13 Apr Meal prep made easy

Meal prep made easy 

Following on from our Hack last week, we want to dive a little deeper here with our blog and add some more advice and ideas for you to follow. 

As we go through our fitness journey, lose weight, build muscle, whatever our goals may be, there will come a time were things stagnate or plateau. We are working as hard as we have been but progress has now started to slow. This is where our Calorie and Nutritional intake may now become more important than the actual training itself. So why meal prep, like our fitness routine’s our meals should be designed around our goals. At the simplest form our calories are what make it work but are we hitting our calorie goals? When we start breaking the calories into the sub Categories of Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats. We can control what goes in which meal and have a balance every day that is consistent. This could be a Split for example, 40% Carbohydrates, 40% Protein and 20% Fats. If focusing on all 3 macros is too much then try just focusing on protein and calories. By making our own meals and measuring out eat category we can plus and minus much better to suit muscle gain or weight loss. With the Hack we discussed how to make it easy, meals with simple foods, using the likes of Rice’s, Pastas, fresh Vegetables and meats like chicken. By making more Rice or Pasta in one cooking session we can make a base for 5-7 meals potentially for 3 to 4 days. We can further simplify this and look at dinners we have and use left overs. Example, we have a Sunday roast and chicken and potatoes are left, we can make some vegetables with the chicken and potatoes and we have a meal for the next day. You might enjoy cooking and feel you want to get more adventurous, take your time. Cook and prep meals you know, get a routine with those first, once you have a routine you can then start exploring other meals instead of trying to make a whole new menu you have never done. Keep it simple. 

Breakfast can be hardest meal of the day, getting up in the morning, getting ready for work, get the kids ready and then travel time. This can be a 2 hour process in itself just to get you’re day started. How can we get fuel to start our day without thinking it is too much hassle or we don’t have time? As above, look at the week ahead, how we can make it work. An ideal breakfast for example, Porridge Oats with fruit, always a good go to, but it does require some prep time. Let’s make it a shake! Having 2 or 3 shakers with measured oats and a tub of prepared fruit allows us to get up in the morning, turn it into routine like we would do for our morning Coffee.  Grab the shaker, pour the fruits into the shaker with water or preferred milk and in 2 minutes we have a fuelled breakfast ready to drink on the go!, add a little protein and you’ve got everything covered, now we can get ready for work, grab the kids and we can drink on the go or once we are at work and ready to start the day and we have not missed an important meal of the day, yay for that! 

What will you need? Meal prep is all about what food we will have and what to go buy when we do the shopping. When we make these larger portions we will then have to split them into the 5-7 meals. Using plastic full seal containers is the best suggestion, easy to store away, store in fridge, cleaning is easy and these can all be put into bags easy enough to take with us to work. Measurements? if we want to get accurate measures then using scoops with readings on them or using scales can take our carbohydrate, proteins and fats targets to more precise measures and doing this yourself, means you control it and plus minus where it has to be. 

• Alan