The other day I was looking up recipes for the next week’s meal plan and noticed a common thread. It seems that there are a lot of articles about meal prepping. Some of those articles have made it pretty complex. It occurred to me that there might be people who either don’t enjoy meal planning or don’t know how to. In either case, it would explain why some people would cheat on their diet or health program. It only seems to make sense that when the enjoyment is lacking in something that boredom follows. When that happens, eventual failure is likely. This could lead to eating unhealthy food and/or binge eating.
When it comes to meal prepping, a plan needs to be made. All this means is that you need to know what your specific health goals are. It could be weight loss, muscle building or simply toning. People tend to complicate things and it really doesn't need to be. Honestly, it’s only a little challenging at first because a new habit is being formed. But once it becomes part of a lifestyle, it's pretty easy. There is a lot of information regarding nutrition and just as many recipes out there in the form of articles, books and videos. I’m just going to tell you what’s working for me.
When I decided to become healthy, I already knew that proper nutrition had to be my first priority. I can’t stress this enough. You can’t exercise and eat shitty food then expect to meet your goals. Oh sure you could see some results and even feel a little better. But why not do your best? Meal prepping is an excellent way to ensure proper eating.
My health goals include weight loss which means cutting calories. First I weighed myself then looked up how many calories were needed to maintain that weight. Because it takes a reduction of 3500 calories to lose a pound I subtracted 7000. I wanted to lose two pounds a week (3500x2=7000). I took that number and divided by seven (days in a week) then subtracted one day’s worth of calories (for the glorious cheat day). That left me with my daily allowed calories. I don’t know if that’s how the “experts” say to do it, but that’s how I did and it’s been just fine for me.
I looked up tasty sounding recipes in the caloric range for my needs, made a shopping list with the required ingredients and went shopping. Now, I’m a snacker and have a weakness for chips. There have been many internal and external dialogues with myself (I do that a lot) while shopping and the fat me would say “One bag of chips won’t hurt.” and “What about healthy vegee chips?” At times, items not on the list would make it into my cart only to end up on a random shelf. I know myself well enough to know that chips are my personal heroin and if I gave in to temptation in the beginning, I would never succeed in meeting my health goals. When I first started shopping for meal prepping, just leaving the store with only what was on the list was a victory. Now, it really isn’t as much of a struggle. 
Preparing a week’s worth of food is pretty simple. All the food that needs cooking, is cooked in a big batch, then divided up and put it into six containers. I like pretty food so I make them all look pretty, layering them and arranging each meal to be attractive. Don’t judge. Then all the plastic/covers go on and all of the containers go into the frig. The only foods that are not included in the containers are avocado and fruit. They get pretty gross after a couple of days so I just cut one in half then save the other half for the next day.
Another trick I learned was to buy some perishables in different stages of ripeness. Take avocados, for example. I’ll buy one that’s ripe, a couple that are not quite ripe and one that won’t be ripe for four or five days. The same goes for fruit.
Something else I learned was how to shave off unnecessary calories in a recipe so I can put them into other food that can be eaten. For me, this came in the form of learning to drink coffee without milk or cream. My regular ground coffee was upgraded to the flavored grounds. Lemon and a little salt have replaced salad dressing. Raw or steamed vegetables have replaced sauteed. By making these changes, my portions of real food can be a little larger and that makes a big difference when it comes to avoiding hunger. That can be an extra piece of chicken, another piece of fruit or a handful of almonds.
Containers to store meals are a factor as well. If you’re just beginning your meal prep journey, there really isn’t any need to run out and purchase anything specific. When I first started, I just used whatever was in the kitchen. For the first few weeks, I used bowls with plastic wrap and butter containers. They worked fine. There are containers that have separate areas to keep each part of the meal fresh. Some people use freezer bags because, well.. ..they freeze their meals, others use mason jars. For me, I’m not a fan of plastic but did use the butter containers because it was all that was around. Mason jars don’t fit in my tiny frig very well so I’ve recently placed an order for some glass food storage containers and will be posting a review later on.
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