Healthy Meal Prep Ideas
Meal prepping is an effective way to stay on top of your health goals and busy schedule. The key to making new behavior changes is knowing your WHY. Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to gain muscle? Why do you want to increase your energy? Everyone’s WHY is unique to them and getting there is also a unique journey. Meal prepping comes in different forms and therefore, has different approaches. Whether you’re eating a vegan, paleo or carnivore diet, a few things remain the same across the board when meal prepping.
Top 5 Tips for Healthy Meal Prepping
Rebuild your kitchen toolbox. Once you’ve discovered your WHY and decide to meal prep, clean out your fridge, freezer and pantry of the foods you will no longer be needing, such as processed foods, sugar laden foods, soda, rancid seed oils and anything that does not align with your new health journey.
Create a list of your go-to meals you’d like to prepare based on your diet (vegan, paleo, keto, low-carb, carnivore, etc.). Divide the meals up into breakfast, lunch, dinner or meal 1, 2, 3 depending on when you want to eat and how often. Many keto, low-carb and carnivore folks eat only twice a day, while someone following paleo, gluten-free or vegan may prefer three meals a day. Whatever your preference is, try eliminating snacking between meals.
Create a master grocery list of the staples you will need in order to prepare your meals. Products such as healthy oils (avocado, olive, coconut, butter, ghee, lard, etc.), fresh & frozen organic veggies and fruit, organic beans and legumes if you’re a vegan, fresh and frozen clean proteins (wild-caught seafood, pasture-raised eggs, pork, poultry, lamb, grass-fed beef, bison), and organic seasonings of choice plus high-quality sea salt.
Journal. Keep track of your meals, and macros if needed, so that you remember to add new recipes to the rotation. Note if certain meals made you feel more satiated and nourished, bloated or perhaps affected your sleep. This information serves as clues to your optimal diet.
Purchase steel or glass meal containers. As tempting as it may be to purchase disposable containers to store each meal in, be mindful of incoming toxins from plastics and aluminum containers. While we cannot control the toxins in the environment, in schools or offices via cleaning agents, we can control home base and how we prepare and store our food.
When deciding what types of meals to prep be mindful of how long that specific meal will safely last in your fridge, which meals freeze best and which items you will need to add fresh. For example, cooking fish is great for same day use, but will not keep fresh much longer than that. Fish will smell, well, fishy as the days go on.
Here’s a simple cheat sheet:
Hard-boiled eggs will last 5-7 days in fridge.
Cooked meat will last 3-4 days in fridge.
Cooked poultry will last 3-4 days in fridge.e
Fish will last 1-2 days in the fridge, but smoked fish will last 14 days.
Beans & legumes will last 3-4 days as well.
Slow-cookers, Dutch ovens and air-fryers are all great kitchen tools for making larger amounts of food. I find that stewed meats, braised meats and slow-cooked roasts are best for multiple uses and freeze well. I also find those cuts of meat less expensive.
So, based on those basic timelines, you’re looking at a 3-4 day meal prepping goal. When you break that down into 3 meals per day, that’s 4 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 4 dinners. Whichever diet you plan to follow, you want to make sure you’re getting enough protein and fat to keep you satiated, nourished and energized until your next meal. Carbohydrates can be added based on your goals. If you’re an endurance athlete, lean and burn through calories quickly, adding healthy carbs is fine. Stick with tubers, root veggies, fruit, greens and whatever you love as long as they’re organic to mitigate toxins. If you’re overweight and new to meal prepping and exercise, pay close attention to eating enough protein and fat first, especially if you’re coming from a SAD (Standard American Diet) way of eating. Then, eat your low-glycemic veggies and fruit, such as organic berries, greens and cucumbers. If you feel hungry between meals, note that you most likely didn’t eat enough protein and fat – that’s the satiating equation across the board.
Check out my podcast on meal prepping with a well-known local chef sharing her tips and hacks.
This blog is not to be used as medical advice or for making any lifestyle changes to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having.