Meal Prepping Tips to Keep You on Track with Weight Loss

One important KEY FACTOR to living a healthy lifestyle is meal prepping. Meal prepping will help you reach your weekly goals of choosing good foods during the day, rather than reaching for unhealthy foods.

Meal prepping allows you to make no excuses because your food is already made and portioned out for each meal throughout the day. Another benefit to meal prepping is you know exactly what sort of nutrition is contained in each meal that you’re putting into your body! This is especially important for those who have Celiac, Colitis, Chrohn’s, Auto Immune Diseases, sensitivities to foods and more. For those of you who don’t like to cook... meal prepping doesn’t sound fun. However,it is DOABLE.

12 TIPS for Meal Prepping

TIP 1: Stop over thinking meal prep. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming; you just have to proactively make the healthy choice. The more you do it, the

TIP 2: Each week, take 20 minutes to plan a trip to the grocery store. Find a quiet spot to choose your recipes and create your food shopping list.

TIP 3: The size of your family determines the quantities of food that you purchase as well as how many recipes you choose to prepare. You may want to double or triple each recipe in order to last you a good 5 days. Consume fish within 3-4 days. Chicken, meat etc. can stretch little longer.

TIP 4: In that quiet spot, begin to put your thoughts into action! Organize yourself with your favorite recipe books, an iPad and a pencil (in case you need to erase) to write down the RECIPES you chose & INGREDIENTS you need.

Another way to make your list is... tell ALEXA to add to your shopping list or use your mobile device”notes” section.

TIP 5: Pick one day to food shop for the week. Be sure to take your list, and you may also want to coordinate sale items at the grocery store with your meal prep plans if possible. It’s easy to sub out certain foods - for example, maybe you had a healthy chicken dish in mind, but lean pork chops are on sale this week. Be smart yet strategic, and always choose whole foods for the healthiest option.

TIP 6: Set aside a different day than the one you went shopping on, to meal prep for your week ahead. Your meal prep session will take anywhere from 3 to 5 hours, so you’ll want to clear your schedule for this necessary work.

TIP 7: Purchase storage containers so you can portion out single, double and/or family sized servings of each type of food that you cook. You can either store everything together as a meal kit - for example, let’s say chicken, sweet potato and green beans portioned out as a single-serving dinner in one container. Or, you can advance-prep elements of meals to store in larger containers in the fridge for the week - such as a container of brown rice, a big tub of salad veggies, and a tray of pre cooked meat. TIP 8: For your working lifestyle, measure out or weigh your food and add to your meal prep containers each day for a week of lunches. Prepare 2 to 3 snacks per day to keep you satisfied between meals. If you have the ability to be near your kitchen, you can measure your food, add to your plate and enjoy.

TIP 9: Keep meal prep simple. Clean fewer pots and multi task instead of standing at the stove top by baking your meals or slow cooking them in the crock pot.

TIP 10: You can freeze if you have anything leftover! Wrap in wax paper and put into a Ziploc freezer bag. Attach freezer labels and write in the name of the item and date to store in freezer. Plastic containers also work well to portion out and freeze meal servings.

TIP 11: For easy, no-fuss cleanup, line your oven trays and pans with parchment or foil before using them to cook your food for the week.

TIP 12: Be proud of yourself for getting it done!