8 Tips for Effective Meal Planning and Meal Prepping.
While having a personal chef may seem like the ultimate luxury, for most of us, eating well requires some effort and planning. It's not something that happens by accident or chance. Whether your goal is to lose weight, maintain a healthy diet, or simply feel better, creating a meal plan and prepping meals in advance is essential! (and I would consider the ultimate life hack)
The truth is, eating healthy is a daily challenge that requires a conscious effort. Without a plan, it's easy to fall into the trap of grabbing fast food or ordering takeout. But with a little anticipation and planning ahead, it's possible to create delicious, healthy meals that nourish your body and taste great.
So while living the life of actor Chris Hemsworth may be just out of your reach, you don't have to miss out on the benefits of eating well.
Let’s do this together!
How to Meal Plan
Start with a vision
What does a healthy meal look like to you?
It's different for every individual. However, there are some standard principles.
Healthy meals often include some of each category:
lean protein
colourful vegetables
smart carbs
healthy fats
Hand portions are an easy and consistent way to visualize how much of each food you want in your meal.
Individualize it for yourself with some questions.
Preferences: What foods do you like and want to eat?
Goals: What foods are high-quality and nutritious, and move you towards your goals?
Accessibility: What foods are convenient and easy for you to get? (E.g., What will you have available nearby? What will you have to shop for?)
Plan ahead
Where, specifically, will you need to have a plan?
Step 1: Look ahead.
For which busy days in the coming week will you need pre-prepared meals?
Spend 5 minutes making notes in your diary or on your calendar.
Step 2: Make a menu.
Jot down ideas for your pre-prepared meals. Keep it general, nothing too fancy. Spend 15 minutes making a shopping list and matching meals to certain days.
It doesn't need to be set in stone, but having a framework and being prepared can make mealtime far less stressful.
Operationalize
To turn that vision into reality, reverse engineer the whole process.
How, exactly, will you make that vision happen?
What are all the steps that have to happen?
When will those steps happen?
What trade-offs will you have to make to follow through on the plan?
Who's on your team to help you?
For example, some actions you could take to plan ahead are to:
Look at restaurant menus ahead of time.
Sign up for a meal delivery service.
Plan breakfasts for mornings you exercise.
Plan weekly dinners on Sunday night, or have a Sunday family meeting to discuss weekly menus.
If you're specific enough about the plan of attack, each individual next step will look simple and easy.
Execute
The only thing left to do is to stay focused and execute each of the small and simple steps you put in place for yourself!
How to Meal Prep
Engage yourself as a food artist
Interacting with food is a creative craft.
The ways to prep food can vary — from very simple and easy, to very sophisticated and complex.
Switching your diet from highly processed, convenience foods to fresh, minimally processed whole foods will require that you invest more time and attention into preparation.
However, it doesn't require advanced education, or that you master a new degree from Le Cordon Bleu. (Maybe someday, in culinary artistry dreams.)
If meal prep feels intimidating to you, remember that the nutrition in whole food comes almost entirely done for you by Nature. Whole nutritious foods are always only a few steps away from being ready to eat.
Once you have your vision (decided above) there are only a few more simple steps for you to follow.
Cut it down to bite-sized steps
What prep will your ingredients need from you?
As usual, there are some basic underlying fundamentals to food prep.
The basic steps are:
Soak or thaw
Chop
Heat
Serve or store
Some of those steps need your active attention, while some can be set and happen in the background.
To make it easy, plan ahead and identify the exact steps where your food prep system will need your attention.
Identify where you'll be needed most
How much time will each step take you?
When it's cut down, often what starts as a long process actually only requires short intervals of your attention. If you can identify those shorter intervals, you can more easily schedule them into your day. For example, how do you prep a side of dried black beans? It may be a process spanning a couple of days. When it's broken down, it's actually a lot less overwhelming.
The smaller active steps it will take you are approximate:
5 minutes to add to water and soak
5 minutes to remove from water and store in the fridge
5 minutes to add to boiling water
5 minutes to strain and set to cool before eating
To make food prep easy, cut it down into bite-sized steps and plan for those intervals.
Mix and match to build a system
When will you do the small steps?
When you have bite-sized steps to your food prep plan, you can get creative on how those steps fit your schedule. Mix the small steps to match your schedule.
Put the most time-consuming steps in the parts of your day that naturally have more spare time.
For example, do you have a gap of quiet time in the early morning or late evening? You can use that time to chop vegetables and store them for quick use later.
Fit food prep into your rituals.
When you start to find a method that works for you consistently, make it a ritual for yourself.
For example:
A weekly ritual (like a Sunday ritual)
Every Sunday in the late morning you could spend a couple of hours shopping and prepping food for the week ahead.
A daily ritual
Every day (or every other day) in the early evening you could spend 20–30 minutes prepping food for the next day or a couple of days.
Where do you already have routines and structure in your days? How can the small steps of meal prep fit creatively within that existing structure?
Consistently eating healthy takes effort
It takes time, attention, knowledge and skills. And, as always, the more you practice, the easier, more effortless, and more seamless it becomes.
More importantly, mastering food prep also means more time spent interacting with, learning about, and enjoying all the steps to making your meals creative, delicious and satisfying.
If you are looking for more support and guidance on your health and fitness journey we would love to work with you and help you achieve your goals! You can learn more about our coaching services here or check out the helpful resources we have to offer here.
