Do you meal prep?

ChandalNicole

This is a big one! Now, I'm not the best meal prepper. I don't take a few hours out of any particular day to do this. But if you can, do it! It will help you tremendously! It'll take the guesswork out of figuring out breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It'll free up time for you to do workouts when you would normally be cooking. I have a very busy schedule but manage to workout 5-6 days a week. It's not impossible!

To touch base a little bit more on my methods since I'm not a pro yet lol.. I typically try to get my meals at least planned out at the beginning of the week. I have Sunday's off so that is my day but whatever day works for you is great. I like to try and at least prep snacks to be readily available that way when I get hungry, I have options that won't sabotage my day. As far as actual meal prepping, my methods are cooking on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays usually. I make enough in those meals to have leftovers the following days (lunch and dinner) and possibly some to freeze for a later, no time to cook day. Pack your breakfast and lunch the night before so you can just grab and go in the morning. If you have a crockpot, that little beauty can become your best friend! UTILIZE IT! There is nothing better than putting a meal in the crockpot first thing in the morning before you head out and coming home to an already prepared, healthy dinner. With a house that smells amazing too!
Here are a couple links to some good, healthy crockpot dinners:
Number 1
Number 2

You CAN make all of this work. You have to tell yourself you can. Sit down and write down your schedule if you need to. I work full time, Monday - Friday. I have a 5 year old in school that I also drop off and pick up. I'm a part time student on Tuesday & Thursday nights until 8:30 and all day on Saturday. I have a house to take care of. And I still have a life! I MAKE time for myself. You won't ever regret switching things around, cooking a little extra to have time on other days. Don't make excuses. You are your own worst enemy when it comes to things like this. Ask yourself how you can make this work before you start shooting it down.

curves2j

I meal prep all three meals every 4 to 5 days. When I am good on time I do it on Sunday and prep for Monday to Thursday. I work from home on Fridays so that I can then cook my meals as I go. But I do start to prep for the meal prep lol on Sunday. On Friday I usually weigh and separate the vegetables. On Saturday I will cook the veggies(steam, bake, etc). On Sunday I weight and bake the protein. And prepare what my breakfast will be for the week. (usually sometime of baked casserole). No having to come home and worry about battling my hunger and cooking dinner. Leaves loads of time for exercising.

It was very difficult at first and extremely frustrating to say the least. But for me the key is not to try to do it all in one day. By starting out and doing a bit here and there by the time meal prep comes- it all comes together in under 1 hour.

KenziesFrenzies

I meal prep my work lunches every Sunday, my boyfriend and I do it together. It has made a world of difference for me, weight loss-wise, and also helps save a ton of money and calories by keeping me from going out to lunch!

Here are some examples of my meal preps:



This was my lunch this week, I did baked chicken breasts (tons of seasoning), quinoa cooked in salt-free vegetable stock, with organic canned corn & black beans, tomatoes, hatch chilies, and cilantro, finished with some fresh lime juice.
I ate mine with a whole wheat small fajita tortilla to make a little taco, and with the tortilla, it breaks down to:
463 calories
25g protein
56g carbs
6g fat



This one was kinda similar, but I got tired of quinoa and used organic basmati rice instead, and added bell peppers (because I love them)



Super simple baked salmon (I use a lot of rosemary and Italian seasonings on salmon), with plain quinoa, and baked broccoli.
This meal is super easy, the entire process took <30 minutes because I baked the salmon & broccoli, and quinoa only takes 10 minutes.



That week I did kind of a stir fry concoction thing (of things that looked good in the produce section):
Grilled chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet peppers and portobello mushrooms. I grilled them with EVOO (this was before I started using coconut oil - SO MUCH LESS CALORIES AND FAT).

And lastly, one of my favorites, chicken & hummus wraps!



This was grilled chicken (that particular one had leftover steak in it), 2 tbsp hummus, sliced cucumbers and raw red peppers, and a little bit of feta cheese. Super duper yummy and EASY to throw together at my desk.



So yeah.... I love meal prep.

natyack

I try to meal prep on sundays but I'm not always successful. With the cooler weather I'm excited to prep some soups and casseroles to take to the office with me for lunch! Here's a link to my pinterest board full of healthy recipes I'll be trying. I'm also a huge fan of high fiber muffins in the morning.

https://www.pinterest.com/nmckn/lunch-ideas/