Just think about all the time you’d save each day not constantly having to find recipes, buy groceries, wash, chop and cook ingredients, and clean up a messy kitchen. Nirvana, right?
The solution you’re seeking is simple: meal prep. Instead of going through the grueling daily routine listed above, welcome into your life the art of planning and preparing some or all of your meals in advance. This could mean making your lunch the night before, cooking in batch, or precooking all your food and portioning it out for the week in grab-and-go containers or just going online, to mypromeals.com and have deliver all your healthy food in your doorway.
The beauty of meal prep is that it can adapt to fit your cooking expertise, lifestyle and personal dietary needs.
“Meal prep is like creating your very own microwaveable meals tailored to your exact preferences,” says Gabrielle Fundaro, Ph.D., exercise science professor, certified sport nutritionist and Renaissance Periodization coach.
1. Total Control.
When you are planning what to eat in advance, you get to be a total control freak (in a good way). You gain complete calorie control and macro balance, and you limit usage of unwanted ingredients like added sugar, salt and fats. You are also ensuring you get the best-quality options and more fresh ingredients because you are selecting them yourself.
2. Temptation Removal.
Ever been hit with hunger and have nothing on hand to eat? Yeah, that probably happens on the daily. And perhaps the only thing nearby is fast food or that leftover birthday cake your co-worker brought into the office. Meal prepping ensures you always have options that fit your dietary needs because you’ve planned in advance and brought your own food (or have something easy to grab from the fridge if you get a case of the munchies while watching TV). This makes sticking to your diet significantly easier.
3. Timesaver.
When done properly, meal prepping can save quite a bit of time. Whether you cook all your meals for the week or place an order at MyPromeals and its delivered on Sunday, when you get home after a long day, you’ll be thankful you don’t have to take the time to go to the store or perhaps even cook. This may leave you with more time to work out, play with your kids or even enjoy a guilt-free bubble bath because you deserve it.
4. Hunger Manager.
Meal prepping also helps you manage hunger because you are able to eat as soon as you feel hungry rather than having to wait to decide and then find a food source. Managing hunger often means you won’t overeat when you finally sit down for a meal because you won’t be as insanely famished.
5. Money Saver.
Pricing out your food in advance is another piece of the meal-prep equation, which means your portion control now has cost control. You are likely saving money ordering online all your meals of the week, not needing to go to the store for things you forgot, returning home, with what you forgot and a lot more.