How To Start Meal Prepping

Save time and money!

It is time to become smarter about our decisions when it comes to putting fuel into your body! We have all heard about meal prepping and it can be an intimidating thing if you have never done it. Once I started meal prepping, I saved lots of time & MOOLAH. 

There are so many resources out there that can help you with meal prepping, but I am going to tell you what I know from trial and error. When we have a lot going on in life it can be hard to make the right meal choices, and honestly, we all have a lot going on; so I am here to help!

How do I get started?

Please remember to not overwhelm yourself or overthink things, you are new to this and that's okay! Starting out, you should try to meal prep with recipes that you already know versus learning new ones to keep from getting overwhelmed. 

Schedule it!

Pick a day to make all of your meals. The reality of this is, if you never pick a day to do this, then it's probably never going to happen. “Tomorrow” usually becomes “never”, so set a time and put it in the calendar to meal prep because this will save you lots of time later on in the week. In the beginning, you may want to only prep meals for 3 days instead of a full week in order to get used to it. 

Pick meals!

Are you going to make breakfast, lunch, or dinner? After you decide this, you should think about what recipes you would like to make. Think about how you would like to balance your foods. If you are tracking calories or macronutrients, this is something you should take into account when meal prepping. For reference:

1g of Protein = 4 Calories

1g of Carbohydrates = 4 Calories

1g of Fat = 9 Calories

Storage!

It seems silly that what you store your food in can matter so much, but honestly, storage matters. You should want a container that divides your food and does not cross-contaminate. It should be durable and for me it is helpful if it is dishwasher safe. It should also be airtight. It is important to have containers that are BPA free. Simply, you want convenient containers that can be microwaved, froze, reused, stacked, etc. 

Start off simple. The go-to meal is chicken and veggies for me! EXTREMELY simple. Fruit is a great way to dive into meal prepping because it can be cut and stored for a week no problem. I often use my crockpot or pressure cooker to make things as well. 

That's all!

So, you should be an expert now, right? That's what I thought! As always, if you have any questions about meal prepping, or anything at all, feel free to contact me! Contact information can be found at cmorrfitness.com 

Much Love, 

Colette Morris