Meal Prep Made Easy

 

I wanted to write a blog on meal prep. So first let me explain what exactly meal prep is in the fitness world; I say the fitness world because people have prepared meals in advance and froze them for years but they weren’t exactly for health reasons.  I have really gotten into meal prep over the past few months and it has helped me tremendously with my busy schedule and with staying on track, I love being able to just grab and go. Previously, I would create a meal plan and then I would cook my meals daily based on the meal plan (can you imagine having to cook dinner for the night then breakfast, lunch and snacks for the next day every single night). Meal prep isn’t the same as having a meal plan but you can have a meal plan that you prep from, if that makes any sense.  I currently do not follow a meal plan I follow meal guidelines.

So first let me explain what a meal plan is; a meal plan is a detailed menu of what you have to eat for a certain time period (i.e. a month), for example: Breakfast – Oatmeal, Lunch – Turkey Sandwich, Dinner – Meatloaf with spring vegetables.

Meal prep is where you actually prepare all of your meals for the week at one time (breakfast, lunch dinner & snacks). You can follow a meal plan and cook all of your meals that are on your meal plan at one time if you choose to do so. Unfortunately, for a busy person like myself that isn’t feasible, I just don’t have all day to cook 5-7 different meals for each meal of the day, I usually only make meals for five days. Sometimes I may change an item or two but that’s as far as I go; for example I may have fish the 1st two days then chicken the last three days, or I may make broccoli for three days and a salad for two days, but they are all made at the same time. I store the meals in sealable containers in the refrigerator. Depending on what I make it takes me one to two hours to make all of my meals for the week. I usually don’t include my dinner and sometimes I don’t include breakfast, that depends on what I plan on eating for breakfast that week or what phase of my diet I am on, currently I have a berry banana spinach smoothie each morning.

Meal prep helps you stay focused on what your dietary goals are, when you fail to plan you plan to fail, so planning and preparing your meals in advance helps you stay focused when you live a grab and go lifestyle.

Meal prep can be expensive or it can be really inexpensive, that all depends on what you plan on eating. I like to keep it simple for my work meals and pull out my culinary skills for dinner (lol); for this week I probably spent less than $25.00 on my meals for the week.

When you decide to prep meals its best to keep it interesting from week to week so you don’t become bored; try different recipes and try to make them fun but keep them healthy. I love to play with seasonings like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger on my sweet potatoes and butternut squash or lemon and rosemary on my chicken. If my food has flavor I can enjoy eating it that much more.

Try new things with your meal prep, using the same ingredients to make something different; for example, if you decide you want to make salad with grilled chicken and whole wheat pasta on the side take a day or two and turn your salad into a wrap and instead of the whole wheat pasta your whole wheat tortilla will count as your starch.

I have provided a guide below for you to follow and you can create your own meals, try it for one week and let me know how it goes (Courtesy of the LiveFit program – slightly tweaked)!
Breakfast - 2 boiled eggs or 5 egg whites
Unlimited vegetables
1 serving of starch (oatmeal, cream of wheat)
Mid-morning- 2 turkey or chicken muffins or ground turkey/chicken
Unlimited vegetables
Lunch- 6 ounces of lean meat (chicken breast, white meat turkey; white fish like tilapia)
1 serving of starch (like sweet potatoes, whole wheat past or tortilla, beans, brown rice, quinoa)
Unlimited salad and vegetables
Afternoon- 2 turkey or chicken muffins or ground turkey/chicken
Unlimited vegetables
Dinner- 6 ounces of lean meat (chicken breast, white meat turkey; white fish like tilapia)
1 serving of starch (like sweet potatoes, whole wheat past or tortilla, beans, brown rice, quinoa)
Unlimited salad and vegetables
Evening- 2 boiled eggs or 5 egg whites
Unlimited vegetables
**No carbs (starch) after 7:00 PM (or about 3 hours before bedtime)

And…It Is What It Is!