When most people talk about losing weight they are almost always talking about going to the gym or start being more active. There is no doubt that exercising is very important, but the fact is our weight and body fat is directly linked to the type and quality of food we eat. In this article, we will talk about how to meal prep for weight loss.
It won’t matter how much you exercise if you are not conscious of what you eat. Think about it. Even professional athletes have to pay attention to what they eat. These are people who exercise for a living. They work out to improve their careers and their entire lives revolve around physical fitness and performance.
Despite this, they still have to be conscious of what they eat. So there should be no delusions whether we can compensate for a bad diet by hitting the gym on a regular basis. In fact, the way our bodies work, we have to look after our diet when we are working out.
When our bodies start burning more calories than it is used to, its natural defense mechanism kick in. This defense mechanism makes the body store greater amounts of fat in the body to compensate for the greater physical exertion.
Our bodies don’t understand why it is undergoing greater physical stress. It does not know that you want to lose weight. All it understands is that you are burning more calories than normal and it needs to store more energy to compensate. This is why it really important for us to look at what we put in our bodies.
How to Meal Prep for Weight Loss
If you are really serious about losing weight and getting into shape, you have to come to terms with the fact that you can’t just eat whatever you want, whenever you want. You will have to be mindful of what you’re putting in your body. And we want to help you with that. Let’s go over some of the tips on how to meal prep for weight loss.
Get Everything Ready
Whether you’re preparing a salad or preparing a week’s worth of healthy snacks, you want everything you need and want out and ready. The mere fact that you won’t be rummaging through the drawers or making last-minute stops to the supermarket means you won’t be wasting time.
Get Plenty of Plastic Containers
Meal prepping is all about being ready and that means getting a lot of high-quality containers for storing chopped veggies and semi-cooked foods. You want to do as little work before mealtimes as possible. The main reason we cheat on our meal plans is that of laziness. If you take that reason out of the equation, you will find it that much difficult to cheat.
Freeze the Rice
If you love rice like the most of us, you want to cook your brown rice in large batches and freeze it. If you have to spend 30 minutes cooking rice, you’re going to relapse and order takeout. If you freeze rice in single serve containers, you can heat just enough rice for a single meal. As long as you’re not reheating it numerous times, it should taste just fine.
Start Cooking Everything in Bulk
How do retailers make money? They buy in bulk. How do we save time on cooking? We cook in bulk. Not the aptest analogy but it gets the message across. Stop making family-sized portions and get in the habit of double batching everything. Wouldn’t matter if you need a meal in the middle of the night, you shouldn’t be forced to eat something unhealthy.
Start Cooking Dinner Before Dinner Time
No one feels like cooking right before dinner time. We’re all tired after a hard day’s work. We just want to relax. The ideal time to look is in the morning, you are energized and ready to take the world by storm. Procrastination almost always leads to Chinese takeout.
Keep Healthy Snacks on Hand
If you have to prepare a new snack every day, chances are you will munch on a bag of chips or worse. It is nice to have some muffins in the freezer, you can pop them out, mix them with some fresh fruit and voila, you have a delicious snack within a few minutes.
Dumpable Smoothie Bags
Get ziplock bags and fill them up with enough fruits and mix-ins for a single serve of smoothie. This way you just dump that bag in the blender and pour in some liquids and you have yourself a nutritious and healthy smoothie.
Prepared Meat for the Freezer
Meat should always be prepared before being frozen. This means prep it with flavor and seasoning before you freeze it. The dumpable smoothie bag’s philosophy applies here as well. You prepare raw meatballs with some feta, some breadcrumbs and pop it in the freezer. You have your healthy, homemade, ready-to-cook meal.
Be Creative with the Ice Cube Tray
If you want to lose weight, you will have to freeze everything. So how do you freeze cooking wine, tomato puree, stock, pesto or even yogurt? Use an ice tray. You pop out a few ice cubes of tomato puree for the sauce and its done. You pop a yogurt cube for the smoothie? Simple and elegant!
Plan Ahead, Plan for the Week
If you really are serious about losing weight, you need to plan ahead. This is what the slower parts of the weekends are for. You sleep and prepare for the coming week ahead. Make sure everything you need for the coming week is prepped and ready to be dumped at a moment’s notice.
Pre Cut them Veggies
Cutting and preparing vegetables is probably the most laborious part of preparing a meal. If you can minimize the labor that goes into each meal, chances are you won’t dread making healthy meals even if you’re tired.
Summary
Meal prepping not only helps save time, it also helps us stay on our diet plans. The time we save by prepping our meal beforehand can be spent on exercising or just kicking back and relaxing. If you prep your meals on a Sunday, chances are you won’t have many reasons to cheat on your diet plan.
You have to plan ahead if you are to outsmart yourself in your moments of weakness. It can also help you save money. All you have to do is be smart about it. Make life simpler and you won’t find yourself trying to weasel your way out of the commitments you make, especially the ones you make for yourself.