Adding Meal Prep to Your Routine
Numerous forces at play make consuming meals away from home a major risk factor for weight gain. Takeout, restaurant, and convenience foods tend to be highly processed, plus their portion sizes are typically large and difficult to control. And these dishes are seldom centered on health-friendly items such as non starchy vegetables.
On the other hand, cooking and eating at home improves nutrition quality and significantly lowers the risk of obesity. Preparing meals at home is a multi-step process that requires some planning and preparation: making a grocery list, going grocery shopping, and washing and chopping (and otherwise preparing) ingredients ahead of time to make busy weekday nights run smoothly.
One of the biggest obstacles to meal prepping and eating at home is time. In today’s busy world, carving time out of the week to shop and prepare food can seem like a challenge, leading many people to think that eating out requires less time. In reality, though, eating out actually requires a significant amount of time. For example, traveling to a restaurant, ordering, waiting for your food to be prepared and then returning home can easily take more than an hour.
Is it possible to redirect some of those minutes to meal prepping?
In 30 minutes, you can likely:
- Select several healthy recipes and create a shopping list.
- Place an online order to be picked up at the grocery store.
- Wash and chop fruits and veggies to have on hand for a quick snack.
- Assemble a crockpot meal in a freezer bag so that all you have to do is dump its contents into a crockpot or an Instant Pot and turn it on for busy nights.
Here are a few more tips to help you be successful:
- Schedule meal prep time on your calendar. Write it down!
- Pick a few recipes that have the same ingredients. For example, cook up one big batch of lentils for both lentil tacos and a protein topper for your salad.
- Stock your kitchen with glass containers of various sizes so healthy foods will be easily visible.
- Keep ready-to-eat veggies and fruits in glass containers at eye level in the fridge.
- Cook in large batches so that you can plan on having extra food ready to go. Freeze it for an easy future meal or plan to use it for lunch the next day.
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