The holiday season has begun. With Thanksgiving only a few weeks away and Christmas and New Year’s Day right behind, we now challenge ourselves to eat healthily while avoiding overeating. This can easily be done by planning and prepping our meals.
1. Plan and Prep
First, carve out a few minutes to plan your menu for the week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Next, go grocery shopping and buy only the ingredients necessary to cook those meals. Pick a day (I usually choose Sundays) that works best for you. When I prep on Sundays, it helps me focus on the week ahead and my Sunday meals tend to be healthy as well.
2. Choose Healthy Ingredients
As for how to meal prep, try to stick to lean meals. Try to avoid flour, sugar, and salt. You might also want to stay away from using any creamy sauces. Stick to mustard, ketchup, oil and vinegar, balsamic vinaigrette or anything non-creamy and low to no sodium. Prepare dishes that are baked, sautéed, or grilled.
3. Go Big
Prepare a few dishes that will stay fresh for a couple of days and freeze the rest. If you have never used a crockpot, now might be a good time to start. Your meal can cook while you’re sleeping and there isn’t a lot of
prep work involved. Use fresh ingredients as much as possible. Avoid processed or packaged food. There is a high sodium content associated with those foods.
4. Breakfast Should Be Easy
Breakfast foods are easy to prep. You can boil a few eggs making it easy to grab and go. There are great healthy egg frittata recipes that you can make as another option. You can prepare a pot of steel-cut oatmeal ahead of time which will last for a few days. There are basically no excuses when it comes to meal prepping.
5. Pay Attention To Portions
Portion control is important when meal prepping. Once everything is cooked, set aside your meals into portions. If you’re putting the work in by meal prepping, you don’t want to defeat the purpose by overeating or eating more than one portion at a time.
Meal prepping can be enjoyed by the whole family and is a good way to teach healthy eating habits to children. They learn first-hand what is involved.
When prepping, the goal is to keep it as simple as possible. This will ensure that you eat healthily and stick with it. Remember, plan ahead and put the time in. It will be worth it in the end.
Here’s to healthy eating!
Jaena Mebane, a graduate of Fordham University-B.A., Fitness Professional, Bodybuilder and creator of GLUTEUS FABULOUS. My motto is “Inspiring Others to Live a Healthy Lifestyle, Mind, Body, and Soul.” You can find me on Instagram @gluteus_fabulous
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