Steps to a Successful Meal Prep
Before jumping right into the Meal Prep Strategies know this General Rule of Thumb: Anyone aiming to achieve any fitness results, Meal Prep sets the stage for success by providing a foundation for a healthy nutrition regime.
Living healthily doesn’t come from only performing physical activities we take part in, but more importantly, what we are eating and feeding our bodies. I like to say 70% of your fitness goals and results come from your nutrition, and only 30% will come from your physical fitness. After realizing that, maybe that’s why you haven’t reached the goals you’ve set, or you haven’t achieved as much progress as you wanted. As physical fitness is still a very important component to reach your goals, let’s try shifting more focus to achieve your goals through nutrition.
We all heard of the saying “Fail to plan, Plan to Fail” and that is exactly what happens when we go into each day of the week without any meal preparation. We share the importance of prioritizing protein, but without the preparation of the protein, we have a hard time prioritizing it. Protein is only part of Meal Preparation by the way. Anyways, to achieve our desired health and fitness goals we must plan before we prep and prep to prioritize.
PLAN-> PREP-> PRIORITIZE = SUCCESS
En Route to Meal Prep Success; Begins with a PLAN
Planning Meal Prep involves several steps to ensure you have everything you need for a success week of healthy eating.
Steps for Success to PLAN:
1. Set your Goals- Determine your health and fitness goals. Whether this be weight loss, muscle gain, maintain, or overall health improvement. Use the best fitness app as a tool to create an account, set your goals, indicate how many calories you should be eating to achieve your fitness goals.
2. Choose your Recipes or Prelog meals- Pre log those meals into the app in which are suitable for your goals. Consider recipes that are easily prepared in bulk and can be stored well for the week (utilize your freezer too, we do this with prepared meals too) *Learn how to create a recipe inside 1st Phorm app.
Keep in mind you do not need to create things like meat lasagna (yet anyways), it can easily be “Meat & potatoes” KEEP IT SIMPLE, especially as you focus on incorporating and building the habit of meal prepping into each week.
3. Create a Shopping List- Based on the chosen recipes or food chosen for meals, make a list of all ingredients you’ll need. Check the pantry/ fridge for what you already have. *PRO TIP- use the note section on your phone to create this list ONCE, I share with other members of the household so they can update it when necessarily too. Utilize the bullet points that way you can check them off while your in the store. Once the trip is done, you clear it and the same list is saved on your phone for the following week; edit accordingly.
We order Grass-fed, Grass Finished LEAN Ground Beef every 6 weeks, that come's directly to our door step in 2 days with free shipping. This has been amazing and one less thing to worry about finding in the grocery stores. While also, knowing the quality in which we are eating!
4. Order containers or any other tools you may need to have a successful cooking/ prep session. Here are some of our favorite tools and appliances we use every single week. Some in which we could not succeed without!
Food Kitchen Digital Scale - You can’t manage what’s not measured. Start understanding the amount at which you are eating with portions
Overnight Oats Mason Jars - We need these!!!
Air Fryer - What we use to cook our steak in *Must haves for easy clean up
Electric Griddle - Daily Cake Prep
Ninja Creami - Protein Ice Cream Prep *Pro Tips how to make
Onward to Meal Prep Success; PLAN, now time to PREP!
1. Prep Ingredients- DEFROST (day, morning of depending), wash, chop, prepping vegs, fruits. Then to make the food in which you prepped, depending on your choices of the Meats and Carbs.
2. “BATCH” PREP- focus on just having food in general first before measuring out PER meal. Aim to always have prepped and made: 2 meat sources (i.e.., lean ground beef, chicken), 2 carb sources (i.e.., potatoes, rice), 2 vegetables (i.e.., string beans, Brussel sprouts), fruit cut up, at least one breakfast option i.e.., overnight oats), extra grab and go protein snacks (i.e.., yogurts, hard boiled eggs, sharp cheddar cheese).
3. Assemble Meals- This is where you’ll decide if you can leave all your food sources in bulk containers (batch prep style), or you must measure them out accordingly and in separate containers from the lunch you must take to work to the dinner you must heat up in between kid drop offs. Labeling containers by days of the week or even your name. I do find this minimizes others reaching and “accidently” eating your meals PLANNED, PREPPED, and put aside for those PRIORITY moments😉
4. Store Properly- Store your prepped meals in the refrigerator or freezer. I’ll tell you what it took me a long time to realize how much a freezer can be utilized to save meals for when you want them 5-7 days later! We typically store all beef in freezer after we prep, rice included, even pancakes and potatoes! Check out our upgraded freezer we got since we buy are meat in bulk: Grass Fed, Grass Finished. We feed Bernie the Berne doodle “We Feed Raw” which requires a good amount of freezer space as well. 25% off your first order here, Thank Bernie ;)
PLAN
PREP
Last Step before we Succeed is PRIORITIZATION!
1. Set a Schedule- Time Block ahead of time for specific days and times for Grocery and Meal Prep. Treat this time as a non- negotiable, just like you would any other appointment.
2. Use Time-Saving Techniques- Always seek out more efficient ways of doing things; using a crockpot or a sheet pan that requires minimal hands-on time.
3. Make it Enjoyable- Play music, listen to a podcast, or a daily educational LIVESTREAM, or involve a family member as a social activity. (nothing enjoyable about dish washing; do it anyway)
4. Start Small- Basic meals for Beginners! As you get comfortable with the process the more you will experience different meals and even food sources.
I can assure you that meal prepping does take some time, but it will save you even more time throughout each week. It’s one of the top things we CAN do to stay on our nutrition goals and one of the top things that stops us from reaching our goals.
Keep in mind; Consistency is going to be key. Not just for making each meal plan a success but THE WHY behind you taking all this time and effort into your meal prepping to keep you on track of your health and fitness goals! Remember, life can sometimes be unpredictable, and this is where we live and learn through situations so that we can have some flexibility when those times arise.
Give yourself grace going through each of these steps as you work on improving each week your planning, prepping AND prioritization.
Including things like; figuring out the best time/ day to grocery shop.
When is the best time for you to prepare your meals?
Fow many meals you will get out of the meat?
Deciding if you’ll need a mid-week produce stop.
What about needing mid-week prep time?
How long before the vegetable goes bad / how long certain foods last in the fridge?
This is all part of navigating through the SUSTAINABILITY WAY.
Final pro tip—after each week, evaluate what worked well the previous week and what could be improved. With these thoughts and reflections, then make those adjustments for the upcoming week!
Meal Prep CAN and WILL—
1. Reduce your Stress: Knowing your meals are already prepared for the day, this reduces deciding what to eat each day.
2. Time- Saving: Saves you TIME during those busy days/ weeks.
3. Cost-Effective: Buying ingredients in bulk than eating out or buying pre-packaged meals.
4. Provides Portion Control: Measuring / portioning out can prevent overeating and help manage calorie intake.
5. Nutritional Control: YOU are in more control of what goes into your body, allowing you to stay on track of eating habits, reducing any temptation to opt for fast food, unhealthy options.
To learn how to log your food, track macronutrients or some extra accountability, view more details at nutrition coaching.