Meal Prep 101: It’s Much Simpler Than You Think

Want to know a secret? The key to achieving your health goals doesn’t come down to how hard you work. Shocked? I’ve been a dietitian for 7 years and this even shocked me! The key to achieving your health goals is setting up an environment that supports what you want to achieve!

I have many clients who are ready to eat healthier, and want to try meal prep as a way to support their goals. They want to buy all the veggies, lean protein, and fancy water bottles they can find. The truth is, once they have it all in place, they aren’t exactly sure what to do with it. Their environment isn’t supporting their goals. 

I listed out a complete system to help you meal plan and prep without feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or confused! Read on to learn more!

Step One: Create A Supportive Environment

If you have a goal of eating more vegetables, but you don’t have any in the house, how are you going to achieve that goal? It’s the same thing when clients want to eat less sugar, but it’s the first thing they see in their pantry when they look for an afternoon snack. If your environment doesn’t support your goal, you’ll blame your “willpower” when you don’t succeed at your goal. 

The truth is, we are all humans, and willpower isn’t something any of us can actually overcome. However, we can set our environment up to support our goals and create new habits that will retrain our brains and help us see desired results!

So, the first step is to set your environment up to support your meal prep goals. Purchase some fun new tupperware and utensils so meal prep actually becomes a fun task! My favorite meal prep support tools include mason jars, bento boxes, decorative cutting boards and knives, and glass tupperware.

Step Two: Carve Out Time

Just like anything, if you don’t make time for it, it won’t make time for itself. Take a look at your schedule and see which days would work best most of the time to plan meals, shop, and prep. Once you have an idea of when you want to add this into your week (or month depending on how often you shop), write it on the calendar and block it off as busy time!

Step Three: Make Your List

Here’s the fun part: the actual planning piece. My recommendation is to start by prepping one new recipe. Just one. Why just one? Because if you start off with five new recipes, you’re likely to become overwhelmed in the first week. So start slow and start with just one recipe or meal. 

I also recommend meal prepping for just one meal at a time, until you get the hang of it. Many people want to meal prep their breakfast, lunch, dinners, and snacks but often find it overwhelming, thus they quit. Don’t do this. Start with one recipe for one meal.

For example, if you’re meal prepping so you can spend more time with your family and less time in the kitchen for dinner, meal prep just one dinner recipe. Then slowly build to two, three, and so on until you reach a desired meal prep, then extend into lunch or breakfast if desired!

Step Four: Meal Plan & Shop

Now that you have all the materials needed, time blocked off on your calendar, a list of the meals you’d like to prep, it’s time to write out your meal plan and grocery list, then head to the store!

If you’re new to meal planning, read this article and start simple! You don’t need to have every single day planned out, a simple list of meals for the week will do. Scan your meals and list out the ingredients you need (plus the extras like TP or diapers!) then head to the store.

Step Five: Execute!

Keep notes of your favorite meals that were easy to prep – it’s okay to prep the same meals! Make this easy on yourself. If it’s easy, you’ll keep doing it. If it’s too hard, you’ll stop. If you truly want to make meal prep a part of your life, start small and simple, then build from there!

Want A FREE Guide To Support Your Goals?

You CAN make meal prep a part of your life. It’s not a matter of “laziness” or “willpower” but a matter of making it easy, attainable, and realistic for you to achieve. 

I have good news for you…if you want more support on this journey to meal prep, opt-in to my email list below and receive a FREE 1-week meal plan and meal prep instructions. It’ll give you a blueprint to work with and take more anxiety and overwhelm out of the equation! Try prepping one recipe idea and see how it goes, then build up to prepping the entire plan!

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