Meal prepping is a great way to eat healthy without spending a fortune or spending a lot of time in the kitchen. But the truth is that most people get meal prepping all wrong, especially newbies. So if you want to make eating healthy easier you have to stick to meal prep ideas that work. Cooking your own meals plays a big part in losing weight and eating healthy than most people think. And once you get meal prepping right you will be surprised by how much it can help transform your body. You might even stop ordering food in a few days from today if you apply these tips.
Here you go, to ways to make meal prepping fun and easier.
- Have a plan
You need to know the foods you will prep, the recipes you will use and know how much it will cost you to prep the meals. Having a plan will make it easy to make decisions and avoid wasting time. So make a grocery shopping list and make sure you include everything, however minor. There are so many meal prepping recipes online so look for the ones that meet your preferences.
Spare 30 minutes to plan this. Make sure you include foods you enjoy.
- Stick to the plan
This may sound like something obvious but it’s not. Most people go shopping with shopping lists but end up buying junk food which wasn’t part of the plan. One thing that can help is to go shopping with a full stomach. Research shows that being hungry reduces willpower and increases chances of impulse buying. Alternatively, you can shop at grocery stores with healthy foods only. Sticking to the budget helps save money. And make sure you stick to the recipe, don’t try to tweak it.
- Don’t forget shakes and smoothies
If you don’t have time to prep food, you can make smoothies or shakes. They take way less time to prep and they’re also healthy. Just make sure you don’t add a lot of sugar to them to avoid excess calories.
- Go for simple snacks
Meal prepping is all about simplicity, so keep it simple with snacks as well. Choosing snacks that don’t take a lot of time to prep are a good idea. A few examples of these snacks include hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruits, greek yoghurt and so on. Feel free to search for more simple snacks.
- Use a crock pot
The crock pot is a handy tool for any meal prepper. It allows you to prep a lot of food with literally no effort at all. Just choose the foods that take the same time to cook, put them in a crock pot and mind your business, hours later your meal will be ready.
- Find easy ways to prep the meals
Buying precut vegetables and meat can save you a lot of time. The other thing you can do is to buy no-cook foods like tuna. Eat no-cook foods in moderation because they’re high in sodium and preservatives. And as I mentioned earlier, you hard boiled eggs are a great way to get proteins and stay full.
- Try mason jar salad
Salads help increase veggies intake and prevent chances of overeating. Buy mason jars, cut your veggies and fruits that will last several days, put them in the jars and store them in the fridge. Do you research before you buy jars, to choose the best quality. Since the dressing is at the bottom of the jar, and the greens are at the top, nothing gets soggy! Head over to Instagram or Pinterest for lots of salad recipes.
- Eat a variety of foods
Meal pepping doesn’t necessarily mean eating the same meals over and over. We can agree that eating the same foods getting boring.You can avoid this by prepping different meals for lunch and dinner. But you want to do this once you have enough meal prepping experience, doing a lot at the start can mess everything up. Just remember to keep things simple.
- Buy quality containers
You can’t prep meals without having containers for storing the food. One thing remember is to choose BPA-free containers. Plastic containers are not a good idea if you plan to heat your meals with a microwave.
- Don’t obsess over it
The whole point of meal prepping is to eat healthy, save time and money.For most people meal prepping has been an obsession and folks end up spending a lot of time and money on it. Just keep your eyes on the prize and stick to these meal prep ideas!