Reasons to Meal Prep with Coach Kourt
Reasons to Meal Prep
Blogging with the Crew - Coach Kourtney
We all know the scenario - you’ve just gotten home from a long day and need to fit in a dinner, but don’t have the energy or time to fix something fresh and healthy. Your likely options are:
Order delivery food, likely completely blowing your macros and meal plan
Muscle through cooking a nutritious meal for yourself
Cook something, but go for fast over healthy
Grab a pre-made meal that you prepped ahead of time
Is it better to meal prep or to cook as you go throughout the week? While eating as you go may feel more convenient, Coach Kourtney laid out five reasons to add meal prepping into your routine to hit all of your fitness, weightloss, and health goals.
You’re less likely to cheat on your meals.
When I prep my meals every Sunday, I make a point to only purchase those items that are on my grocery list, which helps keep any moments of weakness under control because guess what, if it’s not in my house, then I can’t eat it!
It saves you money.
At least this is true for me! I don’t know about you, but before meal planning, I tended to just wing it each night, either by running out to the store after work to make whatever I was in the mood for that night, ordering in or spending even more money on going out. The same was true for lunch - with working unpredictable hours, my meals were just as predictable. Now I’m able to plan a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and even healthy snacks for all around $60-70 each week.
You’ll spend less time cooking.
Not only does meal prepping help me stay on track with consistent healthy eating, but it also gives me more time back in my life each day! This is such a life saver because after working and getting a workout in, nothing is worse than having to sit in traffic, go to the store, cook, eat, clean up, and take care of the dog. With meal prepping, I can spend more time brushing up on my nutrition and training knowledge, seeing my friends, or just relaxing. I’ll gladly trade out spending two hours every night for spending three hours just once a week anytime.
It can help you meet your fitness goals.
I know I already said this, but this is really important. When you plan out your meals ahead of time not only are you learning portion control, but you are fueling your body with wholesome nutritional food that makes you want to work out even more! It’s true when they say that “abs are made in the kitchen” – your body requires healthy food for endurance, strength and even weight loss, so it’s a no-brainer that consistent meal planning should coincide with your fitness routine. To keep myself on track, I plan out my workouts each week in the same notebook where I write down all my meals. This is especially important being on the Keto diet.
You’ll have more variety in your meals.
If you’re not careful, planning out meals each week can become a little monotonous since I tend to have a few go-to meals that I’m absolutely addicted to making. One thing that I have committed to doing recently is trying out at least 1 or 2 new recipes each week! If I like the trial dish then I’ll add it into my meal prep rotation and if I don’t, well I just won’t make it again.
My favorite way of mixing in new meals is by using a “Clean Eating” Pinterest board. There, I can always add delicious new recipes to try. It even helps me organize the meals by adding different sections like Keto, breakfast, snacks, Paleo, and much more.
Meal Planning Tips
You can buy meal prep containers on Amazon that are reusable and very inexpensive
If you work somewhere that doesn’t have a fridge, Amazon also has freezable lunch bags where gel is built into the bag directly
Download My Fitness Pal to plan out and track your macros, you can even scan barcodes of ingredients to add them right into your journal
Meal prep can be discouraging sometimes because at first you can be super hungry and feel like there’s not enough food! Drinking a full glass of water before and after the meal can help with this
- Coach Kourtney