If you’re someone who’s constantly on the go and has to keep up with a thousand different responsibilities, spending hours of your time cooking and exploring the grocery store is probably not high on your list. What suffers then is your health as you replace your nutritional meals with snacking options or eating out.
However, to make your life easy, there are tricks and hacks you can follow to ensure you get the healthy meals you need to keep up with your health and fitness.
One simple hack — meal prep. Why have to cook and head to the grocery store multiple times per week when you can spend one or two hours on a Sunday or Monday to get everything ready for the next few days?
How to Meal Prep Like a Pro
McKel Hill, nutritionist and founder of Nutrition Stripped, has shared her tips on healthline.com on how to master the meal prep life. Put the snacks away and clear out a little bit of your schedule to prepare some healthy meals for your week.
1. Bust out your favorite healthy recipes
If you have your go-to favorite recipes, they can help to inspire you and make the meal planning process a lot easier. Have a list of top ingredients ready to add into your dishes that could be used to cover a range of meals such as breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
2. Have a grocery list with priority items
Walking around the supermarket without a list in hand is not the best idea. Among all the excess items you put in your shopping bag, it’s also easy to forget what you really came for.
First, take into account all the ingredients you have in your home and make a list of what you need. If you have any new recipes in mind, write down those ingredients as well.
Additionally, it’s important to have the right containers for your meals. Invest in different sized containers to store meals such as soup, grains, salad ingredients and other food.
3. Multitask when you’re cooking and prepping
Efficiency is why we’re meal prepping in the first place, therefore, as you are cooking something, start to prepare your ingredients for the other food you are about to make. For example, as your soup is boiling, chop up your veggies to have them ready to bake.
4. Fill your fridge up slowly
It’s not mandatory to prep every dish you have planned for the week. Instead, start with the toughest one that you know will take you the most time.
If you’re not a morning person, it might be a good idea to get your breakfast ready to go so you can enjoy it without having to spend time making it.
When you have your ingredients all ready and cooked, it’s a lot easier to put it all together for lunch or dinner. By not have every meal already packed and ready to go, you could let your creativity come into play and mix and match your meals to avoid every meal being the same.
5. Avoid assembling your meals all at once
As mentioned above, you don’t have to pack all your meals away all at once. The preparation part is the hardest and that’s what you’re trying to get done, however, putting them together only takes a few minutes of your day and will go a long way in keeping you excited for your next meal.
A Healthy You Is a Happy You
Meal prepping has become popular among fitness buffs and working professionals everywhere. The ease of getting everything prepared and ready to eat for the week will translate to a healthier and happier you.
