3 Tips for Food Prep

Food prep can be the key to weight loss, a healthy lifestyle, or making gains at the gym. Whatever your goals are, food prep is an easy way to keep your pantry and refrigerator stocked with portioned, healthy choices! It can be overwhelming to start food prep for the first time. There is a lot of work that goes into prepping food for advance though there are easy ways to start! Here are three tips for a successful food prep.

Don’t jump in headfirst.

• Food prep takes careful thought and preparation! You need to know exactly what you want to prepare, what ingredients you will need, and how to prepare it. Start by creating an outline of the meals you would like to eat. For beginners, only plan two or three days in advance. A full week food prep is time-consuming. A day or two is manageable for your first experience!
• Do an ingredient check. After you create your food prep outline, look at the ingredients you have and what ingredients you will still need. It is best to do your food prep outline a couple days in advance. That way, you will have time to go to the grocery store to gather all needed ingredients.
• Set aside a time! Having a specific time for food prep is extremely important. You will eventually want to set up a routine with a set time each week to do your food prep. Many people do their food prep on Sunday evenings to prepare for the week. Do what works best for you and your schedule!

Prepare food that you are comfortable making.

• When you first begin food prep, the idea of trying new recipes can be exciting. For your first food prep, however, I’d recommend using recipes you know.
• Using familiar recipes will make your first food prep much easier. You know how to prepare the dish. You know what ingredients you need. You know how much food you will have to portion out. Lastly, you will be confident knowing that you are making a dish that you enjoy! There’s nothing worse than preparing food for several days and realizing that you don’t like the way it tastes. Stick to familiar recipes for your first few food prep sessions.

Remember that “food prep” doesn’t always mean cooking.

• Food prep can be a variety of things. You can do only the basic outline for food prep. You can simply chop up vegetables that you will want to use later in the week. You can portion out snacks for yourself and your family, to avoid overeating. This is all part of food prep.
• Food prep is preparing food in advance so that you will have less work to do later in the week!

For extra support your journey toward a healthy lifestyle, please contact me! I’d love to be a resource to help you in pursuing healthy living. :)