Meal Prep - Why you need it and a recipe idea

Happy Tuesday everyone!

One thing I commonly hear over and over, before I even became a certified personal trainer, is, "I just don't have time to prepare my lunch" or "I don't have time to make something healthy."

If fat loss or weight loss is your goal, then you must make nutrition a priority.

It is non-negotiable. You cannot out-exercise a poor diet.

You can certainly make a good amount of progress with just exercise, but if you have >10lbs to lose then you must make nutrition a priority. It can even be argued that nutrition is more important than formal exercise, but that is its own blog post.

Most people who I see not achieve their fat loss or weight loss goals is because they do not realize that it is through behavior change that they will achieve, and maintain it. Even if they do realize it, most are not actually ready to commit to behavior changes in order to achieve said goals.

Behavior change is uncomfortable. Humans do not enjoy being uncomfortable. However, growth (and change) occurs at the edge of your comfort zone. Sound familiar? ;)

If you want to create behavior change, you can make a list of specific actionable items that you will work on; preferably 1-2 at a time to turn them into habits and ultimately reach and maintain your goal.

The #1 behavior change that produces real results from the moment you start is meal prep.

What is meal prep?

Meal prep is when you take a dedicated amount of time, once or twice per week, and create meals for the next couple of days.

This can be done on Sunday for all of your breakfasts and lunches for the work week ahead. You can on Monday night cook a large dinner, 6 servings, have one serving for dinner and save the other five for each lunch for the rest of the week. If you do the second, then make sure you portion it out into five individual bowls for the next couple of days rather than one large bowl you constantly have to go back into and grab a portion. You can also pick two days, say Sunday and Wednesday night and make lunches for the couple of days ahead. The possibilities are endless and you should pick one that works best for you and your lifestyle!

By meal prepping you save hours in the kitchen each week. Think about why you do not currently bring lunch to work the next day. It is likely one of two things, 1) you make lunch fresh each night so you are constantly taking time every night to do this, or 2) you try to make it before work so when you wake up late this is the first thing you skip doing.

If instead you take 1-2 hours on a dedicated night to make all of your meals ahead for the week then you can ensure that these meals are prepped and you will eat that for the rest of the week!

Think about in the moment, humans are lazy by nature and by not preparing ahead you are more likely going to say, "oh, I will just go out for lunch today." The likelihood of you now choosing a healthy option for lunch has just gone down tenfold.

Have I sold you on meal prep yet? I hope so! So where do you start? You can check out my Pinterest board meal prep for some ideas. Below is another idea of what I have been doing for yearsss. I cannot begin to tell you how much a game changer this has been for me.

Follow the steps below for how to make salads for lunch on Sunday night for Monday-Friday and ensure it stays fresh!

1) Chicken: line a baking sheet with parchment paper, season chicken, and bake for 25 minutes at 375°F. This day I used turmeric and black pepper, a spice combo I use every once in a blue moon. My normal is garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. I never measure this part, just sprinkle evenly to your liking. For me, the more garlic the better and I tend to go lighter on the pepper.

2) Jars: start with your water soluble veggies on the bottom and leafy greens on top! This is the most important tip. It will maintain your salad fresh from Sunday to Friday.

3) Asian inspired salad, bottom up: red onion, bell pepper, shredded carrots and Trader Joe's cruciferous crunch collection. Other salad, bottom up: red onion, cucumber, shredded carrots, grape tomatoes, & kale.

4) Rip a piece of paper towel into 5 sections and put on top of your salads before sealing. This will help absorb the moisture from the greens and keep them fresh and crisp all week!

5) Voila, you're done.

This week I'm having the Trader Joe's vegan dressings and bringing the bottle with me to work. Normally I use balsamic vinegar and olive oil, which I add it to the jars before anything else! Important if you are adding the dressing to the jars: It should be at the very bottom of the jar far away from the greens!! Bonus, vinegar make the onions & cucumbers taste amazing!

When you're ready to eat dump jar onto a plate, heat your chicken & add dressing if you didn't put it in the bottom of the jar.

If you are counting your calories or macros, here is the nutritional information for the salad + dressing + 5oz chicken & 200g apple on the side: 347kcal, 43g C, 6g F, 35g P and the Asian inspired salad has 31kcal, 5g C & 2g F extra. Same amount of protein in both.

Best part? This all took me 35 minutes to do including clean up. That's nothing in the grand scheme of things and I did it once in a week, not every night!

I hope this inspires you this weekend to take some time, plan out your meals, and prepare ahead of time.

Need mason jars and plastic lids? Here are they are:

*You can do these with the metal lids that the jars come with but they get gross over time so eventually you will want the plastic lids.

Don't want mason jars? You can also make these salads in these glass bowls that are air tight. Bonus, these are oven safe, not the lids, so you can reheat your meals in the oven as well. I have these and love them!

*I bought these in 2017 for $25 and the price has gone up but it should come back down! If not, I found a second alternative with the same specs.

Second option US store:

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