4 Tips For Successful Meal Prepping

Now that we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do with our diets, the next step is being able to fully execute them. The easiest way to do this is with meal prepping. Meal prepping is another one of those things that we are able to do for a couple weeks and then we find that it slowly slips farther and farther away from us as time goes on. Y’all are going to get tired of hearing me say this, but meal prepping can be something that is extremely easy and convenient for us. On top of that, it will allow us to stay on track with our meals throughout the day. The trick to meal prepping is to keep things simple, and change it up so it isn’t just the same thing every day. Here are some simple tricks to being able to do that.

Set Up a Cooking Day/Time

One reason why most people give up on meal prepping after a short time, is because they feel like it takes up too much time. So the way we can combat that is by setting aside 1-2 times a week to cook all of our meals. This way we have the time set aside for cooking those meals, and it will eliminate us having to take the time every day, to every other day, to cook food. I always like to set aside time on my Sunday’s to go ahead and make all of my meals for the week. This way I only have to take the time to get everything out to cook once, and then I know I have all of my meals for the week already made. Another option would be to divide that time into two different days of the week, so it’s less time devoted to cooking each time and you will have fresher food.

Have a Variety

Nobody likes to eat the same foods over and over, so why should we just keep meal prepping the same foods for ourselves day in, and day out? Giving ourselves a variety of foods will help keep us from getting that “burn out” that most people experience when they meal prep. Just because we know that chicken, rice, and broccoli are good for us doesn’t mean that we have to eat it for every meal. We really just need to focus on having a meal that has healthy fats, carbs, and proteins. This will help us stay on track with our macros, but will also allow us to create that variety of foods for us.

Make a List

Making a list of both the foods that we are needing to buy from the grocery store, as well as the recipes that we plan on making, will help with our meal prepping as well. This will help keep us on track, and make sure that we aren’t buying unnecessary foods that we don’t need. This can also help us see what we are planning out for the week, so we can make sure we aren’t eating the same food every day this week for lunch and dinner.

Have a General Idea of Your Macros

Knowing your macros is going to help you know what your meals need to contain. Now I’m not saying that we have to have our meals planned out to a T, to where we know everything down to the gram (more power to you if you do that), but we do need a general idea of what the macros in that meal are. We don’t want to just get a bunch of healthy food and throw it in a container and call it good. Knowing the macros that are contained within the meals is going to ensure that we stay on track with our numbers throughout the day. This will also help us to know things such as maybe we need more carbs and fats around lunch time, followed by a higher amount of protein at dinner time. Being able to disperse your macros throughout the day to what best suits you and your goals will make everything easier on you.

Meal prepping doesn’t have to be this big production every time you do it. You can simply just set aside time 1-2 days a week and then have all of your meals cooked and ready to go. Then all you’ll have to do the rest of the week is heat them up and you’re good to go! Meal prepping is one of the easiest ways to help us stay on track with our new years goals, and can be a big benefit if we do it correctly.

Schedule a call with one of our coaches today to talk more about your health and fitness goals. We would love to help!