How to Start Meal Prepping Without It Taking Over Your Life

When you’re serious about your fitness goals (whether they’re strength- or weight-related), often a first step is to get your nutrition in order. You want to get enough protein to support your muscles, fruits and vegetables for health, carbohydrates for fueland a total calorie count that supports your activity and goals without overeating or undereating.

If you’ve ever reached the end of the day and realized you’re nowhere near reaching your daily goals, you get the idea behind planning your meals and even prepping (“preparing”) them ahead of time. A bodybuilder who eats the stereotypical chicken and broccoli for lunch every day may get bored with his meals, but he also knows how much protein he’s eating without even thinking about it.

But food-preparing has its pitfalls. maybe you Will get bored with your meals. Or maybe you won’t even get that far and will burn out just from the mental and physical exertion of cooking a whole week’s worth of meals at once. With that in mind, here are some tips for beginners to ease the process with your sanity intact.

Have a breakfast to go

Before we start to prepare something, let’s start planning. Most of us like to eat the same breakfast every day, and chances are you already have a few favorites that you can whip up quickly before you fully wake up.

So, your first step is to come up with a breakfast that fits your macros and that is easy to prepare. We’re taking baby steps here, so don’t worry too much about prepping this ahead of time. Just make sure that it will be ready when breakfast time arrives.

For example, maybe your breakfast is yogurt and fruit. That’s easy enough: Buy some yogurt and buy some fruit. In the morning, you can put the two together. Or you can make something the night before to grab on the way out the door. I like to do birch muesli two servings at a time, since each requires half an apple. So Sunday night I’ll prepare jars for Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday night I will make another pair.

Store your takeout containers

When we start packing dinners and lunches, we will need something to put them on. While cute little Bento-type Tupperwares may look cool, you may decide you don’t really want all those divided containers. Or the boxes you buy may turn out to be the wrong size once you start filling them. Save money and time by selecting one or two types of to-go containers that you have in abundance, and save them each time you get them. I like rectangular planes and round pint soup containers. (You can also buy them in bulk if you need new ones.)

Make one meal at a time

After getting into the habit of eating the planned breakfast every day, the next step is to choose a second meal. For most of us it will be lunch. This way, you have your first two meals taken care of, and you can still make whatever dinner plans you want. (It’s okay if you never progress beyond this stage.)

I also recommend, at least initially, No planning for seven days at a time. Since I have a weekday job, I like to prepare my meals Monday through Friday and then improvise on the weekends. (Usually this involves my regular breakfast, some kind of food pulled from leftovers, and often a takeout or two.)

For your first foray, I recommend finding a recipe that makes three servings. Two of these recipes will see you through the work week with one to spare. You can even alternate the two meals.

An important food safety tip: MThe offers prepared on Sunday will not be in the best shape on Saturday. I recommend choosing one of the following strategies:

1. On Sunday, prepare a plate and divide it for meals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; then on Wednesday night, make another three-serving plate for the second half of the week.
2. On Sunday, do your two dishes so you can alternate. Put three of the meals in the freezer. Then on Tuesday or Wednesday take them out of the freezer to start thawing.

Try a recipe before committing

Ready to start preparing that first meal? hold on 😀id choose a recipe yourself i actually like it? I’m not asking if it looks good on photos The ideal meal prep recipe is something you’ve not only eaten in the past, but also one where you have an idea of ​​how well it reheats.

That means you can stay off recipe websites for now. Pick an old favorite; you can experiment later. And if you’re ever tempted to make, say, a month’s worth of food on meal prep day, definitely try that exact recipe in a week-long batch first.

Be lazy

This is honestly my most important tip. When I started preparing meals, I would spend all Sunday afternoon shopping and cooking. My feet ached and my other household chores were left unfinished. No time or effort was spared, it just moved on.

I have improved since then. One of my favorite meal preps is to buy two bags of Trader Joe’s chimichurri rice and a pound of ground beef, and heat each one properly and combine. The job takes just 15 minutes, and now I have four lunches for the week that fit neatly into one of those round soup bowls. Do I mind if Mr. Joe gets half the credit for my culinary art? I do not.

If you are going to do everything from scratch, make it easy for yourself. Buy frozen vegetables, since they are already chopped. Get a rice cooker if you find yourself using rice for many of your meals. If there is any special homemade sauce or seasoning want to use, please allow a labor-intensive item, and make sure your other tasks are kept simple.

For example, most items from the animal and plant kingdoms can be thrown into a pan and roasted. I’m going to buy some frozen fish and fresh or frozen vegetables, and then toast a tray of each with the appropriate seasonings. (Olive oil and garlic salt are perfect for broccoli or, to be honest, any vegetable.) marinated in mayonnaise They are another protein option that go with everything and can be prepared en masse. Thanks to the additional humidity, they reheat magnificently well.

you get the idea :MTake a lazy meal, don’t make more than you’re actually going to eat, and pack it into the containers you already have. Don’t expect everything to be perfect at first; you’ll refine your workflow over time.