The Meal Prep Playbook For Aaron

One target runs this whole page: protein, every day, inside the window.

Three pieces. If the plate has all three, it is right.

• 6–8 oz of cooked protein. Chicken, beef, pork, fish. Weighed after cooking.
• Two fists of veggies. Any kind, any prep. More is always fine.
• Rice or potato on training days. Lighter on the carbs on rest days, veggies pick up the space.

Everything cooks at the same time, not one after the other. Hand this section to the chef.

• Oven does the heavy lifting. Chicken on one tray, two trays of mixed veggies alongside. One temperature, one timer.
• Stove runs the beef. Brown the ground beef or sear the sirloin while the oven works.
• Rice cooker runs itself. Set it and forget it. Batch the potatoes in the oven with the veggies.
• Portion while it is warm. Six containers lined up, protein weighed after cooking, veggies split evenly. Done before the kitchen is even cleaned.
• Fish is the one exception. Cook it fresh on the day, always.

Meat shrinks about a quarter when it cooks. Buy for the cooked number, not the raw one.

• The conversion: 8 oz raw cooks down to about 6 oz. For a 7 oz plate, buy 9 to 10 oz raw.
• A full prep week, screenshot this: 4 lb chicken (breast and thighs), 2 lb sirloin or lean ground beef, one pork tenderloin, two big trays worth of veggies, rice and potatoes.
• That banks 8 to 10 plates. Clean Eats covers whatever the week eats beyond that.

Cook the protein simple, flavor it when you plate. One batch becomes three different meals.

• Cook with just salt and pepper, then split the batch into lanes at plating: tex-mex (taco seasoning, salsa), Mediterranean (lemon, herbs, a measured drizzle of olive oil), soy-ginger.
• Free sauces: salsa, hot sauce, mustard, chimichurri. Use them without thinking.
• Watch list: BBQ and teriyaki carry sugar. Fine in small amounts, not by the ladle.
• The trap: creamy sauces. That is how a perfect plate quietly gains 300 calories.

The days you miss protein are the days nothing was within reach. Build the drawer once, restock it on prep day.

• Fridge shelf: a dozen hard-boiled eggs batched on Sunday, cottage cheese cups, and the prepped plates. Prepped food keeps four days, freeze the rest.
• Freezer: cooked ground beef and rice freeze well. Keep one full plate frozen at all times, it is dinner on the night you land home.
• The truck: meat sticks, plus a shaker pre-loaded with dry powder. Water is everywhere, the powder has to already be with you.

A good prep company gets you 80% there. Two asks close the rest.

• Pick the highest protein meals on the menu. That is the only filter that matters.
• Ask Don and Yvonne to bump the protein and veggie portions. You know the owners. Most people cannot make that ask. You can.
• Skip the fish options from any prep company. Fish does not survive the box. Everything else travels fine.
• Backups on the road: Factor, Icon Meals and Trifecta are all solid when Clean Eats is not an option.

Travel days are where the window gets missed. Stack the easy 10s.

• Meat sticks in the truck and the bag. Chomps or the Kirkland grass-fed ones, an easy 10g each. Two of those quietly rescue a travel day.
• Airport default: grilled chicken anything. Sandwich, salad, bowl. Pick the protein first, the rest follows.
• Eating out: order double protein. Restaurants will always do it, and it beats a perfect-looking plate with 20g on it.

You drink plenty of water. With your daily activity it needs something in it.

• A pinch of sea salt in your water through the day, or
• One LMNT packet a day, maximum. Each packet carries a full gram of sodium, so one is the dose, not the starting point.