Street Parking Unlocked 4: Street Parking Nutrition
What is a Street Parking Nutrition Template?
Let’s talk NUTRITION. Not diets, not weight loss, not unsustainable quick fix tips. Our goal is to cover what we believe in when it comes to nutrition, what our Street Parking Nutrition Templates are all about, and how to approach making a change to your nutrition to complement and fuel the work you are doing to be your best, healthiest self!
Remember it's not about trying to do ALL the things we list here. We encourage starting simple with any changes you create and focus on making daily habits. Then as they become easier you can SLOWLY implement another change. Trying to make too many changes at once will most likely stress you out and cause you to throw in the towel.
WHAT WE BELIEVE IN WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR NUTRITION...
Our beliefs about the way we eat mirrors what we believe about how we train. Consistency is everything. Each of us needs to find something that works for us but that something needs to be sustainable. We don't believe in fad diets, cuts or macronutrient elimination diets, or any sort of eating schedule that you won't be able to follow for the rest of your life. Diets like those become popular because they are severe and can yield drastic, but often unsustainable results. Just like everything we do - we believe in the #morethannothing #betterthanyesterday approach.
WHERE SHOULD I START WITH MY NUTRITION?
We see it all the time, people get really excited when they are ready to make a change, and they tend to want to make a lot of big changes all at once. This can become very overwhelming and there is a high likelihood that they will give up because they are trying to learn and maintain too many different things at once. What we like to do is slowly implement a change until it becomes a habit, and then add more to our plate.
STEP 1: QUALITY OF YOUR FOOD
We recommend taking a look at WHAT you are eating. Now we aren't saying you have to go out and buy all organic food, but we want you to try and cut the out the crap. This includes HIGHLY processed foods or things that have added sugar. Now you don't need to go crazy and change every meal if that overwhelms you. Start with one meal a day and when that becomes manageable, you can try shooting for two meals a day and so on.
STEP 2: BALANCING YOUR PLATE
Macronutrients are the building blocks of food. The three macronutrients are proteins, carbohydrates and fats. We want to consume these three macronutrients together because they manage our insulin and blood sugar and create a balance for our bodies and energy throughout the day. Eating unbalanced or sporadically throughout the day causes you to have peaks and drops in your energy. A balanced plate and properly spaced meals balance your energy and decrease those spikes. At each meal try and consume a protein, carb, fat, and veggie.
STEP 3: PALM METHOD MEASUREMENTS (If you feel ready you can skip to Step 4)
Once you are consistent with WHAT you are eating and balancing your plate, you can start to look at HOW MUCH you are eating. We know there are a lot of different ways to measure your food. We have found the palm method is a very effective way to measure your food without needing a scale or measuring cups. After all, your hands usually go wherever you go! Your hands also (in general) match your body size. For example a big guy needs more food than a smaller guy - good news is usually their hand size will correlate with their overall body size. This measurement system actually CLOSELY mimics some of the most popular styles of eating out there (like macros, zone, etc) and has been tested to provide almost identical portion sizes WITHOUT complicated apps and measuring.
Here is a simple, yet effective way to measure your food using your palm...
Your palm determines your protein portion
Your fist determines your veggie portion
Your cupped hand determines your carb/starch portion
Your thumb determines your fat portion
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE PALM METHOD
STEP 4: STREET PARKING NUTRITION TEMPLATES!!!
Once you develop consistency using the palm method, you can look into purchasing a template and taking it a step further and implementing a food scale. The idea behind weighing and measuring food via the templates isn’t to have people weighing and measuring their food forever, but to have them learn about portion sizes and balance and eventually be able to eyeball how much they should be eating.
DON'T FORGET...THESE THINGS TAKE TIME!!
A big thing we want people to remember it that it’s ok if it takes weeks, even months for you to get comfortable with trying to dial in the quality of your foods and quantity via palm measurements. It’s a lifestyle change and we want these things to become habits and not feel like work. You will have times in your life where this is super manageable and other times where it’s harder. You can always scale things back to what is manageable for you in that moment. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach. SOMETHING is always better than NOTHING!
WHAT ARE THE STREET PARKING TEMPLATES ALL ABOUT?
The Street Parking Nutrition Ttemplates were created by Miranda and Molly in 2018, as they wanted to provide the community with something that was consistent with the Street Parking workout philosophy... simple, yet effective. Both have had a lot of experience with counting macronutrients, Zone dieting, and weighing and measuring their food. What they found through running several Street Parking nutrition challenges was that people didn’t need more, they needed simple. We saw people only looking at their food as numbers and not as fuel. Along with that we saw people try to make unrealistic cuts in calories to reach their goals faster. We saw unsustainable options out there and we wanted to fix it!
The Nutrition Templates are a simplified approach to weighing and measuring food that not only tell people how much to eat, but also tell them WHAT to eat through a clean foods list that excludes processed foods and sugar. Most importantly, the goal of the templates is to give people a way to eat that will give them results now but is sustainable in the long term. It lays out how many servings you’ll need to have for protein, carbs, fat and vegetables at each meal based on your gender, weight range and goals (performance, fat loss or postpartum/breastfeeding.) You then utilize the food list that we provide that breaks down the serving size per item. You pick the foods you like and simply fill your serving sizes for each meal. There is no crazy tracking and no apps needed!
What’s on the food list?
The templates are not designed for you to eat crap and just hit your macros for the day. You won't find highly processed foods or things with added sugar on our foods list. So, things like Halo Top, Kodiak Cakes, protein donuts, etc. aren't on there.
The template is a ONE-TIME PURCHASE.
If your weight or goals change, you can make adjustments to your existing template, without having to purchase another. However, if you end up having a baby and are breastfeeding we STRONGLY encourage Mamas to purchase the Postpartum template.
What if I am Vegan or Vegetarian? What are the protein options?
Beans
Chickpeas
Greek Yogurt
Eggs
Hemp Seeds
Lentils
Low Fat Tofu
Nutritional Yeast
Seafood
Seitan
Soy Beans
Tempeh Tofu
*Please note: some of these protein sources will count towards your meals carb or fat serving. We recommend varying your protein sources for your meals.
WHAT ELSE IS IMPORTANT? ASIDE FROM NUTRITION WE WANT TO FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING:
Regular Exercise: Try and incorporate 3-4 Street Parking workouts a week.
Water Intake: Drinking a good amount of water each day can help our bodies in so many different ways. It can aid in hydrating the body and skin, digestion, and weight loss. Aim to drink about 40-50% of your 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water a day, but you do not need to exceed 80 ounces for women and 100 ounces for men. If you like drinking lots of water you can ignore the limit.
Sleep: It’s just as important as nutrition and exercise when it comes to improving your health, performance, and body composition. Good sleep helps our bodies and minds recover, keeping us lean, happy, mentally focused, and healthy. Chronically bad sleep slathers on body fat, screws up our hormones, ages us faster, increases chronic illnesses, and drains our IQ and mojo.
Body Weight Scale: If you like to use the scale as a way to measure your progress - go for it! However we feel the scale doesn't tell the whole story. We find the best way to track your progress is through body measurements, and photos. Along with that we encourage you to track your energy, mood, sleep quality, etc.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A STREET PARKING NUTRITION TEMPLATE!
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A POSTPARTUM TEMPLATE!
We know dialing in your nutrition can be super intimidating. You don't know where to start and just feel overwhelmed. Street Parking Nutrition does offer one-on-one coaching! This is a great tool for someone who is intimidated by making changes on their own, someone who feels overwhelmed by the templates, or someone that feels like they need the extra accountability. It is even great for someone who is already following the templates and has been super consistent but feels like they need a change and don’t know where to start. Molly and Michelle do a self-assessment questionnaire to start and from there a customized plan is created that goes hand-in-hand with the templates and bi-weekly check-ins to help you reach your personal goals.
IN ORDER TO WORK 1:1 WITH THE NUTRITION TEAM YOU WILL NEED TO PURCHASE A TEMPLATE!!!
ONE TIME ASSESSMENT | $50
This option would be a one-time assessment with one of the Street Parking Nutrition coaches. This would be a great option for someone who is pretty dialed in with their nutrition and has a good grasp of what is working for their body, but needs some general guidance on making small changes or tweaks to their template.
Please note: We do not recommend the one-time assessment for anyone that struggles with accountability or finding consistency with their diet.
ASSESSMENT + 3 ONE ON ONE CHECK-INS | 6 Weeks | $102
Initial assessment, followed by 3 more check-ins at weeks 2-4-6
ASSESSMENT + 4 ONE ON ONE CHECK-INS | 8 Weeks | $131
Initial assessment, followed by 4 more check-ins at weeks 2-4-6-8
ASSESSMENT + 6 ONE ON ONE CHECK-INS | 12 Weeks | $189
More accountability + more time to figure out what works for YOU!
Initial assessment, followed by 6 more check-ins at weeks 2-4-6-8-10-12
ASSESSMENT + 8 ONE ON ONE CHECK-INS | 16 Weeks | $242
More accountability + more time to figure out what works for YOU!
Initial assessment, followed by 6 more check-ins at weeks 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16
Please note: The above 1:1 coaching DOES NOT INCLUDE the cost of the template!
DID YOU KNOW?
Street Parking Nutrition posts a template friendly recipe with portion information every Thursday on the SP members Facebook page, members Instagram page and on the Members-Only page on the SP website.
Also, if you have a nutrition related question use the hashtag #spnutrition and our coaches will help you!