Healthy nutrition is the key to a healthy lifestyle. Only if you take a sufficient amount of protein, vitamins, fiber and enzymes every day will you maintain a well-balanced weight, keep your immune system strong and protect yourself from infections. However, eating healthy is challenging if you can’t find time to have nutritious meals regularly. Therefore, learning how to prepare your meals ahead of time can make your life much easier while also keeping your health in check.
Know Your Schedule
Before you start thinking about all the groceries you’ll need for your meal prep, you should check your calendar and see how many meals you’ll need in the week to come. The less food you waste, the better, so make sure you know exactly how many times you’ll be eating the food you prepare. Think about all the possible dates, business lunches, brunches, dinners or possible trips when you won’t have the chance to rely on the food you’ve previously made.
Make a menu
Once you’ve calculated the number of meals you’ll be needing, it’s time you pick out the groceries. Firstly, make sure that your meals are nutritionally balanced, by having between 30 and 40 grams of protein coming primarily from lean meat like beef, turkey or chicken, Greek yogurt and eggs. Then include 50 to 60 grams of complex carbs such as pasta, quinoa, and brown rice and 15 to 20 grams of fat, per meal. Also, try to be creative with your meals and consider using core ingredients differently for various meals. Instead of always eating grilled beef, think about cutting beef sirloin into cubes and making a delicious stew. To make yummy fajitas, just slice the beef into thin strips.
Go grocery shopping
Having figured out the meals you want to prepare, it’s time to go grocery shopping. To save as much time on cooking as possible, do the shopping on Saturday so you can prepare all the meals on Sunday. If you organize your shopping list by section, you’ll also save time on wandering around the store searching for all the supplies you need, and you won’t forget anything. In case your week has been hectic and you didn’t have the time to prepare your next week’s food, you can always rely on an online butcher and order your weekly supply of meat. You can have any meat delivered to your home, chopped and packed in any way you want it and save yourself the worry of not eating healthy for the next few days.
Prepare the meals
Preparing your food on the weekend is the best recipe for making your healthy diet (avoid these 4 diet mistakes) consistent. Poach, bake or roast all the meat, bake potatoes, steam vegetables, and chop raw fruit if you plan on eating salads. You can also simmer a big batch of rice for the entire week. Furthermore, to keep the prep as easy as possible, you can double your dinner recipe and use one half of it for lunch the day after. For an easy access to and good organization of the food, keep the groceries in plastic containers or clear glasses. All the food that you store in the refrigerator after you cook it should be used within 2 to 3 days. If you plan to use the food after 4 or 5 days, keep it in the freezer. Throw it away if you don’t use it even days after.
Final thoughts
Meal prep has never been easier. If you thought that it would be impossible for you to handle it ‒ think again. All you need to do is figure out how many days of the week you’ll eat the food you have prepared and you won’t ever waste a gram of food again. Try to have nutritionally balanced meals by eating enough protein, carbs and fat, be creative with the food and use core ingredients in multiple ways, and don’t forget to store the meals properly in plastic and glass containers to preserve them for a few days.
Roxana is a travel enthusiast and lifestyle consultant from Sydney and she loves to write about her adventures. She is all about the healthy lifestyle, loves to run with her husband and dogs and has fun cooking exotic meals for her family. Being a typical Aussie, she often hits the waves and loves beaches and sunshine! You can find out more about her writing following her on twitter and facebook. She is also one of the editors at Higstylife Magazine.
Leave a Reply