Week 6 plan

Dates: Sun 2026-07-26 → Thu 2026-07-30 (truncated). Plan starts Sunday lunch (Sunday breakfast is off-plan — see note below). Away from Friday morning for the weekend — Fri/Sat are off-plan (no meals planned, no groceries). This is a 5-day plan (Sun–Thu).

Three things about this week:

1. Lighter summer, leaned-in. Week 5’s Indian-front / lighter-back split worked, so week 6 pushes the lighter/summer direction the whole way — no Indian mains this week. One Tex-Mex beef burrito batch anchor, fish/seafood (salmon teriyaki Mon, shrimp stir-fry Thu), and fresh salads (chickpea-feta, chicken-thigh salad). One new recipe: halloumi & grain salad (Tue). One revived: chickpea-feta salad (never cooked in 5 weeks — clears a standing “try or retire” flag). (Rice-paper rolls + Sat oats were dropped when the week was cut to Sun–Thu — see the Fri/Sat note below.)
2. Strict two-week no-repeat rotation. Every main used in week 4 or 5 is rested — including rajma, palak paneer, miso salmon, tandoori, egg curry, niçoise. All week-6 mains were last cooked in week 3 or earlier (or are new/revived). Staples (eggs & toast, snacks) exempt.
3. G holds the −10% lighter phase — 4th week, still no logged data. Targets stay cut ~10% from standard (from carbs; protein held). No hard days. Fill in the week-6 hunger log daily (Sun–Thu) — until a log is filled during the week, the cut stays unevaluated and week 7 is planned blind again. Note: the weekend trip means no Saturday long run on-plan this week, so the cut isn’t tested under a long session — the call still leans on weekday energy. Harshitha’s targets are unchanged.

Macro accounting convention (read this)

Each main dish below is anchored to its recipe’s published per-serving total (the number in the recipe file’s Macros table). Those totals already include the dish’s own rice/grain/potatoes. Where G adds an extra starch (e.g. 2 slices of bread), it’s listed as a separate, explicitly-counted row so nothing is double-counted.

Recipe per-serving anchors used (G / H):

Snack anchors (reused from week 5): skyr bowl G 420 / H 320 · banana-PB toast 350 (G) / 295 (H) · cottage cheese G 320 / H 240 · hummus + veg + eggs G 360 / H 230 · eggs & toast G 550 / H 320 · banana 98 · honey (10g) 30 · boiled egg + fruit ~130.

G’s targets (−10%, lighter phase — held from week 4)

(Hard / long-run targets are not used — no hard days scheduled.)

Training week

Daily calorie targets

Week at a glance

Meal table

Sunday breakfast note: the plan starts at Sunday lunch, so Sunday breakfast is off-plan (a normal weekend breakfast, ~550 G / ~320 H). Sunday’s tracked total below is lunch→evening; the full-day projection adds the off-plan breakfast.

Fri/Sat note: away from Friday morning for the weekend — no meals planned and nothing bought for those days. Halloumi salad now runs once (Tue only); rice-paper rolls and Saturday’s high-protein oats are dropped from this week.

Cooking effort by day

Starch multiplier rules (lighter phase)

No hard days for G this week, so the aggressive ×1.25 bumps are gone (same as weeks 4–5). Plan runs Sun–Thu (away Fri/Sat).

Sunday — both rest (G 2790, H 1700) · plan starts at lunch

A light summer cook-day open: cold chickpea-feta salad for lunch, the burrito batch for dinner. Protein watch: chickpea-feta is the week’s lowest-protein main (H 18g) — the hummus-and-eggs snack + evening top-up keep H’s protein up. H runs a little light on a rest day with the partial-plan start; a skyr bowl or boiled egg + fruit closes it if hungry (keep ≥1650).

Monday — G easy, H gym (G 2790, H 1800)

Salmon cooked Monday on purpose — it’s the most perishable item, so it’s bought fresh Sun and cooked day 2, no freezing (the fish-early convention). 48g protein for G balances the bean-heavy burrito lunch. H’s post-gym top-up is kept light (boiled egg + fruit) because both her mains today are big.

Tuesday — G standard (easy spin), H light (G 2970, H 1700)

The new halloumi salad’s first outing — a fast Mediterranean warm-salad, high-protein veg dinner. Weigh the halloumi (salty/fatty — a “slice more” is +80 kcal). H lands a touch low on her light day (the batch burrito uses lighter ×0.85 rice) — a boiled egg + fruit closes it if she’s hungry.

Wednesday — G standard (easy-moderate ride), H gym (G 2970, H 1800)

Chickpea-feta’s second outing — the durable base (chickpeas, chopped veg) prepped Sunday; Wednesday just dresses fresh. Protein watch again: chickpea-feta H 18g — the boiled egg + skyr snacks are the fix. Chicken-thigh salad mini-batch cooks tonight (4 servings), covering Thu lunch too.

Thursday — G standard (easy run), H long ride (G 2970, H 1900)

Shrimp stir-fry with brown rice (not cauliflower rice) since both are training today — that’s the +180 G / +90 H training variant. Shrimp is the late-week seafood: freeze on arrival + thaw Wed night, or buy day-of Thu (never assumed fridge-fresh from Sunday). H’s long-ride day is covered with mid-ride fuel + protein snacks.

Friday & Saturday — away for the weekend

Leaving Friday morning — no meals planned and nothing bought for Fri/Sat. The plan runs Sun–Thu only.

Plan average check (5 days, Sun–Thu)

Numbers below are the plan totals including the small recommended top-ups noted in each day’s Gap line. The raw plan before top-ups is ~60–120 kcal/day lower for each person.

G: ~2856/day avg vs the ~2898 target — ≈ −42, driven by the partial Sunday (plan starts at lunch) and the easy Monday. Still ~13% below his old ~3300 standard, consistent with the held lighter phase. If Sunday/Monday energy lags, the hummus + skyr snacks are the lever. This is the 4th unmeasured week on the cut — the hunger log is the priority (and the away-weekend means no Saturday long run to test it).

H: ~1787/day avg (with the recommended top-ups; ~1735 raw) vs 1800 target. Against ~2300 expenditure = ~510 kcal/day deficit over these 5 days → on track and sustainable. Watch: Sun (1560), Tue (1640) sit below their day-targets — that’s by design on light/rest days, but the top-ups (a boiled egg + fruit, or a slightly bigger skyr) exist if satiety drops below 3 in the hunger log. Don’t let any day fall below ~1650. The two rest/light days (Sun, Tue) are the ones to watch. (The two lowest-target days both land in this 5-day stretch, so the average sits a touch under 1800 — fine given the weekend break follows.)

Protein note (chickpea-feta days): chickpea-feta salad is this week’s lowest-protein main (H 18g, G 25g) and runs twice for H (Sun + Wed lunch). This week’s fix mirrors the chana-day tactic: the hummus-and-eggs / boiled-egg snacks top up protein on those days, and the daily skyr/cottage-cheese snacks + the meat/fish/halloumi mains (salmon 48g, burrito 45g, chicken-thigh 45g, shrimp 42g, halloumi 34g) keep both near protein targets. Don’t skip the protein snacks on the chickpea-feta days.

What’s batched vs. fresh

This is the building-block batch (≥5 reusable components), not one scaled dish — see Batch cooking — Week 6. The grain feeds the Tue halloumi salad; the eggs feed snacks + the chickpea-feta protein top-ups; the burrito filling covers three meals.

Fish stays fresh: salmon (Mon) is cooked fresh the day-of and scheduled early so it’s never frozen; shrimp (Thu, day 5) is the one late-week item — frozen-then-thawed or bought day-of. No fish this week is cooked past Thursday.

What to weigh — same 5 high-sensitivity items

1. Rice / grain / oats / potatoes (cooked weight)
2. Protein portions (beef, salmon, chicken, shrimp, halloumi)
3. Oil, butter, dressings, teriyaki/peanut sauce
4. Cheese (feta, halloumi)
5. Nut butters and honey