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If you want to hit your health and nutritional goals, it’s important to plan and invest enough time into meal prep so that you’re never in a situation where you can’t have the food you’re supposed to have. Meal prep is the key to weight loss and muscle building, and it is commonly used by bodybuilders, powerlifters, athletes, and dieticians alike and gives great results. In this article we will go through 5 do’s and don’t of meal prepping to follow for success.
Do’s:
Plan your meals
Planning your meals should be the first action of every week. When prepping meals, you should cover enough ground to make sure you’re completely covered for the whole week. Consider the number of meals you’ll need to prepare in the next week. Identify the dishes you want to have, and, having their recipes by your side, make a grocery list containing all the things you’ll need to get. This is an effective way to ensure no unpleasant complications in the coming days.
Include variety
When you’re planning your meal schedule to ensure success, add enough different recipes and meals to keep things fresh. Treat yourself once in a while, and spend extra to get healthy, delicious meals made in restaurants by professionals. Make sure you’re not eating the same kinds of dishes and meats every day, as this can result in a feeling of monotony. Avoid monotony at all costs, since it can cause you to give up on your diet plans.
Invest in Quality Containers
Containers will be your best friend while you’re pursuing meal prep. They allow you to cook food in batches and can store both entire meals in the fridge or freezer or just ingredients that you’ll need for the next few days. Invest in strong, sturdy, quality containers that seal properly and withstand extreme temperatures. Clean these containers out regularly. You shouldn’t try to save money by getting cheaper containers because this will only spoil your food and complicate things in the long run.
Cook in batches
Cooking in batches, such as on the weekend, is a great way to manage your schedule and ensure you’re covered for the whole week. This goes hand in hand with labeling your meals and planning them out. Cook in batches as often as possible before running out of meals. Keep them in your high-quality containers and freeze them, ensuring they are all within the next few days. You’ll have a series of tasty and wholesome meals ready on demand, and you won’t have to do anything but reheat them.
Label your meals
When you’re storing your meals, you’ll often find that you’re not sure what one container has in it or when it was stored in the first place. This is why labeling meals is important. The contents of the container and the date it was put in should be clear on the cover. This way, you can tell if the food you’ve put in has been sitting there for too long and whether or not it’s gone bad.
Don’ts:
Neglecting Food safety
During your meal prep journey, you’ll be working with a lot of food, especially perishable items. Pay attention to both the quality of your ingredients and the appropriate ways to store them. If you’re freezing meals, make sure your food has not been left out too long and that any canned or bottled items used have not expired. Though it seems obvious, meal preppers often experience burnout and neglect these decisions to cut corners.
Don’t Overcomplicate recipes
If you’re starting to cook regularly for the first time, using complicated recipes to make healthy restaurant-quality food can be tempting. However, this requires a lot of time investment and usually requires several high-quality ingredients, so you’ll have to clear your pantry to make it. The time, money, and ingredients spent on making these complicated recipes aren’t worth it for professionals and people working on a schedule who need easy and simple foods for their diet.
Don’t Neglect snacks
When meal prepping, many assume they’ll cut snacks out entirely. However, this is usually not the case. Many people, in moments of weakness, decide to go for a quick snack when they’re very hungry or just sitting idle. This practice can ruin the benefits of your otherwise solid meal prep. To prevent or mitigate this, keep some healthy snacks in your home, like baby carrots, corn, and dried fruit. You’ll be able to snack without adding unhealthy things to your diet.
Don’t Be too rigid
Despite your best efforts and meal prep, there will be times when a busy schedule or prior commitments come in the way of your diet. You should be flexible and allow yourself to have an off day, or a cheat meal, without feeling bad about it. Alternatively, you can use the help of some companies that offer meal prep services to cover the gaps in your schedule.
Don’t Give up
If you do it right, your meal prepping journey will last for years. Integrating it into your life will reap rewards decades from now. However, sooner or later, things will get tough and you won’t be able to maintain your eating schedule as you could before. In times like these, it’s important to remember to not give up on your ambitions. Even if you can’t follow your plan through all the way, the few meals and guidelines you do follow will be beneficial in the long run, and you’ll be more motivated to devote yourself to it.
Conclusion
Meal prep, when done right, can totally change your lifestyle and your overall health. Planning and ensuring you’re giving your body everything it needs is enough to make you feel fresh and better prepared for whatever life throws at you. However, if done wrong, it can be difficult to manage or even damaging to your overall health, not to mention the time you’ll waste trying to catch up. However, if you use the advice in this article, you should be ready to begin your fitness journey.
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Courtesy : https://www.stephilareine.com/2023/07/5-dos-and-donts-of-meal-prepping-to-follow-for-success.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-dos-and-donts-of-meal-prepping-to-follow-for-success