Cooking is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Most people can’t afford to have personal chefs or eat out only at the healthiest restaurants. So, finding a way to love spending time in the kitchen is necessary. If you’re new to meal prepping or have been struggling to make it a habit, keep reading for my top tips to get started!
Identify your values
Why do you want to meal prep? Why is it important to you and will you prioritize it over other things in your life? For me, my health is my top priority. Every week I don’t budge on working out, sleeping 7-8 hours, and spending time with friends. I don’t care if I’m behind in school, work or if I’m tired – I fit those in no matter what! I know that if I skip working out on a Saturday because I “didn’t feel like it,” I may find myself skipping on meal prep Sunday to fit in a workout. If I skip a couple workouts or meal prep days, I find it super hard to get back on track. When I ruin my momentum, I find myself in this free-fall of laziness where I can’t seem to find the energy to get back. This is why no matter how much resistance I feel, I always complete the things most important to me.
Cook on a day that makes sense for you
The recommended time for eating leftovers is 3-4 days, so if you’re like me and you know your weekend is going to be spent eating out with various friends, maybe meal prepping on a Thursday isn’t the best idea. I’m busiest Monday-Thursday so I love meal prepping on Sunday and knowing I have food to grab during my busy week.
Freeze meals
I always cook more than I need so I can freeze meals. Freezing meals saves me the second half of the week and it helps with variety. I may meal prep on Sunday for most of my Monday-Thursday meals, and pull out 2 frozen meals to defrost for Friday. I can also cook lunch meals for the week and pull out dinner meals from the freezer. This way I have variety, and I’m cooking a lot less. Just remember that not everything freezes well. Certain high water vegetables such as celery may become limp when thawed. Experiment by freezing one meal worth and then remembering which ones froze well so you can keep larger batches in the freezer.
Shop and cook on different day
It’s best to do the planning and shopping on a different day from the cooking. This may not be right for everyone, but I find this minimizes the stress of meal prepping a lot. I usually map out my meals for the week and grocery shop on Saturday, then I cook everything on Sunday. This way, if I’m feeling lazy on Sunday, I know that the food I bought will go bad, so I have extra motivation to cook.
Get friends involved
I usually try to get my friends involved to double my meal prep Sundays as social time. We often grab some wine and cook away while we gossip. This also means that we can have double the variety. Cooking for one person can be tough, but when you have a friend you can each work on one recipe and split each in half so that you can have variety for the week. This way everyone can cook things that they’re most comfortable with, and you can swap meals after. I have a friend that loves cooking Asian dishes that I normally struggle with. I also don’t have a lot of the spices and ingredients that these types of dishes require. Swapping with him means I can add a dish to my rotation that I normally wouldn’t make. If your friends aren’t as invested in meal prepping as you, find something else you love to do instead. Use this opportunity to finally listen to that audiobook or podcast you’ve been trying to find time for.
Meal prep ingredients, not just recipes
If you want more variety, you can focus on meal prepping multiple ingredients instead of meals. I usually can’t eat the same thing more than 2 or 3 times, but by prepping ingredients, I can mix and match dishes. For example, prepping hard boiled eggs can be used in a salad for lunch, on breakfast toast, or as a midday snack.
Have Faith
Have faith in the meal prepping gods and understand that just because it’s not easy the first few weeks, or even months, doesn’t mean that you should give up. Soon it will become part of your routine and a day that you can look forward to! Becoming consistent in meal prepping is the same as any other habit. You’ll have bad weeks and you’ll have good weeks, but as long as you keep trying, it will only become easier from week to week.
Thoughts on meal prep services…
It doesn’t hurt to try them! For me, it wasn’t financially worth it to use them, but it could be an educational investment if you feel overwhelmed by the idea of cooking. There are companies that send you recipes, along with the perfect amount of each ingredient so you have everything you need to cook delivered to your door. These types of services allow you to become comfortable with cooking and adding a new habit to your weekly routine. Once you feel more confident, you can start doing the planning and shopping without a meal prep service.