sugar (like jam for example)

Because carbohydrates have such a significant effect on your blood sugar, it’s important to aim for mostly natural, un-processed sources such as fruit, vegetables, sweet potatoes or oatmeal for example.

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Power of blood sugar stabilization

To get R.I.P.P.E.D. and look and feel your best, it’s critical to stabilize your blood sugar with the right nutrition.

When blood sugar is stable (levels kept between 80 and 120 mg / dl throughout the day), your body is in balance and naturally releases what it doesn’t need like stored body fat, toxins and excess sodium. Stable blood sugar will also protect and increase your lean muscle mass to ignite your metabolism, eliminate carbohydrate and sugar cravings, boost your energy and help you to break through stubborn plateaus. (See chart below)

What happens when blood sugar is NOT stable? Notice in the chart that whenever you eat too many calories or too many carbohydrates in a meal, your blood sugar spikes (above 120 mg / dl) and your body stores fat.

Just the opposite happens whenever you skip a meal, restrict calories or carbohydrates or exercise on an empty stomach; blood sugar levels drop too low (below 80 mg / dl) and your body is forced to burn lean muscle mass in place of body fat. This loss of lean muscle mass slows your metabolism and makes it nearly impossible to reach your goals permanently.

The truth is, though many people eat “healthy”, they fail to eat “correctly” and inadvertently spike and crash their blood sugar levels all day long. Stabilizing your blood sugar levels with the right nutrition is the only way to achieve your goals permanently.

Blood Sugar Stabilization vs. Calorie and Carbohydrate Restriction

WHY RESTRICTION ALWAYS FAILS. While restricting calories (calories in vs. calories out) or carbohydrates will initially cause weight loss, both methods will unfortunately lead to an immovable plateau once your body reaches its set point (the weight your body wants to weigh and gets stuck at).

Even worse, calories or carbohydrate restriction causes low blood sugar, leading to low energy,cravings and a loss of lean muscle mass. Because fat is burned primarily within muscle and muscle increases the rate at which your body burns calories, losing muscle will only slow your metabolism.

Once you re-introduce the calories and/or carbohydrates you restricted (you can’t starve forever!), you regain the weight back plus excess body fat due to the loss of lean muscle mass and slower metabolism. This makes it even more challenging to lose weight the next time around and leads to the yo-yo dieting syndrome (see chart to the right). The truth is,calorie and carbohydrate restriction trains your metabolism to slow down, not speed up!

WHY BLOOD SUGAR STABILIZATION IS THE SOLUTION. Stabilizing blood sugar has the opposite effect on your body. When blood sugar is stable, you will continually release stored body fat, which is then burned up primarily within your muscle tissue during your R.I.P.P.E.D. workout and even during daily activity. Stable blood sugar also creates an anabolic environment (a positive growth state) to optimize cell reproduction, muscle growth, energy, focus, sleep and stress management.

How Stable Blood Sugar Optimizes your R.I.P.P.E.D. Workouts

You know how intense your R.I.P.P.E.D. workout is! Your heart is pumping, you’re drenched in sweat and feeling the burn! Any workout, particularly one as hard-core as R.I.P.P.E.D. uses glucose (sugar) for fuel. And remember what happens if blood sugar levels drop too low…your body will begin to break down its own lean muscle mass in place of body fat for energy.

It’s critical to fuel your body with a nutrition plan based on blood sugar stabilization. This will ensure that you are burning body fat, protecting your lean muscle mass and have the energy you need to power through your R.I.P.P.E.D. workout!

FACTS to know:

• Every pound of body fat stores 3500 calories
• Fat is burned primarily within your muscle
• More muscle = FASTER metabolism!

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Now that you understand the Power of Blood Sugar Stabilization, it’s time to learn how to stabilize your blood sugar with nutrition.

1. Meal Intervals – Eat every 3 to 4 hours

Your body is a “re-fuel as it goes machine” and needs to be fed consistently. The goal is to eat one hour within waking (before exercise if you workout in the morning) to kick-start your metabolism and then every 3 to 4 hours throughout the day until bed time. Your last meal should fall one hour within going to sleep to help prepare your body for fasting (during sleep).

Frequent meals will keep blood sugar levels steady and help to prevent you from overeating and spiking blood sugar or skipping a meal and causing blood sugar to drop too low.

2. Nutrient Ratios – Balance your meals

Each meal should have a balance of PROTEIN (animal or soy protein), with a small amount of healthy FAT and a small amount of CARBOHYDRATES to keep blood sugar levels stable. Having the right balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat in every meal is the only way to balance your blood sugar.

SEE:  "CREATE HEALTHY BALANCE MEALS"  tab, for a step-by-step guide on creating balanced meals.

3. Meal Size – Eat until satisfied, never full

Your body can only process so much food at once. Eating smaller meals every few hours will keep blood sugar levels steady. Each meal should be roughly the same size (same amount of calories).

You should feel ready to eat before a meal and satisfied afterwards. If you are not hungry for your next meal, you may have eaten too much and should cut down on your portions. If you are hungry before the 3 hour mark, you may have eaten too little and should increase the portion size of the meal. The key is to listen to your body and fuel it accordingly every few hours.

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