Meal Prep the Sequel

• By Beth Meirav
• My Blog

Meal prepping is planning and preparing for your meals in advance. Since you are determining what to eat in advance it will most likely lead to healthier choices.

I know I am not the only busy working parent out there. I am sure many of you struggle with the daily question "what are we having for dinner?". I remember posing that question to my own parents endlessly. Planning and prepping will allow you to have the answer readily available.

Do you need additional benefits?

• less take out! You no longer need to call UberEats and wait for some driver to bring you dinner
• you will save money (as a result of the less take out and you will also need less groceries if you plan)
• portion control will get easier
• you will save time!
• your meals will magically become more nutritious because you are putting some thought into them

Meal prepping is key when it comes to eating healthy, losing weight and maintaining that weight loss. Clients ask me quite frequently about my habits and I tell them this: I plan and prep for my busy week on Sundays. I spend about 30 minutes slicing and bagging fresh veggies to grab, tupperwaring (yes, that's a verb) salads and roasting off veggies for the week. There are a few different ways to meal prep. You need to figure out what will be the most beneficial for you.

1. Prep your ingredients- Perhaps you have time during the week to cook your meals as you go, but chopping them in advance would be the best time saver for you.
2. Cook a big meal - You may need to have that meal already cooked because you get back very late from work. Spend time prepping and even cooking it and portion it for 1-2 nights worth of dinners/lunches.
3. Freeze it - I made a huge stew in my slow cooker the other day and I froze it in batches for future use.
4. Cross utilize ingredients - That roasted broccoli would also be perfect in a salad or a stir fry. Cross utilize your ingredients in a few ways to make it easy while saving time and money!
5. Buy it ready- The grocery store has come to our rescue with this one! What a hack! You can buy chopped up or spiralized veggies of all different types. Just take them home and throw them on a sheet pan and voila!

Good luck!  You got this!!