Tuesday, 1st March 2016
So what exactly is meal prepping? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, essentially it is planning and prepping your meals in advance for the day/week. This means cooking items such as meats, complex carbohydrate foods and vegetables in bulk. How much you prepare depends on how much time you have, how many meals you need and how many snacks you want to have during a day.
Prepping meals and snacks stops you from binge eating and dipping in and out of the cupboard to feed them hunger cravings. This is great for people who are busy all day and don’t have time for individual meal cooking.
Start by planning the meals and snacks for the day/week as people’s calorie intake vary as well as the need for different nutrients. For example a distance runner would need more carbohydrates in their meals to fuel their exercise where as a person whose goal is for weight gain and muscle build would be high in protein to help repair and growth.
I would usually choose a set day for planning the meals I would prep for the week and also go and shop for the stuff I will need. Sunday would be the day I choose and then prep for my days of work as these are the days when time is limited for cooking.
Meal prep is great for organising your days/week by sorting what meals you will take for training days and what meals you would have on none training days. This helps also for having meals ready for when you need that instant intake of solid protein alongside your supplement shakes as all you would need to do is pop to the fridge and take out the food prepped earlier and tuck in.
Written By: Martin Trickett (Personal Trainer)
Find out more about maintaining and enjoying a healthy lifestyle here.