Ever find yourself making bad food decisions because you don’t have anything prepared? Prepping your meals ahead of time can be a huge help in keeping you on track with your health and fitness goals. Check out these strategies for prepping like a pro.
When your diet and nutrition is so crucial to achieving your goals, prepping your meals can be a big help in keeping you on track. Having your meals prepped in advance will greatly eliminate any last minute bad decision-making when you’re hungry or on the go. Here are some helpful strategies to help you become a meal prep pro and knock down those goals and ambitions you have.
Set Yourself a Routine
Pick a day of the week and make that day the day you prep food for the rest of the week. If you prefer your food be a bit fresher, you can meal prep twice per week. For example, you could prep on a Sunday and Wednesday.
The day(s) don’t particularly matter. What matters is that you get your meals prepped and ready to go so you don’t have to think about it the rest of the week.
Plan Your Grocery Shop
Before you go into the store, you should know exactly what you need. Plan out your meals beforehand so you know how much protein you need for each day. Break that down into the various meals you’ll have that day.
Ask yourself questions like:
What protein source(s) do I want?
What veggies do I like?
What is my best carb source?
How much do I need to reach my carb, fat, and protein numbers? Each day? For the whole week?
Answering these questions about your taste preferences and quantity need is the first step in successful meal prep.
Prepare in Bulk
Buy your food in large quantities and prep them all together. You can cook your chicken or turkey on the grill while sautéing your vegetables, baking your potatoes, or steaming your rice.
If you do it right, you can knock out a week’s worth of meals in about 90 minutes. Have your food scale and containers ready. Once your food is done cooking, weigh the portion you’d like to have in your meal and place it in the container. Place the container in fridge and it’s ready when you are.
Watch Out For These
Fish
You may not want to prepare fish too many days in advance as it doesn’t seem to hold up as well in the fridge like chicken or turkey does.
Vegetables
Vegetables can get a little soggy if held too long in the fridge. Typically, five days is the max. But veggies are pretty quick to cook and shouldn’t be too much hassle if you have to prep them during the week.
Condiments
If you like using ketchup, be aware that it does contain calories. Be sure to add these in when tracking calories and macros. This goes for salad dressings as well. Be aware of what extras you’re putting on your food.
Meal prepping really is that easy. Just like with health and fitness, most of the things are simple in concept. The difficulty lies in doing them. So, get up and make it happen – no excuses!
Happy meal prepping.
