Meal prepping

I'm able to stick to it better if I prep my food beforehand. I usually prepare lunch for 3 or 4 days at a time that way I'm not stuck eating the same thing throughout the week. It changes every 3 or 4 days which I find okay. I'm not a fan of the usual lunch type meals so I typically make a dinner like dish that I can reheat in the microwave.
I'm able to have a different dinner most nights. If dinner is a struggle for you, you might try making a few meals that can be frozen and then mix in freshly prepared meals on days when you might have more time.

I have never been able to meal prep in the caloric sense. But I do use a couple of strategies to improve my dietary organization:

1. I allot a certain calorie count for each meal I eat. For example, I know like 800-900 calories for dinner. So I just log that in ahead of time. Then when it comes time to eat dinner, I just stay within that calorie limit. It helps me figure out how many snacks I can have or additional meals if I want them.

2. I eat a lot of chicken. So every week or two, I'll grill 7-10lbs of chicken thighs. It's not meal prepping the traditional way, but I know when I'm looking for something to eat, I'll have that already available.

I meal prep but I use plastic zip lock bags instead of takeaway containers/tupperware. I bag protein separate from vegetables separate from carbs (sweet potato/rice/pasta etc.)

Everything gets frozen and then I can mix & match the bags depending on what I feel like eating. It gives me heaps of control over what i'm eating and gives me more options than before. It also means I can just prepare vegetables or just prepare some more meat when i'm running low - I don't have to spend 4 hours doing everything at once.

I prep and freeze. I make a lot of one pot meals (soup, stew, chili, curry) in all different variations and I freeze them in individual portions so I can just pull one out and pack it for lunch or whatever. When you make just two dishes, you end up with maybe 16 portions. It's easy to just keep going and make 1-2 dishes every weekend to keep your variety high.

I freeze a lot of other things that aren't one pot meals (breakfast sandwiches, burritos, egg bakes, any muffin tin recipe, meatballs and nuggets, bagged up cooked chicken/steak, cauliflower rice. and all of my sauces - marinara, enchilada, BBQ), but they're the easiest to start with.

We typically have some kind of cooked meat in the fridge anyway (leftovers) and I usually have hard boiled eggs as well.

I don't think meal prepping means you have to eat the same thing several days in a row. I think it is more about making whatever you are going to eat in advance so you can plan your calories for the day/week. It also allows you to quickly grab the prepped food instead of feeling overwhelmed by the time it takes to put everything together and grabbing something quick and less healthy/higher calorie like fast food.

feisty_bucket wrote: »

By meal prep, do you mean making everything in advance?

I don't do that, but I have "prepped" in the sense of I have my routine meals, and I know exactly what goes in them (re: calories and macros), and how to make 'em really fast and efficiently.

The only real meal prep I do is that my husband and I typically chose two dinner meals per week and eat leftovers the rest of the time. So the leftovers are "prepped" meals. We eat a fair variety of dinners, not just the same things every week (I think our list of options is around 30 right now and we're always look for new ideas).

I do find it useful to pre-log my day as best as possible either the night before or that morning. That way when I change things up with a different breakfast or lunch, or when I know dinner will be higher or lower calorie that night, I can adjust the rest of my food to accommodate the changes. For instance last week's dinners were 425 and 550 calories, but this week's dinners are 300-400 calories. Since the dinners are lower calorie, I am indulging in different higher calorie lunches this week rather than my normal salad. This is also helpful when I know I will want dessert.