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Meal Prepping 101

Emily Romo • March 16, 2023

Are you on the road to reaching your health and fitness goals and want to nail down your meal prepping, but don't know where to start? Then this guide is for you!

A lot of times why someone has a difficult time sticking to a healthy diet, is because it is usually easier to buy food that is already made than to have to buy the ingredients yourself and cook it after. The majority of people reading this have a job that takes up approximately 8 hours of their day, maybe more maybe less, and you still use the remaining time of your day to take care of errands. With the limited amount of time you have left, you don't want to have to worry about cooking every single day. That is why there is Meal Prepping!

Meal prepping is cooking some or all of your meals for the week ahead of time. The benefits of meal prepping are not only to save time and money, but you are more likely to stick to a healthy diet. Whether your goal is to lose or gain weight, increase muscle mass, decrease body fat, maintain current weight, or just to eat generally healthy, meal prepping is the way to go.

Now, if you are new to meal prepping, here are some tips to help get you started.

1. PICK A DAY AHEAD OF TIME

If you are trying to save time day in and day out, then the best thing for you to do is choose wisely on the date you want to do the prepping. You want to choose a day that you have the most time because you will be prepping meals for days, which can be a little time consuming, ironically. Most people don't work on Sundays which tend to be the best day to prep meals.

Prepping meals for a whole week can be time saving, but by mid week, the food won't be so fresh. If you have the time, I recommend to choose two days for meal prepping, that way you only prep meals for 3 or 4 days at a time, hence keeping them more fresh. Also, your prep time each day will be cut in half compared to if you prepped your meals once a week.

2. KNOW HOW MANY

Knowing how many meals you plan to prep will help you determine whether you should have one or two days of prepping. This will also help you on making a grocery list to make your shopping easier.

If you are on a time crunch and struggle to make all three main meals everyday, then prep for all 3, but you would want to split your prepping for 2 separate days in the week. If you do have more time on your hands, then decide which meal you can handle making daily and opt to prep the other 2 remaining meals.

One of the two meals that most people will prep is the lunch meal because generally you are at work and unable to cook. It is definitely a good idea to prep your lunch meal so you aren't tempted to go out and buy fast food.

Some people hate waking up much earlier than they have to so they can make their breakfast, so that would be another good meal to prep. It'll save you more time in the morning and you'll catch a few more z's.

Once you have decided what meals you will prep, determine what your macro-nutrients will look like. Your macros are protein, carbs, and fat. Determining how many macros will be in each meal will help you know how much food to buy.

3. GROCERY SHOPPING

When going grocery shopping, you should definitely go with a shopping list. If you go to the grocery store without one, you are more likely to pick up food that could be deemed unhealthy and unnecessary. You are more likely to give in to cravings by not having a list. When you have a list of food to buy, you stay focused on the list and avoid all the aisles filled with temptations.

I usually do my grocery shopping the same day that I am doing my meal prepping, mainly because that is when I have the most time available. But, if you have the time, try to do it the day before because after a trip of grocery shopping, you don't want to stand around for a longer time prepping meals.

If you have a weakness for candy or chips, unfortunately a lot of those temptations are at the checkout line. Don't cave in!!! Stay focused on the reason on why you are at the store. If you are having trouble staying focused, it's okay to give in a little. That doesn't mean go and buy the biggest bag of hot cheetos or the biggest chocolate bar you can find. You want to compromise by buying the mini version of a chocolate, or a small bag of chips, or even that one cookie that just keeps staring at you in the face.

Giving in to your cravings isn't always a bad thing, as long as you don't over indulge and do it every day. It keeps you balanced and it makes it easier to stay consistent with your diet.

4. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Although we use meal prepping to help us stick with our diet and to save time, we don't want to prep everything. You want to season your meats, but putting salsa or some kind of sauce on it and keeping in the fridge can give a different texture to the chicken. The fancier something is, the worst it tastes when it's been sitting in the fridge for days.

Keep everything simple and add any special sauce or salsa once you are going to be eating it. Rice can harden in the fridge as well and not have the same kind of taste and texture. Making rice doesn't take much time, so I usually make it the same day I will be eating it because I like the fresh taste. Choose wisely on the food you decide to prep.

5. CONTAIN THE GAINS

After cooking all that food, you want to have a container to store it in. In order to keep it as fresh as possible, you want to get containers that are airtight and are divided into sections.

The type of container to get is BPA free. BPA stands for bisphenol A. It is an industrial chemical that has been used to make certain plastics and resins. There is a possible link between BPA and increased blood pressure, however the Food and Drug Administration has said that BPA is safe at the very low levels that occur in some foods.

Although, it can be safe a very low levels, exposing BPA products to heat can cause the plastic to break down over time and allow BPA to leach into foods. Now, considering that most of you are prepping your meals to go and will have to heat up your food to eat it, you want to consider getting BPA-free products so that you can microwave your food with ease.

6. MEAL-TO-GO

When you take your food to work or on a trip, you don't want to just carry it in a plastic bag and say “It'll only be sitting there for a few hours, so it'll be good.” Perishable food needs to be in a cooler or a well insulated meal bag. It is especially important if you plan on prepping more than 1 meal a day. Having a cooler or a well insulated meal bag can, also, protect you from food borne illness.

As you can see, there are many great benefits to meal prepping. It can save you time, money, and ward you away from temptations so you can stick to your diet better. You always want to be prepared by decided what day you will do your meal prepping. After you have decided what day, figure out what food and how much of it you need for prepping and so you can write it all down on your grocery list. Once you start your cooking, keep it simple and ensure to store it in a air tight container.

There are many ways of doing meal prepping, this is just one way. Over time, as you continue to meal prep, you will find other methods that work better for you. Use this as a guide if this is your first time meal prepping or if the current method you are using for prepping isn't working for you. Once you have a good meal plan routine going, be sure to follow it up with a good workout routine! Check out my online fitness programs here to further help you!

If you have any other methods that weren't mentioned, leave a comment and let us know! Enjoy your cooking!

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