MEAL PLAN AND PREP – TOP TIPS

By Lucy-Jo Tostevin

When you want to maintain healthy eating habits the key is to plan and prepare. It can be really useful to plan out meals you will be having each week (or month if you prefer) and write down a shopping list for that plan.

You can find weekly meal plan templates via Google search, or make your own.

If you are lacking inspiration look through cookbooks, search online for new recipes and pick a few of your favourites. This can make planning a bit more fun – try out one new recipe each week to get more variety.

Planning ahead can help to save money and time too. Win, win!

Save further time by doing an online shop and getting it delivered. Most online shops allow you to save your shopping basket list too, saving even more time when you next plan as all the items/staples will be saved ready to order.

MEAL PREP

Once you have your shopping you can start on the prep. We all lead busy and hectic lives so having your meals and snacks prepared can be a life saver. It can also help you stay on track with eating well, particularly if you have early starts or commute for work as it isn’t always easy to get healthy and nutrient dense food options on the go.

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN MEAL PREPPING

Pick a day ahead of time

Choose a day of the week where you will have a few hours free to do your preparation; make sure you choose the day ahead of time so that you can get the food and meal plan ready beforehand.

Sunday is a popular day of choice but just make sure the day you choose works best for you and your schedule.

Know your numbers

Know how many people you are cooking for and how much you are planning to cook. A great way to make prep easier is to cook double of most meals so that you have food for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day. This will also help with portion control and reduce the risk of food wastage.

Simplify

Don’t over complicate or try cooking recipes that are time consuming or have lots of ingredients; you want to minimise the amount of time you spend in the kitchen. Once you have meal prepped a couple of times you will find which meals are the easiest and work best for you. This is especially key if you are tracking food/macros.

Cook in bulk

Cook in bulk to save time. This is useful if you want food for packed lunches or if you have young children. Things like stews, pies, bolognese, chicken etc are all great to cook in bulk – just make sure your cook enough to make several meals and then divide everything up into storage containers and freeze or refrigerate.

BENEFITS OF MEAL PLANNING/PREPARATION

Save Money

People often say that eating well is expensive but it doesn’t have to be; you can eat healthy home prepared meals even on a budget. Meal planning and prep helps to save money as you can buy everything in one main shop, rather than do lots of smaller more expensive shops.

Preparing lunches for work also saves money. Whenever I’m not prepared and have to buy food for work on the day I can easily spend between £15-£20. Doing this everyday quickly adds up!

Portion control and less wastage

If you have a specific weight-loss goal, meal prep enables you to portion control easily. Work out how much you need to be eating for each meal and then divide the food into containers.

Prep also means you only have to spend one day a week working it all out and doing the hard graft, not weighing out and portion controlling every single meal.

Easy and can reduce stress

Meal planning and prep makes life easier because you don’t have to worry all week about what you will be eating at each meal. If you are busy with work, family, exercise etc it makes each day less stressful as the food has already been taken care of.

You can cook easy and simple meals and bulk cook/prepare food that lasts all week, such as one pan frittatas for lunch or boiling up lots of eggs and preparing lots of raw veggies that can be stored in the fridge for snacks.

Helps you meet your health/fitness goals – keeps you on track

The biggest reason most people make poor food choices or ‘cheat’ is because they haven’t had the right foods to hand. When you are prepared and have lots of delicious meals and snacks available you are much less likely to eat unhealthy treats or pre-packed sandwiches.

That’s how you should think of it when you are preparing and planning your meals; it might seem like a lot of work in one go but doing it will help you meet your health and fitness goals and keep you on track.

FALL BACK OPTIONS & EATING ON-THE-GO

It’s important to be prepared but there will be times when you are too busy to plan ahead – you get home and the fridge is empty!

Here are a few high-street lunch meal suggestions:

• Pret a Manger – Pret do great salad boxes, soups, porridges and even mini chia puddings
• M&S – you can find lots of nice salads and on-the-go food options in M&S. They also have apple and nut butter snack pots along with fruit salads and cold pressed juices
• Any supermarket – If you have cooking facilities at work theyn why not buy a sweet potato and have it with tuna, ham and lots of salad greens/tomatoes etc. You could also get fresh fruit, nuts and every supermarket stocks protein bars – or buy them from reception at Halo!

SNACK IDEAS

• Fruit
• Boiled eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Raw veggies
• Protein bars (occasionally) – such as grenade or barebells
• Trail mix