Meal prepping
Meal prepping – yay or nay?
Something that I talk about time and time again when I start out with new clients who are busy and struggling to fit things in to their lives is about meal prepping and planning for the week. So, if you are struggling with a busy schedule but you want to eat more healthily then read this email as it will help you.
Meal planning and prepping is basically planning and preparing whole dishes or dishes ahead of time. Its brilliant as having pre prepped meals can help you reduce your portion sizes and helps you to really stay on track with your healthy eating. By having those prepped meals, you are far less likely to reach for tv dinners or takeaways when you are overwhelmed or too tired.
Meal prepping can really help you to curate healthier options over the long term, yay,.
There are a few different ways to meal prep.
- Make meals ahead of time – this means cooking full meals in advance which can be refrigerated and reheated at meal times. This is handy for dinner time meals.
- Batch cooking- so making large batches of a specific recipe – such as a frittata or a spag bolognaise and then splitting it into individual portions to be frozen and eaten over the new few months. I also like to do this with my juicing too. such a great way of saving time.
- Portioning up meals – preparing fresh meals and portioning them into individual portions. This is great for lunches etc.
I love batch cooking up meals and batch juicing so that I know we have a couple of days’ worth of frittata or juicing. This makes life so much easier for me. Meal prepping works best for me when I stick to a regular schedule. This means I know exactly when I am shopping for groceries (this is a Tuesday for me) and then prepping the meals afterwards. I find picking specific times and sticking to them simplifies the decision-making process, freeing up mental space for other things. Because I get my groceries on a Tuesday, I like to batch cook a couple of dishes on a Tuesday and Wednesday to last until the weekend. I will then tend to batch cook again on the Saturday to last for a couple of days again.
Meal prepping is so great for people who want to spend less time in the kitchen. It can really help promote healthier meals instead of going for fast food options. Always a winner.
Depending on your goals, schedule and meal preferences, meal prepping may involve making large batches to be frozen, full meals to be refrigerated or batch juicing. Woo hoo. Find a method that works for you and pick one day per week if possible (or 2 days) to meal plan, shop and cook.
If meal planning and prepping is something that doesn’t float your boat there are so many other options out there nowadays where you can cook healthier meals and fabulously all the ingredients and recipes are sent to your doorstep. Check out places like hello fresh, mindful chef. Or if money is not something you need to think about so much then there are of course companies that deliver nutritionally balanced, freshly prepared food to your door. Check out www.balancebox.com and www.purepackage.com to name a couple.
There are so many ways nowadays to make sure that you can have healthy, nutritious food and it’s just about finding the right option for you. Remember eat well to live well my lovely. xxx
