Meal prep
Is meal prep required?
Absolutely not, and many times I don't meal prep myself, depending on my lifestyle and schedule at that time. If you're not interested in meal prep, you can skip this entirely.
Nevertheless, meal prep can be tremendously useful. Many people feel overwhelmed by it, but often unnecessarily! Meal prep can be surprisingly simple and enjoyable.
Why meal prep is useful
Convenience You come home late from work, and you're dead tired. You're super hungry, and you still have to cook. You know there is some leftover pizza that your partner brought home. You end up eating that as if you're too tired and hungry to cook. This type of scenario occurs very often. If you already have a meal prepped, then all you have to do is eat it up, all the effort has been frontloaded.
Time Meal prep is vastly more time efficient. Even if you do a very simple meal that takes 10 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to cook, if you're doing that for 7 meals in the week, that's almost 2.5 hours. However, if you were to cook that same meal by increasing the amounts by 7, it wouldn't go from 20 mins to 2.5h. It would more likely be something like 40 mins, depending on what you're cooking.
Start small
Most people view meal prepping as prepping for the entire week: 7 days. However, this is often overkill. First, it makes the amount you're cooking very large, and second, few foods can last that long in the fridge without a very significant drop in taste.
I recommend starting meal prep by simply cooking double, meaning that instead of cooking dinner, you cook two dinners, or today's dinner plus tomorrow's lunch. This gives you an extra meal, but it's not anything radically different from what you're doing. Then you can increase this amount as you feel comfortable as you need.
Plan your meal prep
Don't hope that you will find some time at the weekend. It's very likely that it will be skipped, overshadowed by many other responsibilities. Pick a specific date and a specific time. For example, at 6 PM on Sunday, I will start meal prep, and stick to that. Make it a habit, just many other aspects of fitness.
Simplify your meals
To start with, I recommend keeping the meals very simple. If you have never meal prepped before, this isn't the time to do a fancy recipe with 10 different ingredients and taking forever to cook. Keep it as simple as possible. Aim to use as few pots/pans as you can.
Individual meal prep
For beginners, it's also very useful if instead of meal prepping meals, you meal prep "macro batches" instead. Meaning that you prep a bunch of food for a given macro-nutrient (or food group) without worrying about individual meals.
For example, you can cook some chicken breast, rice, and vegetables. Instead of trying to make a meal with what you cooked, simply store each one separately. Then for each meal, you simply take what you need from each batch. This makes it a lot simpler and also gives you much-needed flexibility when you're still new to hitting your macro targets.
Variety
Something that makes meal prep unappealing for many is the idea of eating the same thing over and over again. To be honest, this aspect is overblown, and it's something that people easily adjust to. It's not the end of the world eating the same meals for a few times in a row, especially if you have more freedom with the other meals.
But let's say that you're just the type of person that needs variety, that's not incompatible with meal prep! You can meal prep several types of meals and vary each one. Let's say that the typical meal prep is chicken, rice, and broccoli. Instead, you can cook some chicken and beef, rice and pasta, broccoli and green beans, and then you make a meal with each combo, alternating each day. Yes, it will take some extra work, but it pays off in variety.
Depending on the size, however, you might be able to get the best of both worlds when cooking in the oven since you can easily separate foods. For example, you can have 1/4 of it for chicken, another 1/4 for fish, 1/4 for shrimp and 1/4 for turkey. Then you can have another tray that you put later with 1/4 broccoli, 1/4 asparagus, 1/4 eggplant and 1/4 peppers. With just 2 trays, you now have 4 different pairs!
Yet another way to add variety, especially if you have some calories to spare, is to have the same meals but use different sauces and condiments. This gives you some variety, but in terms of cooking, you are still only cooking 1 type of meal. For example, one meal can have a garlic sauce, another curry, and another BBQ.
Complexity
Another off-putting aspect of meal prep is boring meals, such as the example I gave above of chicken, rice, and broccoli. First, it's worth noting that such meals can be much more enjoyable than you expect if you cook them well. For instance, many people overcook chicken (get an internal thermometer and take it out when it's 165F/73c), making it much drier and less enjoyable. And likewise, many people overcook vegetables as well, eliminating any crunch to them. Also, remember that spices are your friend! You can't complain that food is lacking in flavour if you're using salt and little else. Experiment! This is why I recommend trying to learn how to cook better and following cooking channels, this whole world opens up to you.
Furthermore, while I do recommend trying to keep it simple in the beginning, you are in charge of what you want to cook. You can cook whatever food you want of any complexity. If chicken and broccoli isn't your thing, don't meal prep that! Cook and prep meals that you enjoy. There are no rules as long as you can fit within your plan.
Meal prep snacks
Many people think about meal prep for main meals, like lunch or dinner. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but smaller meals are often neglected, and they can also benefit from meal prep. For example, a great way to meal prep your breakfast is by making overnight oats. They're ready to eat straight from the fridge in the morning (they're delicious, by the way), but also you can easily make them many days in advance.
Even super basic snacks, like protein bars or nuts, can be prepped in advance. You can make sure to put the protein bar in your bag, or pre-weight your portion of nuts and put it in the container you take for work. Meal prep simply means that you're preparing food in advance, and this can take any form and goes well beyond cooking!
Frozen meals
Many people meal prep by putting their meals in the fridge. However, it's worth remembering that you can also store them in the freezer if you want to keep them for even longer. You don't have to do this, just remember that it's an option.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to extend the number of days you have meals prepped, such as having meals for 20 days in a row. Although, in theory, you could. I think the best way to do this is simply to have extra meals that you can use anytime, in case you have run out of your regular meal prep and you don't want to cook, or in case you just feel like having something different.
Regular meal prep in the fridge is typically put in containers, often plastic tupperware (I recommend getting glass containers instead). However, this becomes very inconvenient for having meals in the freezer due to space concerns. It's better if you use freezer storage bags. Also the more air that is in contact with the food, the more the quality is affected when defrosting (freezer burn), so try to make the bag as air-free as possible, pressing the bag and sealing it well. You can write on the bags the name of the meal and its macros for easy identification.
Be mindful that some foods don't freeze very well, such as fried foods, recipes with fruits and veggies with high water content (cucumber, melon and lettuce), and anything with mayo, fresh whipping cream, or yoghurt.
You can also freeze individual foods rather than a whole recipe, just like the tip for regular meal prep. In particular, having frozen meat is super helpful since that opens tons of options. It's generally easier to find a carb source if you have a protein source already than vice-versa. If you have some lean beef or chicken breast ready to go, you can use a microwavable rice bag, a bag of noodles, or you can make a sandwich with whole-grain bread. Yes, certainly not the lowest calorie and lacking in vegetables (although you could cook or defrost veggies as well), but you're still getting a decent meal in without any work.
Defrosting is something you have to keep in mind if you want to use frozen food. There is a trade-off being how well the texture and taste of the food are conserved and how long the defrosting takes.
Microwave: You can use the defrost function in your microwave, it's very quick, and it works, although it makes the texture worse and it's not as enjoyable. It's ok to use in a pitch but not worth it for most people that want their food to taste great.
Cold water: Put your food (sealed, of course) in a water bath and let it defrost. It's a slower process, but the resulting quality is much higher as well.
Alternatively, put the food in a bowl, and then have running water slowly drip into the bowl so that the water is constantly renewed. This will make the process a bit faster since the water is at a lower temperature. Instead of running water, you can also change the water manually.
Using warm instead of cold water will significantly speed up the process. But in many situations this isn't safe. Depending on how you want to do it and what food you're working with, it might be ok. You may want to research it and see if you can do it safely, but for simplification purposes, I just recommend avoiding this method altogether.
Fridge defrost: This is the best method, and you simply take your frozen meal from the freezer and put it in the fridge overnight.
What if I don't want to meal prep?
Then don't! It's not required, and it's not a magic bullet, simply useful for some point. As long as you're eating healthy and cooking food that helps towards your goals, it doesn't matter! You might also consider meal delivery services covered below.
Meal delivery services
Many in the fitness industry feel smug about meal delivery services, and they often feel that it's a cop-out of learning to cook or putting the time and effort into cooking and meal prepping.
It's indeed true that cooking is a very useful skill that anyone should learn. However, there is no prize if you happen to cook your own food. Some people have very crazy schedules and busy lives. Yes, you can make time if you prioritize your goals, but often you're making your life a lot more difficult, which tends to make the new lifestyle hard to sustain.
Meal delivery services can be useful because they do all the work for you, and you always have healthy and diet food available and pre-cooked. It takes the convenience of meal prep and multiplies it manyfold.
Another downside is that you never get the same flexibility that you have when you're cooking your own food. Cooking can be an amazing part of your life, both that makes your fitness goals much easier to achieve but also a worthwhile experience in itself. Especially once you learn to cook precisely what and how you like food and discover new dishes. This will likely be missed if you're using a meal delivery service all the time.
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