Meal & Food Portioning Is A Key To Weight Loss
Ever wonder what it would be like to open your fridge to find a full week of healthy, delicious food that’s prepped and ready to be eaten? Sure would make sticking with your diet and achieving fat loss a lot easier…
Meal prep is a fantastic way to keep on track with your eating throughout the entire week.
The idea is to plan out all of your meals on the weekend, most often on Sunday, then do the shopping and the prep at one time for the entire week. This day is labor intensive, but then your food is ready-to-eat for the next 6 full days.
It’s no secret that the most dedicated fitness enthusiasts partake in the world of meal prepping, and many confess that this is the secret weapon behind their jaw-dropping body transformations. Meal prep is without a doubt one of the most reliable ways to consistently shed pounds, week after week.
What is meal prep? It is a method of batch cooking your meals once or twice a week, portioning meals into Tupperware and stacking it all conveniently in your fridge. Every meal and snack is pre-planned, pre-packed, and ready to be eaten on-the-go.
This method works for delivering major fat loss results for a multitude of reasons:
- It eliminates mindless eating.
- It ensures that every bite is approved.
- It controls calorie and nutritional counts.
- It plans when the nutrients will be consumed.
In other words, every single factor is taken into consideration to produce optimal levels of fat burning and muscle toning. If results slow or reverse in a given week then the plan is reevaluated and tweaked until progress resumes.
Here’s my 7 Step Meal Prep Guide to make your next food prep week really simple…
Meal Prep Step #1: Planning
Get out your notebook and pen or pull up a blank note page on your iPad, it’s time to start planning for the week. Here are the questions that you’ll need to answer:
1. How many meals do I need each day?
- Check your calendar for special events
- Consider your appetite throughout the day
- Look at each day separately
2. How many servings do I need for each meal?
- Consider who in the family needs which meals
- Check the calendar for guests or visitors
- Look at each day separately
Meal Prep Step #2: Recipes
Now it’s time to translate those meals + servings into actual recipes. Take a moment to consider the produce that is in season and any special requests or food allergies.
After you’ve crossed some of your food requirements off due to the convenience of your local deli or supermarket, it’s time to make a list of the items left to make. Find simple, wholesome recipes that will fill in the remaining gaps in your meal prep meals. Make a list of all the ingredients needed to make the recipes. Recipes like:
- Sautéed Veggies
- Slow Cooker Lean Beef
- Slow Cooker Chicken
- Baked Sweet Potato
- Rolled Oats
- Baked Fish (see recipe below)
- Egg Muffins
- Hard Boiled Eggs
1. Find your recipes
- Browse around on your favorite recipe site
- Pull out your favorite cookbooks
- Find your family favorite recipes
2. Focus on a core group of ingredients
- Plan recipes that use similar ingredients
3. Calculate leftover meals
- Making enough of some recipes for leftover meals saves time
4. Make your list
- Narrow down to the exact list of recipes
Meal Prep Step #3: Grocery List
Take your list of recipes and create a grocery list. A few things to keep in mind…
1. Pay attention to recipes that you’ll double or triple
- Make sure to include all ingredients in your list
2. Organize your list into these convenient sections:
- Meat/Seafood/Egg
- Organic Produce
- Herbs/Flavors
- Pantry Items
3. Check your pantry for items that you already have
- Save money by avoiding double purchases
Meal Prep Step #4: Shopping
It’s time to head to the grocery store! Take your list and, if you’re lucky, a helper down to your local market and go through each section item by item.
Find Pre-Made Options
Let’s be honest, even if you love spending time in the kitchen, it’s not practical to expect that you will make every component of your meal prep meals from scratch at home. This is where having a great deli in your local supermarket or having a couple of restaurants nearby to pick up some of your meal list from will make a huge time saving difference in your meal prep experience. Look for these:
- Roasted Chicken, Turkey or Pork
- Cooked Brown Rice
- Steamed Veggies
Meal Prep Step #5: Food Prep
You have options when it comes to the actual prep of each of your meals. Many you’ll be able to fully make right away and pack in the fridge. Other recipes you’ll want to simply do the chopping, measuring and organizing in order to make the meal hot and quick before you plan to eat it.
Which recipes should you fully cook in advance? The truth is that this is really up to you and your schedule. Here’s a good game plan if you don’t want to fully cook everything on Sunday:
- Fully make the baked goods for the week.
- Chop all vegetables.
- Gather all seasonings.
- Fully cook Monday’s dinner.
Meal Prep Step #6: Measure and Pack Your Meals
It’s time to create your daily meals assembly line! Line up your containers, pull out your food scale and find your measuring cups. Weigh, measure, and season each meal before stacking and placing in the fridge. You may find it helpful to group a day of meals together, in the order that you will eat them.
Meal Prep Step #7: Grab-N-Go
This may be the easiest step, in meal prep success, but it is the most important.
Remember to grab your meals at the start of your day and to pack with plenty of cold packs. If you fail to bring your meals with you then you won’t reap the benefit of all that effort that you put into creating the meals. A plastic fork and a stack of napkins is also good to remember!
Conclusion
There you have it, a comprehensive guide to making meal prep happen!
Getting into the habit of prepping your meals for the week is a surefire way to accelerate your fat loss results. It’s my goal to help people, just like you, conquer their fear of exercise and clear up their confusion with healthy eating. I know that a healthy life is within your reach – I’ve seen dozens of my clients before you do it, and I’ll see dozenss after you do it. Today it’s your turn.
If you would like more assistance with your specific meal plan creation, or if you would like to join my results driven fitness program, then feel free to reach out to me now over email or phone. Call or email now to get started on an exercise program that will make fat burning second nature, and will transform your body for the best.
