Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution? One of the most common New Year’s resolutions that people make is to become healthier. This can mean losing weight, eating healthier, or gaining muscle. Prepping healthy meals can help accomplish these goals. Prepping in advance can also help save time throughout your weekly schedule, eliminate unnecessary spending on food, and eliminating food waste. Here are a few healthy meal prepping tricks for the new year.
Add Meal Prepping to Your Weekly Schedule
Set aside an hour each week, aside from grocery shopping to meal prep for the upcoming week. Most people plan this time on Saturday or Sunday when they have extra time in their schedule before the upcoming school or work week. Use this time to wash and cut up produce, cook proteins, and package your meals in meal prep containers.
Add Variety to Your Protein
One of the best tricks for healthy meal prepping is to build your week of meals around one protein. Cook your protein in bulk such as chicken or pork in a slow cooker or oven. Then, add seasoning and different vegetables and sides to make each meal different. This will ensure you don’t get tired of the same boring meal every day. It will also save you time from cooking multiple kinds of meat.
Store Meal Prep in the Freezer
If you know you have a week coming up when you will be extra busy or unable to set aside the time for healthy meal prepping, using the freezer is a great idea. You can spend a little extra time one day to batch prepare your meals in bulk and stock them in your freezer. This way you have extra for a time when you need them.
Use the Right Containers
Healthy meal prepping is so much easier when you have the right containers. Typically, Tupperware containers with dividers are the best for meal prepping. They help with portion control and adding variety to your meals. Make sure the containers you use are microwave friendly, freezer friendly, and dishwasher friendly to make things easier.