Real Life Healthy Eating - Part 3

Part 3 - Meal Prep

To be completely honest with you – I’m not a big meal prepper. It just doesn’t work in my life. Instead, I usually have healthy foods on hand and make a lot of stir fries during the week (they’re super fast and easy).

But, for many of you meal prep DOES work and I’ve gotten many questions re: how to make it easier :). Just remember – if this feels like work to you, if it’s hard to make into a good habit, then don’t worry about it.

The most important thing I want you to know is that you can absolutely have a healthy diet WITHOUT meal prepping! Only use this section if this makes your life EASIER :).

What is meal prep?

It’s taking some time out every week to pre-prepare some part of your diet. Like pre-chopping snack veggies, making bulk meals, or pre-making your lunches for the week.

It could also be as simple as getting to the grocery store every week to make sure you have all of the ingredients on hand you need for the week (I do this style of meal prep).

Meal Plan Basics –

1. Figure out what kind of meal planning you need –

Where are your stumbling blocks in the week? Do you lack quick snacks? Or lunch ideas? Or does dinner cause you some stress every week?

(and yes, you can answer yes to each question)

Once you know what where you’re struggling then the type of meal prep you need will be clear.

Like –

If you struggle with snacks:

Have some handy fruit or veggies on hand. Maybe make a batch of healthy cookies, treats, or bars.

If you struggle for lunch:

Could you make a batch of soup or stew for a week of lunches? What about having the ingredients on hand to make a yummy sandwich? Can your dinner menu provide leftovers for lunch?

If you struggle with dinner:

This can be a variety of solutions depending on what you struggle with. Here are some possibilities

- Find fast and easy dinner recipes

- Try cooking enough for leftovers, so you only need to cook every few nights

- Are you just too tired to cook? If so, look at finding a high energy afternoon snack to help you get through to dinner

2. Find recipes that can help you plan ahead –

For some, that’s making a set weekly dinner menu, so you know exactly what to cook every night and have an easy grocery list ready.

For others it’s finding some big batch recipes, see below for some recipe ideas. I’ve added some recipe links below <3.

3. Try it out!

Give yourself a few weeks of meal prepping so you can see how it feels to you. After 3 or 4 weeks take a look at how it’s going and adjust where necessary.

Signs it’s working for you –

1. You LOVE it! – you like the food, the process, it just works

2. Your food stress is reduced

3. You can see yourself continuing this very easily

Extra support –

Since this isn’t something I practice myself, I’m far from your meal prep expert…but I found a bunch of great posts that can give you more ideas and suggestions.

7 Rules for Meal Prep in an Hour

A week of healthy meals for two

Meal prep for busy people (includes recipe ideas and plans)