Meal Prepping – Benefits And Helpful Tips To Help You Prep Like A Boss
|
|
We all know just how crucial diet and nutrition can be when it comes to our health, fitness, physique, and general well-being, yet despite this, how many of us can honestly say, hand on heart, that we do everything in our power to consume fresh, healthy, and natural foods for the majority of the time? Not too many of us that’s for sure, and that’s not a generalization, that is a fact backed up with scientific evidence. All you have to do is look at global obesity figures to figure out that something is drastically wrong as there are currently more obese individuals living on our planet than ever before. We’re sadly getting fatter for the most part, our health is suffering, and unfortunately life expectancies are on the decline, which, considering how advanced we are technologically and medically, is downright appalling. We all know that greasy, unhealthy food can be pretty addictive and sadly is does taste great, which is one of the main problems, but if we’re serious about getting fitter, getting healthier, and building the body we’ve always dreamed of, we need to ensure that we eat and drink the right produce. One fantastic way of ensuring we get enough goodness inside of our bodies and preventing ourselves from cheating on our diets and ordering a greasy pizza when we’re feeling tired and hungry, is to meal prep. Basically, with meal prepping, you will invest in basic Tupperware, you’ll set a few hours aside, typically on a Sunday, and you will batch cook the majority of your meals for the next 4 – 5 days so that you can simply eat them as and when, or quickly re-heat them and enjoy. Here are a few handy benefits associated with meal prepping.
Weight loss
One of the main benefits associated with meal prepping is the fact that it has been proven to help you lose weight, providing of course that the meals you prepare are fresh and healthy. The ideal behind meal prepping as mentioned, is to prevent you from binge eating or from cheating on your diet during the week, when you are rundown, tired, or generally in a bad mood, or even just craving junk. Think about it, after a long and hard day at work, the last thing you want to do when you walk into your home is spend the next few hours feeling and chopping vegetables, cooking meals, washing pots and pans, and then finally eating your dinner before going to bed and repeating the same process the next day. Instead, you want something quick and simple, which is why so many people order fast food or convenience food instead. If you’ve taken the time to already prepare a tasty, low fat, low calorie, and healthy meal a few days prior however, you simply take the Tupperware, re-heat your meal, go jump in the shower and put your sweats on, and enjoy your meal. Once you’re feeling full, you will feel better, you’ll have more nutrients inside you, and you’ll be less likely to overeat or cheat on your diet.
More nutrients
Another benefit of meal prepping is the fact that you can cram as much nutrition inside each meal as possible, providing you take enough time and attention of course. If you’re in a rush to eat healthy after a busy day, you’ll select perhaps just one vegetable as they can be a pain in the butt to peel and prep etc. If you prep in advance however, you can prepare various different vegetables, and can perhaps mix and match, which means the more veggies you have, the more nutrients each meal will contain, and the healthier you will be as a result.
Variety
People who try to eat healthy during the week by cooking meals from scratch tend to stick with the same basic foods over and over again, more often than not because they are so easy to prepare and so they save them so much time. If you set a Sunday afternoon aside however, and spend a few hours making different meals, you get far more variety in your diet, which not only means more nutrients, it also means you get to enjoy a different selection of foods. Rather than chicken, rice, and broccoli for dinner each night, you could try different meats, different carb sources, different veggies, different sauces, and different recipes. You can make soups, pasta dishes, stir frys, basic dinners, casseroles, stews, the list is endless and it is actually far easier to make these dishes than people tend to realise.
Time Saving
As mentioned, one of the main benefits of taking the time to prep your meals for the next few days is the fact that it will save you so much time. Ok, prepping meals for the week ahead may eat away into your Sunday, but after they’re done, life is so much easier. Want a healthy lunch to take to work? No problem, just grab yourself a Tupperware from the fridge before you leave the house. Looking for a tasty, filling, and healthy dinner when you return home from work, or the gym? Again, just re-heat one of the meals you prepared. You not only save time on cooking, you also have virtually no washing up to do, and if you really want to make life even simpler, why not eat directly from the Tupperware?
Helpful prep tips
• Mix and match different protein sources I.E different meats and fishes
• If storing in the fridge, only prep meals for the next 3 – 4 days, or else they will begin to turn bad
• If freezing your meals, make sure the ingredients you use can be frozen
• You can never have enough Tupperware
• Make sure you include plenty of fresh veggies
• Use colourful vegetables to make meals look more appealing
• Use plenty of fresh herbs and spices to enhance the flavour
• Vary your meals, don’t make the same dishes for every single day
• Make sure you have plenty of dry store essentials such as rice and pasta, as they will keep for months
Recommended for you
