It’s 8pm on a weeknight. You’ve had a long day at work, hit the gym hard for an hour afterwards, and you’ve just collapsed in a heap on your couch.
You have two options:
- Order pizza
- Eat a delicious and healthy meal that will give you all of your post-workout nutritional needs
The second option is by far the best, however the catch here is that the last thing you feel like doing after the gym is getting sweaty again in the kitchen.
Enter, meal prep! Pre-preparing meals is quickly becoming the “done” thing, as people are starting to become more and more time poor. If you have a big enough freezer, you’ll be able to prepare most of your meals of a weekend and enjoy the benefits for the next 7 days!
Source: MealPrepMondays
Why Prep?
Save money
It may not seem like a lot of money when you buy a $10 meal during your lunch break, but when you look at how much that same meal would cost if you made it yourself, your heart will skip a beat! You’ll be able to prepare meals at home for as little as $2 a serve.
Save time
The great thing about meal prep is that you only have to wash up once. If you think about it, spending two hours in the kitchen on a Sunday is far better than spending 40 minutes every day during the week!
Resist temptation
If you’re on a strict healthy eating plan, it’s important to know exactly what goes into the food you’re eating. By preparing your meals at home, you can be sure you’re eating fresh, whole foods (and also resist the urge to buy food when you’re feeling tired or lazy!).
How to Prep
Meal prep takes effort, but it definitely pays off in the long run. Plan, shop and cook and you’ll be on your way to 5 star meals every night of the week!
Plan
- One of our biggest tips would be to plan to cook 2 – 3 different things. If you make a mega-batch of chicken and rice, it’s likely that you’re going to be mighty sick of it by Thursday night.
- You need to make sure that you are getting all the right nutrients, so plan meals that include protein, starch and of course, veggies!
- If you’re stuck for ideas, we recommend following this guy on Instagram, to get inspiration every week.
- After you’ve planned what you’re going to cook, make a list. This is a sure fire way to make sure you don’t forget anything!
Shop
- Buy your ingredients in bulk to avoid having to go back to the grocery store.
- Consider going to local markets for your veggies – you’ll save a lot of money and have access to a lot more fresh, organic goodness.
- Ensure that you have an adequate amount of Tupperware to store all of your meals!
Cook
- Set aside a few hours on your quietest day of the week to cook up a motherload of food!
- Meal prep can be a fun thing to do with your housemates or partner, and you can get everything chopped and cooked a whole lot quicker.
- Try and get a few pans going at once to save on time, or look at investing in a slow cooker and trying some one-pot meals.
Meal prep is the way of the future, kids! Try it once, and we promise you won’t regret it.
