Food Prepping 101

Food prepping is the process of preparing all your meals ahead of time. Most people would consider a week to be a good amount of time to prepare food for.

Food prepping is the number one way to stay in shape, hands down. It’s what keeps you on track with your eating habits. The actual process of food preparing is not difficult, but what is challenging to some people is just understanding how and where to start.  Today we will look at a simple, quick, three step process for achieving meal prep success.

Step #1

Pick a day and time to prepare all your meals for the week.  This should be the easiest step for you to complete. You are the only person that knows your own schedule and will be able to knock this part out in 10 minutes. For example, if you currently work at 9 to 5 job Monday through Friday, you may find that the best available time for you to prepare your meals is on a Sunday. On the other hand, if you work nights and weekends, your best prepping day will most likely fall during the week.  Either way, pick a day and time, and lets get prepping.

Step #2

Pick your meals.  Depending on your diet goals, your meal types will differ greatly. As a general overview to losing weight, I recommend a split of 60% lean protein, 30% carbohydrates, and 10% good fats. That ratio should be ideal for anyone hoping to shed unwanted pounds. For people interesting in gaining muscle, I would recommend a ratio of 50% lean protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 10% good fats.

One example of a meal that I currently love to prepare for the week is:

• 6 oz chicken
• 1 cup of cooked Quinoa
• Handful of fresh broccoli

Once you have decided on the proper meal to prep, the final step is finding the best meal preparing containers for you. Luckily, I’ve done my research over the years, and have a list of some of the best options currently available today.

*All products below are BPA free

California Home Goods 3 Compartment Bento Reusable Food Storage

 
The California Home Goods 3 Compartment Bento Reusable Food Storage is a great place for all your food prepping needs.  These reusable food storage containers are microwave and dishwasher safe.  Hot or cold, thawed or frozen, the quality of the California Home Goods 3 Compartment Bento Reusable Food Storage comes with a lifetime guarantee to ensure you get the most out of these containers for as long as you own them.  These come with pre-built portion control compartments which can be handy for beginners wanting to gauge their ideal portions sizes, but aren’t quite sure where to start.  One thing that is particularly beneficial about these food storage containers is the stackable designs of the product. Strangely enough, tupperware type products are not always stackable, which can leave you with a cluttered refrigerator. The California Home Goods 3 Compartment Bento Reusable Food Storage ensure that everything stays organized and takes up as little room as possible while you plan our your diet for the week.

Reusable Microwavable Meal Prep Containers by Evolutionize

 
The Reusable Microwavable Meal Prep Containers by Evolutionize are a perfect compact and lightweight solution to meal prepping. While it does not come with multiple compartments, the single compartment will prove beneficial to people who already have experience with food prepping and know the exact portion sizes they wish to have in every meal. This product is microwave and dishwasher safe, and is suitable for refrigerator or freezer storage. The Reusable Microwavable Meal Prep Containers by Evolutionize are an extremely easy to clean product that easily stacks in storage. Although they are a lightweight product, I don’t recommend this options for anyone needing an extreme level of durability for their food prep needs.

Fitpacker Meal Prep Containers for Food Storage and Portion Control

 
The Fitpacker Meal Prep Containers for Food Storage and Portion Control containers are another great option for all your meal prep needs. This product is also microwaveable, dishwasher safe, and works well stored in the freezer to the refrigerator. Many reviews on Amazon point to the durability of the Fitpacker Meal Prep Containers for Food Storage and Portion Control containers and the quality of product. Fitpacker provides a money back guarantee for anyone not happy with their products. The Fitpacker Meal Prep Containers for Food Storage and Portion Control containers are one of my favorite options for meal prepping as they provide a perfect size for my personal meal portions and have continued to be a very quality product.

Food prepping is extremely easy once you get the hang of it.  For first timers, I think a type of fear comes from eating the same type of meal everyday.  What you will notice though, is that you will start to enjoy eating this way and will actually crave the same meals every day.  No one ever said you should meal prep something you absolutely do not want to eat. On the contrary, I’ve been meal prepping the EXACT meals I look forward to eating every day for the last 15 years.   Another area of concern for people not used to food prepping, is taking the time to make the food. What you will come to realize is the 1 to 2 hours of food prepping that you went through will safe you 5 – 10 hours during the week you would have normally spent on first having to decide what you want to eat and then going out and getting it.  The benefits are too numerous to list from meal prepping, but I promise that prepping healthy meals to eat every day will lead to a healthier you.