Meal Prep 101: Tips to Set your Week Up for Success
Prepping your meals in advance is a great tool to add to your wellness toolbox and can help prepare you for a successful week ahead! Sometimes, meal prep gets a negative stigma because people think it is unappealing to eat the same meal day after day, or many people feel like they don’t have the time in their busy schedule for cooking so many meals at once. So, let’s break down how to properly meal prep and some tips and tricks to meal prep in an effective way.
What exactly is meal prepping? Meal prepping is the act of preparing ingredients (like preparing a protein, a vegetable, or a grain at the start of the week) or preparing full, complete meals where you just have to reheat them before consumption. While preparing full meals can help save time, this is also what may lead to you getting tired of eating the same things. To prevent this from happening, try only prepping ingredients! For example, maybe you want to cook a few chicken breasts on Sunday so you can throw some into a salad or make a delicious pasta dish with chicken as the protein. Prepping ingredients allows you to create different types of meals to prevent boredom. Remember, eating is supposed to be enjoyable and everyone is different, so it’s important to find a method that works for you specifically!
Again, many people may also say that they don’t have time to meal prep. However, one of the many benefits of meal prepping is that it helps save you time on busy weekdays when you’re busy working, taking care of your family, or maybe you’re just too tired to cook! Whatever the reason is, meal prepping helps to ensure you are surrounded by healthy, nutritious foods while also eliminating the potential added stress of having to cook something new each day and night.
A tip to ensure you have the time to meal prep is to pick one day to prep and try and stick with the same day each week; picking the same day increases the likelihood that it will become a habit for you and allows you to devote specific time in your schedule for meal prepping. While meal prepping can be done any day of the week, many people like picking Sundays because you don’t have to worry about working and you will be able to start your week with plenty of nutrient dense meals!
Meal prepping can be a very helpful tip for your wellness journey and can help you form a diverse, healthy diet to keep you feeling your best and giving your body the nutrients it needs to thrive. Again, whether you decide to prep individual ingredients or full meals, both options will be setting your future self up for success!