Who said starting a healthy lifestyle was easy? I would love to talk to them. If you are a beginner, you have so much to learn and eventually change. That’s why I’m giving you this meal prep guide for beginners to make the process easier.
Adopting a healthy lifestyle is not easy, and that can be a big deterrent for someone who is just starting out. You need to change your way of thinking and living if you want it to last a long time.
One thing that people find hard is beginning, and sticking too, a healthier diet. There is a lot of decisions, planning, and judgement calls that need to be made.
A solution that many turn too, and i recommend as well if you don’t have time during the day to cook each meal, is meal prepping.
Meal prepping makes dieting easy because it turns your meals into a easy routine without having to worry about what to eat or what not to eat. Meal prep is essentially s stress reliever.
We are gonna go through a breakdown of the topic and how you can do it.
What is meal prepping?
Meal prepping has been around for a while. It is more than just a fad, it is a legitimate way to help make a healthier lifestyle easier.
It is as straight forward as it sounds, prepare your meals in advanced to get rid of any inconveniences that comes with cooking every time you want to eat.
Benefits of meal prepping.
Have your meals ready anywhere you go: Keeping to your diet when you are out of the house is difficult sometimes, especially if you don’t have many healthy options near you. You cant drag your kitchen out with you, but you can have your meals packaged and ready to eat if you want.
Keeps you honest: If you have healthy food with you, then you shouldn’t have an excuse to break your diet. Yeah a burger might sound good, but save your money and provide your body with some better nutrients that you took time and effort to make.
Save Money: Speaking of money, according to fool.com, the average American spent $3,008 per year on restaurant dining and take out. In comparison, $4,015 was spent on groceries. This one boils down to one question. Would you like to have an extra couple thousand dollars at the end of the year?
Many more: There are many more benefits, changing depending on your situation. The ones above are big ones, but others include ones such as stress and time saver.
What do you need to get started?
There is some extra effort you need to put in other than cooking.
This meal prep guide for beginners is gonna ask you to do just that.
You also need to go buy, or order, some needed equipment.
- Packaging: You are going to need someway to store the food you are preparing. I don’t think a brown paper bag will work every time, nor is that route environmentally friendly. Invest in some reusable boxes such as Tupperware or, a little more meal prep friendly option, Bento boxes.
- Kitchen Measurement tools: On its own, simply having a healthy meal is amazing. Even better, plan to have the right portion sizes. Invest in a kitchen scale, measurement spoons, and measurement cups.
- Shaker Bottle: If you plan to use protein shakes in your diet, then a shaker bottle is something to look into. Typically with a compartment on the bottom, the bottle makes mixing on the go less of a hassle. They also can be used for regular drinks and you can instead keep on of your healthy snacks on the bottom instead.
- Lunch box/bag: You probably don’t want to be walking around carrying your meals in your hands. Break out your old lunch box or get a reusable bag. This one is all up to preference but it can make the process a little easier.
- Crock pot: This one is far from a necessity. But it is so nice to have! Crock pots, or slow cookers, can cook a great variety of things and are simple to use. It makes cooking less of a chore once you get a hang of using it, and you can have a warm meal finishing up by the time you get home if you choose. Again, not something that is needed, but it is a luxury to have.
How to prep the meals
Once you are all set up, its time to start prepping. The obvious first step is deciding what you want to eat.
Whatever route you want to go. Take your time because, unless you want to waste your food, you will be eating this until you run out.
Second you are going to want to decide how much you want to eat per meal. This isn’t any different then normal portioning. If you dont know where to start, try by using the recommended serving sizes and then measuring it with your tools.
After the cooking and portioning is done, bring out your containers and neatly package your meals. You don’t want to open up a mess to eat. Keep foods in different containers unless you are ok with some of them mixing. At the end of it, you will have a lot of packages, so be sure to have enough space in the fridge.
Be smart and make sure not to take something that needs to be refrigerated with you without having it in a cold box.
Well there you go, hopefully this meal prep guide for beginners gave you all the information that you need.
Enjoy! All you have to do now until your next prepping is eat your meals and use all the time you freed up. Make changes as needed, this is a learning process, and find what works best for you.
Talk about your experience meal prepping in the comments.
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