The more prepared you are, the more likely you are to choose healthy, whole foods. When you know ahead of time what you will be preparing, you won't go for the convenience foods. You have the opportunity to purposely choose the best foods possible to fuel your body! It is all too easy to whip out a frozen pizza when plans fall through or you had a rough day. But if the plan is made and you already have some food prepped ahead of time it doesn't matter if you are exhausted beyond belief and just want to collapse on the couch. The work has already been done and you just need 15 minutes to get a healthy meal on the table for your family. A plan of attack is essential when getting serious about your health!
Does it actually save you time?
Yes it does!! When you invest your time to sit and make out a meal plan (even if it takes you a long time at first like it did for me) you will be saving yourself so much time down the road. Think about the amount of time that you spend figuring out what to eat and what to prepare for your family each day. Is it a lot? If it doesn't take you much time, is that because you choose easy and convenient food that probably isn't very healthy? Meal planning really is an investment. And besides, once you've done a few it gets much easier!
Finding the time to prepare your food in advance may seem daunting if you have a busy life (like most people I know)! However, all it really takes is an hour or two. Have your meal plan made and decide ahead of time what you will be making. Get some help with the children or block out a little bit of time on your weekend and I promise, you won't regret it!
How do you meal prep?
I use three different methods of meal prep.
1) I cook certain meats in bulk to use in different dishes.
1) I cook certain meats in bulk to use in different dishes.
- Chicken- a whole chicken in the crock pot or in the oven, or a package of 6-7 chicken breasts in the crock pot that I shred with a hand mixer
- One night I like to use some to just eat plain with sweet potatoes or rice and another vegetable
- Soup- use the broth that you get from cooking your chicken in the crockpot to make delicious chicken noodle soup! Use whole wheat noodles or brown rice
- Tacos/fajitas- we love us some chicken tacos in this house! Use homemade taco seasoning (omit the salt if on the 21 Day Fix) on your chicken and either use a whole grain tortilla or make a taco salad with home made tortilla chips
- Spaghetti- I heat the chicken chunks in a little bit of olive oil and season with garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. I let this brown a little bit and it tastes great served with spaghetti in the place of ground beef
- Stir fry- I heat up the chicken in the same way I do for the spaghetti. For vegetables I use bags of frozen stir fry vegetables for convenience. Just watch the salt! Pre-seasoned bags have a lot of salt as does soy sauce so I tend to just avoid this meal while on the 21 Day Fix but it is definitely one of my favorite quick go-to meals for busy days.
- Salad- I just throw some chicken into my pre-made salad and voila! Sometimes I add some Mrs. Dash seasoning for a little extra spice. :-)
- Ground turkey or ground beef
- Tacos- see chicken tacos above
- Spaghetti
- Chili
- Eggs- some people (like my dear husband) do not approve of reheated eggs but I think they are just fine!!
- Scrambled- cook up a big batch and just get out a serving for each meal that you have planned
- Egg burritos- add veggies, meat, salsa, or cheese and wrap it in a healthy tortilla like these:
2) I also cut and prepare vegetables for salad and snacks. Having one big salad that I can take portions from throughout the week has been an incredible help! I find it cheaper to buy certain elements of the salad on their own and add them to it rather than buying those bags of ready made salad. Its a little more work but not bad! For you Roanoke Kroger shoppers, the large boxes of 50/50 Organic spring mix/spinach is a great price! We shred a bunch of carrots and either keep them in a separate bowl or combine it with the salad. I cut up and measure out celery, carrots, and cucumbers then put them in individual baggies to take out when I need a snack. Sometimes I also boil eggs to keep in the fridge for an easy protein snack.
3) Lastly, I prepare entire lunches/snacks in portioned containers. This doesn't happen as often as I would like because it is more time consuming than the other methods of food prep but when I do get around to it, it saves me SO MUCH TIME AND ENERGY in the long run! The joy of just grabbing a bowl from the fridge with a ready made meal and just popping it in the microwave far outweighs any of the annoyance of the time that goes into preparing it! And really, even though it is a touch more time consuming, it really doesn't take that much time! It's also one of those tasks that can easily be left for some time while tending to outbursts from children or spilled milk all over the couch or a baby who has thwarted your baby gate and is headed up the stairs. It is so worth it to make the time! I found these great bowls on Amazon for a decent price during the Cyber Monday sales.
Should I plan for part of my meals or all of them?
I personally used to only plan suppers because everything else seemed self-explanatory and easy. But when I started the 21 Day Fix I realized that I needed help to make sure that I was eating all of my containers. I very quickly came to the conclusion that planning out everything that I ate was the way to go!! It took the guesswork out and ensured that everything was healthy. After finishing my week-long plan I go grocery shopping to get the items I need. I stick to the list and this also helps me save money because I know exactly what I am getting.
I made my meal plan and I prepared some food, now what?
Now rest in knowing that you can focus on other important things throughout your week. Whether you are trying to lose weight or you are just busy with no time to prepare healthy meals, investing in your time for a few hours one day in order to relieve some stress later in the week is definitely worth it!!
21 Day Fix Tip: Use the same meal plan for all three weeks that you are on the fix! It makes shopping easier and you only have to plan once!!
I would love to update this post with real questions from my readers so if you have any, please feel free to ask and I'll update this. :-) Happy planning!!
I would love to update this post with real questions from my readers so if you have any, please feel free to ask and I'll update this. :-) Happy planning!!
