Meal preparation, commonly known as “Meal Prep” is the process of planning and preparing meals.
There are actually a few benefits of meal prep when trying to lose weight and I will share with you how “meal prep” has helped me tremendously along my weight loss journey.
Done with your goal in mind, meal prep won’t ever be a daunting task but rather a fun moment.
As a matter of fact, meal prep doesn’t require complicated tools, cookbooks or planning.
For me, it was just a handy approach that I used to make healthy and delicious homemade foods for my weight loss.
Prepping your meals will psychologically affect your mindset, (in a positive way of course), and you won’t be tempted to resort to unexpected foods that can alter your weight loss. We’ll talk about this later!
The containers from Freshware are cheap and of good quality.
How Long Do Meal Preps Last?
Most meal prep meals will last between 3-5 days in the fridge of course.
They are foods that naturally have a longer-lasting life in the fridge and you can use that to your advantage if you want to meal prep a week in advance.
In fact, you can meal prep almost everything.
But the only downside is that in the fridge certain foods can soften while others can harden slightly but they can get back to normal at room temperature.
So, the day you’ll have one of your meals, get it out of the fridge and let it sit for at least 30 mins so it can get back to its original state.
But now, it’s up to you to decide which type of food you’ll want to meal prep.
If you have a super-delicate palate and don’t want the feel of a not-so-crunchy piece of meat, for e.x, then you can choose not to keep it stored for too long.
Benefits of Meal Prep
#1 – Portion Control
While dieting, it’s important to control the portions of food you eat every time you have your meal. Prepping your meals is the best way to do it, besides using a scale.
As you’ll be dividing your meals into separate containers, this won’t allow you to add up more.
Doing this, you’ll be able to control your portions and as a result, eat the right amount of food you should be eating.
So many people have asked me, “Will meal prepping help lose weight?” My answer is YES, absolutely!
My experience: Thanks to meal prep, I have never gained a single kilo during my weight loss because meal prep enabled me to control my portions.
#2 – No Risk Of Temptations
The first stage of dieting can be very hard.
Yes, there are drastic diets in this world I don’t know why? But with healthy diets, you’ll learn to eat healthier and less.
So, after you’ve prepped your meals, there’s little chance for you to resort to an unexpected food or craving.
I mean, you know that you already have your food waiting for you. So, no risk of being tempted to go to KFC 😉
My experience: Knowing that I had healthy foods inside the fridge motivated me to stick to what I already prepared to eat. All in the mind!
#3 – More Time For Other Things
If you’ve prepped your meals a few days or even a week ahead, this leaves you much more time for doing other things.
Let’s say you start prepping your meals every Sunday for 3 days. This means you’ll have more time to devote to other things until next Wednesday.
My experience: As I saved time on prepping my meals, I had more time to learn how to prepare healthy smoothies and other recipes that could boost my weight loss.
#4 – Less Worry About Food
As you get used to meal prepping, you’ll notice that you’ll care less about food in the sense that you won’t have to rush home after work for cooking.
You already know you have food to come home to.
My experience: Well, I work from home! lol
#5 – No Waste of Food
Meal prepping will definitely avoid throwing foods away, be they spoiled or not.
As you’ve stored equal portions of food in your containers, there’ll be no food to dump right?!
Also, meal prep teaches you to utilize all the ingredients you have bought and use them in the menu.
Again, you won’t find yourself throwing away food. As a result, you also save money!
My experience: Since I was eating much less, I ate all my food to fill up my stomach, so there was no food left for the trash.
