This article is all about meal prepping and how you can use it to keep your fitness goals on track, especially your nutrition goals. Here are some healthy meal prep tips for beginners.
Why Meal Prep
Making healthy changes in your life is no easy task. Whether in the kitchen or in the gym, it requires consistency and dedication.
Often people’s diets can be the biggest roadblock to overcome when trying to get healthier and look better. It is usually the diet that goes out the window first or is the major contributor to slow or no progress. That’s why any hack or leg up in this department can be the difference between making strides towards a healthier life or staying the same.
Meal prepping is not just a good tool to help you keep your diet on track, it is essential to keeping your nutrition in check and avoiding those delicious temptations.
Benefits of Meal Prepping
The benefits of preparing your own meals before you need them goes beyond just health and fitness goals. The benefits include:
- You know exactly what you are eating – When you make your own meals, you know the ingredients and you know what you are getting. If you eat out or buy premade frozen meals, you have no idea what’s in it and half the time you need a degree in chemistry to understand the ingredient list on the package.
- Portion size – By putting together your meal, you know exactly how much of everything you are getting and can divvy out the portions according to your goal. For example if you are cutting, you can up your protein portion and drop the carb portion. You don’t have control of this when eating out.
- Saves Money – It should not come as a shock that buying your own groceries and assembling your own meals is far cheaper than eating out or buying expensive pre-packed meals.
- Saves Time – Even more important than saving money, you save time. It requires a time investment up front, but the convenience of being able to grab a healthy ready-to-go-meal throughout the week cannot be overstated. It is perfect for people with busy schedules.
- Helps to keep you away from tempting unhealthy food – Even the most dedicated of fitness enthusiasts are tempted by a nice warm pizza or morning doughnut from time to time. Having premade meals eliminates the need to “wing it” during meal time. Going out to eat, even with the intention of getting the healthy option, can be very challenging when you start reading the menu.
- Easily Trackable – Tracking your calories and macro nutrients is simple when you have meals ready made and know exactly what they contain.
Considerations Before Starting
Now that you understand the benefits of meal prepping, you will need to figure a few things out before you start cooking.
First, decide what your fitness goal is and prepare your meals to help you achieve them. Are you trying to lose fat or put on muscle? Calculate the daily calories you will need to achieve that goal and then figure out roughly how many calories you want to consume in each meal and snack throughout the day. Once you know this you will know approximately how much to pack into each meal container.
Next, decide which meals you want to prep. The options are completely open. You could prep every meal and snack of the day or just one. For someone just starting, I would recommend starting with one meal a day.
Choose the meal that is the hardest for you to prepare or the one that you are most likely to cheat on. For example, let’s say it is hard for you to pack a lunch in the morning. There are always food temptations at work and co-workers want to go out to eat. Meal prep your lunches at the beginning of the week so that you have a ready made option you can grab in the morning. It will also be easier to say no to those temptations if you have food with you and don’t need to try and find a lunch.
Some people need help with their snacks. If you get hungry during the day and don’t have anything with you, you will be far more likely to grab a bag of chips out of the vending machine than not eat at all.
So start by picking which meal you need ready-made the most, and as you get more efficient at meal prepping, add in other meals and snacks to save time and money.
How To Start Prepping
After you have decided which meals you want to prep it is time to start the process.
- Make a grocery list and stick to it. Having a list will help you avoid the unhealthy options.
- Set aside a day to do the shopping. Don’t Let Sunday night roll around and you still haven’t even gone to the grocery store yet. You will be far less likely to meal prep if you have no food to prepare.
- Pick a prepping time and stick to it. I like to do Sunday afternoons. Set a couple of hours aside to cook all of the food and sort it. It seems like a lot at the time but you will be glad you did during the week when you have all your meals ready to grab.
- Have your containers handy so that when the food is done you can start portioning it out right away.
- Have something to do while you wait. Whether it’s reading, doing some work, or starting the laundry, there will be some down time while the food is cooking so have something to do.
Easy Food List For Meal Prep
Below is a list of some great foods in each category that you should include with your meals. This is a good starting point to build your meal prep shopping list. Simply decide what foods you want out of each section and put your grocery list together.
| Protein | Carbohydrate | Fats | Vegetable | Fruit |
| Chicken Breast | Brown Rice | Olive oil | Broccoli | Banana |
| Salmon | Sweet Potato | Avocados | Kale | Apple |
| Tilapia | Beans (Black, Pinto, Garbanzo) | Coconut Oil | Brussel sprouts | Blueberries |
| Lean Turkey | Quinoa | Almonds | Zucchini | Raspberries |
| 90+% leans beef | Oats | Flaxseed | Green beans | Grapefruit |
| Shrimp | Beats | Peanut Butter | Peppers | Watermelon |
| Halibut | Butternut squash | Walnuts | Spinach | Cantelope |
| Tuna steaks or canned tuna | Whole grain pasta | Almond Milk | Asparagus | Pears |
| Wild game meat | Onions | Grapes | ||
| Eggs | Cucumbers |
This is of course just a starting point. There is plenty of good stuff in each category that I did not list here. If you are new to this and healthy eating in general, I would suggest starting here, with the basics, and then experimenting with other foods as you go. It is a safe assumption that any fruit or vegetable will be healthy, these are just some of my favorites and leave you with a lot of easy cooking options.
Start The Cooking
I’m sure you just ran out to the store after you read that section and picked up some of the stuff in the list. Now that you have your shopping done, let’s go over a few basic things that you can do to start your meal prepping.
Meal Prep For Breakfast
If you are short on time in the morning and want to have breakfast ready to grab, here are a few things you can prepare for the week.
- Hard boil a carton of eggs. These will be easy to grab and offer great protein and fat macronutrients.
- In a sealable glass bowl, combine oats, flaxseed and a little bit of honey on top. In the morning just add almond milk and microwave. You can also add some fresh berries once it is cooked for some added health benefits.
- For a protein boost, add a scoop of whey protein after it is microwaved and mix it together. It even helps add some flavor to the mix!
- Saute a bag of baby spinach with some sweet and/or hot peppers and drain them. Store the mix in a container to easily pull out and pair with eggs. Keep a day or two worth in the fridge and freeze the rest for later in the week.
- Get some yogurt and premix some toppings. Add nuts, fruit, dried coconut, or whey protein powder and simply mix in with the yogurt when you are ready to eat it!
Meal Prep For Lunch/Dinner
For lunch or dinner options simply prepare a protein source, carbohydrate source, and don’t forget a healthy portion of vegetables.
- Make your protein. There are almost countless options here as you get more experience. To start, stick with the classics. Bake, grill or pan fry chicken breast, lean beef, or a fish from the list above. You could also saute some shrimp.
- Prepare a can or two of beans for some fiber and a little protein boost.
- Create a vegetable medley and bake in the oven or saute after seasoning it to your liking. Combine broccoli, zucchini, onions, peppers, and green beans on a tray and cook in oven. You could also steam the veggies in a pan on the stove top.
- Another vegetable choice would be to cube sweet potatoes and halve brussel sprouts and put together in the oven on a tray drizzled with olive oil and any desired seasonings on a tray and cook in a 400C to 450C oven until done, 20 to 40 minutes depending on oven temperature
- There are some great salad options that include all sorts of great adders other than just plain old lettuce. Take a look of some of my favorites from around the web.
- https://www.freshfitkitchen.com/kale-apple-and-walnut-salad/ Lets be honest, kale is nasty plain, but great for you. This salad is a great way to enjoy it and get some healthy fats in as well.
- https://natashaskitchen.com/cucumber-tomato-avocado-salad/ No leafy greans in this one but still a great side dish or even a topping to some grilled chicken.
- https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/everyday-mediterranean-salad/ Amazingly healthy and filling. The chickpeas give it a nice fiber boost.
- In a rice cooker or on the stove, cook either brown rice or quinoa. Cook at least 2 cups worth if trying to last through the week.
You can cook these and store them in bulk or pre-pack them in containers so that all you have to do is grab and heat up when you are ready. Make a few options, cook a couple protein and carb sources that you can mix and match with the veggies to create some variety in your meal plan.
If you are going for fat loss, an ideal macronutrient breakdown would be 40% of your calories from protein, 30% from carbs, and 30% from fats. Try to portion out your meals to generally hit these targets.
Snacks
Mid meal munchies can be a killer. Rather than trying to just power through the cravings and be hungry, have some pre-made snacks to eat when the cravings strike.
- Cut up some various fruits and put together a fruit salad.
- Make up a protein shake. Add some whey protein, almond milk and frozen fruit or a banana into a cup and blend up in the morning to take with you.
- Cut up some celery, cucumbers, and red peppers. Eat with hummus or peanut butter.
- Make a protein bowl. Cut up a boiled egg, add some cheese cubes, and throw in half an avocado, and mix together.
All these snacks are easily portable and can be made well ahead of time with very little effort.
Sauce Boss
You might be thinking that these foods look pretty plain, because they are. Sauce and seasoning is key to spicing up your food and making it enjoyable, but it can also be the hidden downfall of your diet plan. Here are some good, healthy options for flavoring your food.
- Good seasoning goes a long way. Garlic powder, seasoning salt, steak seasoning, and red pepper flakes just to name a few. Spices are zero calories so add your favorites to your meals.
- Hot sauce. Most hot sauces have 0 to very few calories and are made up of mostly vinegar and spices.
- Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil. Mix the three together, about one part each. It is great on veggies (especially brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes) and fish.
- Soy sauce. Just don’t go overboard as it is high in sodium.
- Salsa. Read the label but most salsas are very low in calories.
- Hummus. Watch your portion size, but it is great for dipping
- Guacamole. Again watch the portions, but avocados are a great source of healthy fat.
Calorie Tracking Your Meals
I am a huge proponent of tracking calories. No matter what your goal is, it is essential. Meal prepping makes that easy. You know what is going in every meal and can record the calories for each ingredient. Once you know the individual ingredients information you can add them together to get the calories and macros for the whole meal.
If you are using an app like MyFitnessPal, you can actually add a meal by adding the ingredients together. Everytime you eat it during the week you can just re-add that meal to your list instead of re-adding each ingredient.
I also recommend getting a decent food scale and set of measuring cups to weigh out your food and know your exact portion size. Guessing portion size can be a major factor of stagnating weight loss progress, because it is very easy to go overboard on the serving sizes.
Storage Of Prepared Meals
Generally if you are preparing food for a week, you don’t want to cook it the friday beforehand. It will just end up sitting too long and get bad. Try to prepare the food as close as possible to when you will be eating it.
Once it is cooked and packed, leave two days worth in the fridge and freeze the rest. Move the meals from the freezer to the refrigerator as they are needed. Be sure to take them out the night or even day before though so that you don’t have a frozen lunch.
Wrap Up
To wrap it all up, meal prepping is a great way to keep your nutrition on track and help you accomplish your fitness goals. It will help you avoid temptation, save time, save money, and makes tracking your calories and nutrients easy and efficient.
Start basic, use the list that I prepared above, select foods you like from each category, and create a shopping list. Prepare the meals by using a protein, fat, and carbohydrates and don’t forget to add plenty of veggies. Measure the portions out and pack in a good container. Store them in the fridge and freezer until you need them.
Give meal prepping a try if you are having trouble sticking to a healthy eating plan, and it should help you make huge strides towards your fitness goals.
As always, please comment and share any of your own meal prepping tips and advice!
Thanks for reading!
