There are countless reasons to get into the joys of meal prepping, but here are some of the top reasons:
Saves time
By setting aside a chunk of time to get all or most of your meals for the week prepped, you are saving yourself hours of frazzled and rushed cooking throughout the coming days. You can wake up in the morning, grab your prepped breakfast from the fridge, throw your prepped lunch into your bag (ready to eat as soon as you’re ready!), and come home to a ready-made dinner you only need to heat in the oven or microwave. Not only do you save cooking time, you also save thinking time. I don’t know about you, but thinking about what to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner always takes up far more of my time than it should!
Saves money
When you decide what to eat for lunch and dinner as you go through the week, you end up heading to the supermarket every couple of days, which increases your chance of spending money on things you don’t really need. But when you make a plan of what you will eat for each meal for the entire week, you can do one shop where you buy only what you need for those particular meals. You will end up with far less unnecessary items, and more money in your wallet!
Keeps you healthy with portion control and planning
Meal prepping is all about packing away single servings of food for each meal. Therefore, you only make enough for a certain number of portions, with no leftovers. I’m sure you can sympathize with me when I say that leftovers are my absolute downfall! When I don’t prep my meals, I end up eating far larger portions than I need, because it’s right there in front of me! When you go to eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner, all you have to eat is the single portion you have made, nothing more.
Of course, this does mean you need to prepare sensible portion sizes in the first place, which I have aimed to provide in these recipes. You can adjust the ingredient quantities to suit your personal portion-size preference for your BMI, calorie requirements and activity levels.
Helps you to reach your goals
Quite simply, prepping your meals helps you to remain in control of your eating habits in order to reach your weight loss and health-related goals. You can assess the calories and macros for each recipe and make sure they fit with your weight loss eating plan, so you know that each meal you enjoy is going to help you get to where you want to be.
Gives you some “you time”!
This works two ways! One: the actual meal-prepping process gives you some time for yourself to quietly potter away and enjoy being in the kitchen, with busy hands and lots of creating to do. Two: you will have so much more time to yourself (and for your loved ones) throughout the week when you would usually be rushing around trying to prepare meals from scratch.