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Prepare to Succeed: Meal Prepping and Your Health

Paisley Hansen
Fitness enthusiasts have long understood the advantages to meal prepping—planning meals in advance; slicing, chopping and sometimes pre-cooking the main components; then packaging portions together for a simple reheat at mealtime. Meal prepping is a vital key to your fitness journey.

Save Time

Most seasoned meal preppers set aside few hours on Sunday to plan and shop for the week, and that investment pays huge dividends on weeknights. It saves time of driving every day for ingredients. Another way meal prepping saves time is it allows to clean, chop and cook more ingredients for several meals.

Save Money

The biggest money savings come from eating at home than eating out. After a long day at work, the last thing people want to do is spend an hour in the kitchen making dinner and the convenience of the drive through can be too much to resist. Not so if you have a healthy delicious dinner waiting at home.

Save Food

There have been times when you have forgotten the beautiful strawberries until you found them covered in green fuzz or discovered mystery leftovers in the fridge. This won’t happen once you start meal prepping because you plan and buy only what you need, and so nothing goes waste.

Save Calories

A healthy lifestyle comes to simple math: being fit means taking in fewer calories than you use. Many people find it difficult to limit calories as some of their favorite foods are dense in calories and light in nutrients. Meal prepping addresses this issue by eliminating the need for constant willpower.

Save Stress

Meal prepping eliminates the last minute “what are we having for dinner?” dilemma. It also helps you avoid the regrets involved with sending out for fast food delivery. If you know you have a stressful week coming you can plan to incorporate mood-boosting foods such as salmon, kale, almonds and berries into your meals.

Save You From Yourself

Even the most nutritious foods can be detrimental if you overeat, so one of the most powerful advantages of prepping meals is the portion control aspect. As you continue to prep your meals you develop better consumption habits, reduce cravings for sugar and lessen reliance on unhealthy fats.