Tips to Help You Simplify Your Meal Prep.
We’ve all heard it: meal prep is the key to successfully hitting your body recomposition (recomp) goals. Just like anything in life, having a plan for your daily food intake sets you up for success. When you prep your meals ahead of time, you eliminate the guesswork of eating out or scrambling to make something on the fly. Having food ready to go ensures that you stay on track with your goals—even when life gets busy, and we all know that it will!
Meal Prep Strategies: The Two Main Approaches
There are two main ways people meal prep:
Prepping entire meals: These meals are fully cooked and individually packaged, ready to grab and go.
Prepping components: You cook the separate components of each meal and store them individually, allowing you to build your meals as needed.
Personally, I do a combination of both. I don’t typically prep breakfast in advance, as it’s never been an issue for me to throw something together in the morning. Plus, I’m a little picky about what I eat first thing in the day, so I like the flexibility to choose my breakfast on the spot. For the rest of my meals, I prep a mix of complete meals and meal components. My midday meals are fully prepped and ready to go, while I tend to build my dinners from prepped components. This approach helps me stay on track with my goals during the busiest part of my day and gives me the flexibility to adjust my dinner macros if necessary to meet my daily targets.
At first meal prep isn’t a light task. It requires time, planning, and, of course, cleanup. But with the right strategies, you can simplify the process. Here are a few tips to help lighten the load:
1. Narrow Down Your Menu
As a self-proclaimed foodie, I’ll admit that the idea of narrowing my menu options was unappealing at first. Who wants to eat the same thing all week? But here's the truth: meal prepping is a habit, and like any other habit, it takes time to build the skills and efficiency needed to do it well. So, in the beginning, limit your menu to 2-3 meals for a couple of weeks. This helps you focus on mastering the prep process. Once you’re comfortable and prepping consistently, you can start adding or swapping in new meals.
2. Invest in Low-Touch Cooking Appliances
Think slow cooker, Instant Pot, or rice cooker. These appliances can seriously simplify your meal prep process. If you already own one (or all) of them, great! If not, investing in one will help you multitask while prepping your meals. For example, nothing beats throwing all your ingredients into a slow cooker and coming home to a meal that’s already cooked and ready to be divided into individual servings.
3. Pre-Make Your Spice and Seasoning Blends
Once you narrow down your meal options, you'll likely have 1-2 sets of seasonings that you will need to prepare meals each week. I like to pre-make spice blends by multiplying the seasoning amounts for each recipe and filling empty spice jars. This way, when it’s time to cook, I can grab the pre-mixed spices and either measure them out or season to taste. This is especially helpful for grilling or broiling dishes.
4. Label Containers with a Dry Erase Marker
To make logging your meals easier, try using a dry erase marker to write the ingredients and their weights/measurements directly on the container’s lid. This eliminates the need to constantly reference recipes or remember measurement. It’s also helpful for portioning out leftovers that might not quite meet a full meal’s weight requirements. For example, if you have 100 grams of rice left but your meal calls for 200 grams, simply label the 100-gram container. You will be able to use the 100 grams and use another carb source to round out your carb target.
5. Pre-Prep Your Veggies
Vegetables are key for their fiber and micronutrients, but when you’re in a rush, it’s easy to skip them. Pre-chop and cook your veggies in advance so they’re ready to go whenever you need them. This applies to aromatics like garlic, onions, peppers, and mushrooms as well. I like to chop/dice these ingredients ahead of time so I can grab them quickly when cooking. For mushrooms, I sauté them ahead of time and add them to my morning eggs, along with other prepped veggies.
6. Weigh Out Your Food Once it has Cooled.
When meal prepping, it's best to weigh food after it has cooled. This ensures you're measuring your food accurately and consistently from week to week. As foods cool, they lose moisture. For example, if you weigh hot rice and then measure it again after it cools, you may notice a loss of 2-6 grams. If you're in a calorie deficit, those extra grams can make a difference. Weighing food after it cools also helps maintain consistency in your calorie intake, as you'll have a true, apples-to-apples weight measurement every time.
7. Pre-Portion Your Rice
While this isn’t a huge time-saver, pre-portioning rice (or any carb) into individual containers makes it much easier to use. When rice cools, it tends to clump together, which can make portioning more time-consuming. Even when prepping components, I’ll portion out my rice in advance to make meal assembly quicker.
Meal prepping doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and with these tips, you’ll be able to streamline the process and make it a consistent part of your routine. Remember, the more you practice, the more efficient you’ll become. Soon, you’ll be hitting your body recomposition goals with ease, all thanks to a little preparation!
