Meal prep has become a popular strategy for those looking to improve their diet, save time, and reach their fitness goals. But for beginners, the concept can seem overwhelming. This guide will break down the basics of meal prep and provide you with 7 tips to start meal prepping like the pros!
But, what is Meal Prep?
Meal prep is the practice of preparing meals or components of meals in advance. This involves cooking a large batch of food on the weekend and storing it in individual portions for the week ahead. It's a great way to ensure you have meals that fit your desired macronutrients and are healthy and convenient, dramatically decreasing the chances of making bad food choices.
Benefits of Meal Prep
Saves time: You can cook a week's worth of meals in a couple of hours over the weekend, saving significant time during the week.
Improves nutrition: When you meal prep, you're more likely to make healthy choices. You can control the ingredients and portion sizes.
Saves money: How often do you grab a sandwich or eat out because you didn't bring anything for lunch at work? and you probably grabbed a "snack for later" and a coffee as you walked by the coffee shop, those expenses add up and you can eliminate them if you plan ahead.
Increases consistency: Having prepared meals ready to go is the best way to ensure you stay on track with your diet and fitness goals, eliminates the guesswork and because you now exactly the quantities and macros of everything in them, it makes tracking your intake a lot easier and consistent.
Tips for Successful Meal Prep
Plan ahead: Before you start cooking, plan your meals for the week. Consider your schedule, preferences, and dietary needs.
Choose versatile ingredients: Opt for ingredients that can be used in multiple dishes. choose always whole foods than can be combined in different ways to make different meals.
Cook in bulk: Prepare large batches of ingredients or complete meals to maximise your time. For example put 1kg of chicken breasts or thighs in an oven tray, 1kg of minced beef in a pan, a pot with rice and a pot with pasta.
Cook the ingredients separately: Cooking your protein, carbs and veggies separately makes it easier to prepare your containers and also make different combinations using the same ingredients. If you chose to cook them together you will have to input the amount of every ingredient in your food tracker and divide it by the number of portions you get from them. There is nothing wrong with this, but we find it a little bit more complicated and less accurate.
Use Spices: When you try to control your portions and macronutrients dry spices are your friends, they don't add any weight or calories to your meals and allows to quickly make a few different flavours very quickly.
Avoid Sauces: Yes, everything is better with a sauce, but if you cook your chicken in tomato sauce for example, it is harder to measure when it comes to weighting the amount of chicken for each portion, as the tomato will also add to the weight. We recommend adding the sauce separately to be able to track it too.
Store properly: Use airtight containers to store your meals in the refrigerator or freezer. Label them with the date and contents.
Keep it simple: Don't try to cook gourmet meals, this will usually take a lot longer than sticking to simple and basic ingredients and spice combinations.
Get used to eating the same meals a few times a week: This is one of the main pushbacks we hear form people, "it is boring to have the same food 3 or 4 times per week". We get it, and you can absolutely cook something different for every meal, however as we said before, one of the main benefits of meal prepping is to be able to cook for the week in a couple of hours, so you eliminate the guesswork on your nutrition in 2 hours a week and you can focus all your time and energy on the other aspects of your fitness journey, exercise, sleep and recovery.
Have your goal in mind: Every time you don't feel like planning your meals, spending 2h in the kitchen, separating your portions in containers or eating the same meal you ate two days ago, think of your goal, what you want to achieve and think of meal prep as the vehicle which will take you there faster, stick to it, and you will soon reap the benefits of your hard work.
In conclusion, meal prep is a simple and effective way to improve your diet and lifestyle. By following these tips, you can easily incorporate meal prep into your routine. Remember, consistency is key, so start small and gradually increase your meal prep efforts.
Until Next time!
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