By now, maybe you have figured out the best time for you to work out whether it be early morning, lunch, or after work. Now that you are working out a few times a week, you probably have to come to the realization of when will I have time to cook. Between the daily commute to and from work, to getting the kids to their afterschool activities and the fact that you still haven’t started dinner yet, you might be getting burnt out.
You probably have that thought of “Screw this, I don’t have time. I’ll just stop somewhere and pick something up.” You get ready to pull up to the drive-thru and then it hits you. “I’ve been working hard every day. I’ve cut back on all the snacking I use to do. I’m down to only one soda a week (Let’s hope no soda by now). And I’m down about 8 pounds.” So you buy food for the rest of the family and you go home and find yourself something else to eat while stealing fries from your kids when they are not looking. It’s frustrating. You work out extremely hard; you are trying to do your best but can’t seem to find the time to keep cooking healthy meals every day.
I was at this place just over a year ago. I came to the conclusion that the only way I would be able keep up with my life as a dad, spouse, and everything else is that I was going to have to cook up all of my meals on the weekend. Whether it was some sort of a casserole, crockpot dish, or whatever, it was going to have to be cooked Saturday or Sunday. So I started to Google weekly meals, meals for week, prepping meals, and meal prepping, hundreds of sites popped up giving all kinds of meal prep ideas. After looking around for about an hour I figured I would go with a meal prep plan that was consistent on most of the sites: Grilled Chicken, Steamed Vegetables, Brown Rice, & Baked Sweet Potatoes. I wasn’t real sure about tracking carbs, proteins or fats at this point. I just wanted to have some food cooked, done in the freezer so when I was hungry I could just stick my meal in the microwave and warm it up. Here is what I did:
- I cleaned out my freezer in my garage so I would have room for some food storage containers
- I stopped by Walmart and picked up some food storage containers (4 for $.99), since they were on sale, I bought 12 of them. (Pretty good deal)
- I picked up the two family packs of chicken breast, fresh broccoli, & 4 large sweet potatoes. I had brown rice already at home.
- When I got home I clean and cut the chicken breast in half. They were pretty big. I washed the broccoli and prepared to steam it in a large pot. I cut the sweet potatoes into large round medallions and baked at 375 for twenty minutes. I seasoned (Cajun seasoning) all the chicken up and cooked it outside on my grill.
- Forgot to start boiling water for the brown rice, then I got started on the stove. ??
- While the food was cooking, I washed my new food storage containers and set them aside.
- After all the food was done, I started assembling each meal. (Half a chicken breast, Brown rice, & Broccoli, alternating my rice and sweet potato every other meal) I had enough for 10 meals.
- Four hours later, I was done. I put two meals in my fridge and the other ten in my big freezer in my garage. I did it. I was done with my meals for the week. As soon as I put the food away, I felt relieved. A big part of my daily stress was now over.
Some of you are probably saying, “Good for you Byron, but I don’t have a big freezer in my garage, heck for starters I don’t even have a garage.” I’m not saying you have to do what I did. I just wanted to let you know that you have options. Maybe, you cook on Sunday and have meal prepped for Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. Then cook again on Wednesday, for meals Thursday, Friday, & Saturday.
For anyone that asked me how have you been able to keep the weight off? I would say without a doubt, it would have to be meal prepping. Meal prepping has kept me on track week in and week out. If you are interested in meal prepping, here is a free 7 Day Meal Prep Plan for anyone looking to get started.
Enter your email below, download the pdf and post it on your fridge. Change it up, add to it, or simply follow it step by step. I think it is a great resource for you reaching your weight loss goals. So, should you meal prep? I would recommend it but it will ultimately depend on you and your schedule. I would say give it a try until you find something that works for you.
“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”