70% of successful weight loss and body re-composition starts with what we eat. Getting to the gym is easy comparable to organizing a complete “meal prep” situation. Many steps are involved and come Sunday, I am drained out and in major need of 16 hours of sleep. I feel like my whole life revolves around my meal prep schedule. As a bodybuilder, there is no offseason and making eating easy is crucial to reaching body aesthetic goals. To master the lifestyle, I knew I had to learn and develop skills to make meal prep easy, fun, affordable and time saving. I picked up a couple habits along the way and now, I want to help you bring your meal prep game to the next level!
- Ignore the Coupons! It’s easy to want to glance at coupons and look for the deals, it’s important (especially when on a budget) but I can assure you that most of the time coupons are for packaged or processed food options. Ignore the coupons and get what you need like whole grain, vegetables, fruits and preferred protein sources. When I buy what I absolutely need rather than what “sounds good”, I find myself rarely, if ever, wasting food (it’s a win-win!). When you eat all you buy, you aren’t throwing your money away.
- Protein 101: Convenience. Protein usually takes the longest cook, rather than vegetables or rice, pasta, etc. Two easy habits to save major minutes spent in the kitchen I’ve learned is to cook my protein first. Once I throw my meat on the grill, I can bounce around the kitchen to cook my vegetables. It saves time rather than cooking one item at a time! When finished, I always slice my chicken breast in large quantities so I can easily measure it out when I need to throw it in the Tupperware.
- Clean Up Your Fridge! I wake up at 6:30am every morning. I am obviously half dead (yes, I am a self-taught morning person) so when I grab my meals from the fridge in the morning, I make sure I grab everything I need. Keeping my fridge organized is crucial. I know exactly which part of the fridge everything is at. Organized fridges make for happy families, too.
Don’t forget to have fun too! After all, you are making one of the best decisions you could for yourself which is putting your health and yourself first! I always throw on some Future or Drake when I meal prep to keep me focused and task oriented! (I may drop it low by the sink and the grill, you will never know…)
If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. Setting yourself up right for the whole week is the ultimate key to success! Do something for yourself and start meal prepping. Trust me, you won’t regret it and your future self will thank you!
