Meal prep is one of those things that can sound scary and overwhelming, but I’m here to tell you just the opposite! Meal prepping for your week can actually save you time and money. It also is a great tool to keep you on track with your eating habits. Patients on our Natural Fit Diet will tell you that meal preparation is not only easy to do, but also yields great results in their weight loss journey.
Benefits of Meal Prep
- Meal prep is budget friendly! – Cooking at home is always significantly cheaper than eating out or ordering takeout. Also, it gives you the chance to incorporate groceries you already have in the pantry, or plan to buy items that are on sale that week. Planning out your meals for the week can also let you buy more items in bulk and save money that way.
- Meal prep saves time – By spending a couple hours meal prepping one day a week, you free up your afternoon and evening times during the week to do things that you want to do. It may actually reduce your weekly stress! Think about it, who wants to work a full day and come home and have to cook through a recipe for that night’s dinner? Wouldn’t it be great to skip that and use your time before dinner to decompress from your work day? Also, when you have your week planned out ahead of time your random quick trips to the grocery store to pick up last minute forgotten items melt right away along with your stressors. No more waiting in line for delivery, take out, or at a busy restaurant!
- Meal prep is healthier – If you are trying to lose weight or just eat healthier in general, then cooking at home is the route you want to go. Cooking for yourself gives you control over the ingredients and the portions you make. Taking that a step further and rationing out your portions for each meal a day helps keep you on track without over eating.
How to Meal Prep
- Pick a day – Before you start planning and prepping, the first step is to nail down a day that you have enough time to set aside for cooking. Sundays are a popular choice for us Work Week Warriors, but, really, pick any day that fits your unique schedule – it doesn’t matter – the key is in consistency.
- Make a meal plan – One thing I do personally (we’re a family of five with younger kids) is keep a binder of meals everyone enjoys and plan out the week based off of those recipes. Once I’ve done this over a couple months, I take a picture of each month’s food calendar and, voilà, you have a road map for each coming month without the hassle of planning every week! A good meal plan takes into consideration how many meals you plan to make, how many people are eating said meals, and how many times you want to eat the same thing in a given week. Once you have this down, you need to decide what you’re going to cook for each meal. You can try to pick different meals that have common ingredients to make your trip to the grocer more efficient. Even try pairing recipes that can be roasted or baked in the oven at the same temperature. Slow cooker and instant pot recipes can also be a great time saver. Set it and forget it!
- Create a grocery list – Take a look at what you already have in your freezer, fridge, and pantry. This will help decrease the need to over-buy certain foods and keep up your rotation of the perishable foods in your kitchen.
- Start prepping – This is by far the hardest part, but once you’ve worked through it a couple times, it gets to be routine and easier. There are many ways you can do this with the most efficiency, it’s up to you to decide what works best for you and your family. Consider large batch cooking meals that can be frozen and used again in the coming weeks. I do this with things like chili, soups, pasta bakes, sauces, and meatballs. I can make enough chili for two or three months in one large pot, portion it out in single meal bags, and freeze them for a quick reheat and eat later. Sometimes it makes more sense to prep all your ingredients (like, do all the chopping and measuring ahead of time) to assemble and cook them later. Sometimes making a really huge bowl of salad topped with grilled chicken sounds great, but it won’t keep until the end of the week. In instances like this, it’s better to portion out the individual ingredients and quickly throw them together when it’s time to eat. I will grill up chicken breasts or slow cook them and shred them to be placed in smaller bags and frozen. That way when I need some grilled or shredded chicken, I just pull from the freezer and nuke it – it’s ready in just a couple minutes! (FUN FACT: Microwave ovens don’t actually ‘nuke’ anything. They use friction to heat food!)
In conclusion, we’ve seen how meal prepping can really be beneficial for so many people. It saves you time, hassle, and money. It allows you to drive by the fast-food line and eat healthier at home. It keeps you on track with your weight loss goals. It gives you time to do things you want to do during a busy week. Best of all, it’s easy to start and even easier to maintain! You’ll thank yourself later for taking on this endeavor. If you’re looking for a great weight loss program that can benefit from meal prep, take a look at our very own Natural Fit Program. Our program empowers you to eat healthy by teaching you which foods to consume and which foods to avoid. Getting organized and eating right are key components to a happy healthy lifestyle. So, let’s get cooking!
My A1C is high, I am 5’5” and I used to weigh 128 a year ago, I now weigh 111 lbs I need to gain healthy weight back but keep my sugar in check,
One of our doctors, Dr. Adam Davis, is a licensed clinical nutritionist. It may benefit you to schedule an appointment with him and talk about your current diet. I don’t know if you’re local to us or not. We could possibly set up a remote visit. You can call our office for further assistance at (440) 624-4214. Sorry, I don’t have a direct answer for you, I’m just the IT guy here! Thanks, though, for the comment.