How Meal Prep Changed My Life
1996-2016:
Look in fridge and overwhelm self with options and temptations. Try to eat clean. Eat random things when hungry. Eat some things straight from the fridge or standing over the sink.
Watch willpower fade as the day goes on, and eat anything and everything when I get home hungry from work or fitness.
Buy healthy groceries. Eat some of them and throw some out later when they go bad.
2017: The Year of Meal Prep
This revolutionized the way I eat. Yet it is so simple. I’m embarrassed that as a full grown adult I had never done this until now: MEAL PREP!
Many of my crossfit and trainer friends spend a few hours 2x/week to chop, cook, and portion their food for 3-4 days at a time. I used to think this was crazy. “I like to eat what I’m in the mood for each day!” “I don’t have time to prep food for that long!” “That won’t work for my lifestyle.” But you know what’s even crazier? Wandering around the kitchen, trying to figure out what to eat before every meal. Coming home starving from work and eating popcorn and string cheese for dinner. Letting vegetables rot in the corner of the fridge because I don’t feel like cooking them or they take to long. There is a better way!
Here’s my quick and dirty version of meal prep that anyone can try!
I aim for a small serving of protein, a large serving of green vegetables, a little healthy fat, and a healthy carb like brown rice or sweet potatoes for every meal to stay full and energized. Quantities vary depending on your lifestyle, fitness, your goals, how you feel, etc.
- Buy a big bag of brown rice. Cook a huge batch of it and put it in a container in the fridge.
- Buy a big bag of sweet potatoes. Chop them, mix them with a little olive oil and salt, and cook them in the oven on a big metal pan. Put in a container in the fridge.
- Buy a huge head of cauliflower, unless you hate it. Send it through a food processor to “rice” it. It will look like rice. Put it in a big container.
- Buy some kind of protein and confirm that it is easy enough to cook, or is pre-prepared. I buy tofu and cube it up and I buy fish in individual freezer packs. My husband buys chicken strips in a big bag from Trader Joe’s.
- Buy a green vegetable or two that you like, and put in the work right away to chop it up, or buy it pre-chopped.
- Have seasonings or sauces on hand that you like. In my kitchen, I use Tabasco a lot, and curry powder with coconut milk a lot.
So this is it. This is meal prep, and it changed my life!
When I look in the fridge now, my brain says “protein, veg, carb, fat,” and my eyes see awesomely convenient containers of all the things I could eat.
I put a protein source in a pan and cook it, I add green vegetable or cauliflower rice, I add sweet potato or brown rice, and I eat this meal with some avocado or coconut milk to get a little more fat.
I went from cooking on occasion in 2016 to cooking every single meal I’ve eaten in 2017 (well, 13 days into the year, anyway). I haven’t been tempted to eat anything that won’t make me feel good, and I haven’t wandered my kitchen cluelessly once yet this year. AND I have a real ass meal 😉 on a plate easily in under 10 minutes every time that fuels me for yoga and life.
Happy new year in the kitchen, yogis!
—Jen McD.
4 examples that I made and ate last week below:
Tuna with black sesame seeds, broccoli, and sweet potato.
Cauliflower rice and fake chicken tacos.
Tofu, kale, and brown rice mixed with a Trader Joe’s miso soup packet.
Mixed veg and brown rice with tofu and fake chicken in coconut milk and curry powder with cilantro garnish.
