There’s a saying: “you can’t out-exercise a bad diet.” Making good food choices is a crucial part of good health. But when you’re busy, convenience is king. A little planning and effort one evening a week towards meal preparation can help you avoid settling for a fast food lunch at your desk because it’s all you have time for. Here are some tips to help:
Make Meals in Big Batches
The essence of convenience in meal prep is in large batch cooking. Whatever you make, cook a lot of it — enough for 5-7 individual meals. Less than that diminishes the overall time you save on cooking; more than that risks you tiring of eating the same thing in a given week or the last few meals going bad in the fridge before you eat them.
Utilize Appliances like a Crock Pot or a Rice Cooker
Helpful appliances can make all the difference. Rice cookers and slow cookers have large capacities and also eliminate guess work and the need to monitor the stove. And even better: many of them have timers so that you can set them to be finished cooking your food at a given time. For a convenient breakfast, add oatmeal, water, cinnamon, and vanilla extract to your cooker the night before and set the timer to have it ready to eat when your morning alarm goes off.
Embrace Cooking Shortcuts
Meal prep does not mean heroically cooking everything from scratch. Make the process easier by using canned, frozen, pre-cut, or pre-mixed ingredients. The less daunting and time-consuming meal prep is, the more likely you are to make it part of your routine.
Buy Meal Containers
Individual and reusable plastic containers are indispensable for any meal prep routine. Once prepared, the big batch meals can be portioned out into these containers and put in the refrigerator for convenient grab-and-go lunches to take to the office or a ready-to-microwave dinner at the end of a long day.
Happy cooking, and email lawandmotionfitness@gmail.com if you’re interested in adding a fitness program to your routine!