What is meal prepping, and why should you start?
Meal prepping simply means preparing or batch-cooking meals and snacks ahead of time with the intention to control calories and nutrition to meet personal dietary needs. Depending on your goals, schedule and meal preferences, meal prepping may involve making large batches to be frozen, full meals to be refrigerated or prepared ingredients to be combined as needed. It is often done to improve overall nutrition intake, cut calories to lose body fat, gain muscle, support workouts, etc. With a busy life style, making daily meals can be challenging. Meal prepping makes it easy to have food ready all week long with just a little bit of planning. While shopping, planning, and preparing weekly meals may seem intimidating, it’s easy once it becomes a habit.
Why should you food prep?
When it comes to achieving your fitness goals, your nutrition plan and training program are equally important. For many of us, the training part is easy. We go to the gym or the Pilates studio, we kill our training sessions. We feel amazing after every workout and love every minute of it. BUT do you ever get frustrated or overwhelm because you find the nutrition part of fat loss to be exhausting!? When first introduced to meal prepping, most people find it intimidating because it seems to take up so much time. However, when trying to lose fat or build muscle, having healthy meals prepped on hand is key for your success.
Benefits of Meal Prepping
Following are some of the many great benefits of meal prepping:
Save Time
One thing we can all agree on is that we often complain of not having enough time. Not enough time to exercise. Not enough time to do the daily responsibilities. Not enough time to learn new things or work on goals. Not enough time to eat healthy. We’ve all been there, and many times we end up making poor food choices, or eating fast food because we don’t have time.
By preparing your healthy meals in advance will not only save you time but also will save you from eating too many calories.
Save Money
Buying groceries and cooking healthy meals at home is actually more cost effective than eating fast food. Preparing your food ahead of time will save you time and money.
Learn portion control
When focusing on weight loss or muscle gain, you should consider your calories in versus calories out. When you prep your food in advance, you know for sure what you are consuming and it gives you an insight into what a true portion of food is. By paying attention to your own food when cooking, you will be less likely to overeat.
Reduce Stress
Meal prepping can also help reduce the stress that comes with trying to eat healthier. Dieting, especially cutting calories, can cause you to think about food all day long. And not knowing what your next meal will be, or whether or not it’s going to help your dietary goals, can get overwhelming day after day.
Reach Goals Faster
Having a plan and meals prepped on hand will prevent you from making poor, hunger-based decisions when they arise. Solving your food decisions in advance, will relieve some of the mental stress and give you the will power so you can reach your goals faster and with more ease.
Start Meal Prepping
Let’s not over complicate meal prepping. Start SMALL! Start by packing up your left overs from dinner and taking them to work the next day. Start by picking a a one-meal recipe to prep for the week ahead. Here’s a lunch and breakfast prep to help you get started.
It’s very important to prep for the level that works for you. Prep for 3 to 5 days at a time. I personally, like to prep my breakfast and lunches. I don’t mind eating the same thing for a period of 5 days. However, I do cook my dinners because it adds variety to my day.
Make your meals balanced with the right amount of macronutrients. Depending on your goals, a meal should typically include a good source of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. A popular quote comes to mind “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail” Prepare your meals and prepare yourself for a road towards success.
If you have a goal in mind, or need help figuring out your macros, let’s chat!