3 Tips to Make Meal Prep Easier

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Here’s the truth! Preparing your meals can be an overwhelming task. When the term  meal prep comes up, you may think of spending countless exhausting hours in the kitchen. However, meal prepping can actually have a huge impact in helping you reach your goals and can be done in a fairly easy and time efficient manner. If you are just getting started, it may take some time to make meal prepping part of your routine; but using these 3 tips can help you make it a simple and ongoing habit in your week.

1. Plan It out  

If you are just beginning your weight loss journey, you may be excited to dive into meal prepping. Before you begin, however, you want to have a plan for how many days of the week you want to prepare so you know how many meals to make. If you work a Monday through Friday job for example, you know you need 5 prepared lunches and 5 prepared dinners if you like to have both meals prepared each day. If your schedule looks a little different than that or you work from home, you may be preparing fewer meals at a time. You also want to try and have a specific day where you meal prep each week so you can schedule it on your calendar and prioritize it. You will be more likely to complete your meal prep and be set up to have a successful week if you treat this time as a scheduled appointment.

2. Cook in Batches 

Once you have taken the time to plan out how many meals you need to prepare and have chosen the recipes, it’s time to get to work! Batch cooking is a great way to save time and make your meal prep easy each week. You may not be able to batch cook all of your ingredients, but try to do it with as many as you can. Some of the ingredients may overlap in multiple recipes or have a large array of vegetables to prepare. In this case, consider using sheet pans or a crock pot to cook large amounts of these ingredients at a time. Extra tip! This will also leave you with fewer dishes to wash at the end of the day.

3. Change up Your Recipes 

We know that eating the same dish over and over again can get really boring and make us want to eat something different. As you meal prep, try and switch up the recipes you use each week so you don’t find yourself in this position. This will allow you to enjoy a variety of dishes and practice preparing different types of foods. You may find that you have a few go-to’s that make for a fast and easy meal prep, but allow yourself to get creative and try new things.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with meal prepping, don’t worry! Know that it does get easier over time and eventually will become part of your routine. If you are just beginning your weight loss journey and starting to meal prep, try these 3 tips to help you get started.