We are all living in a busy world, each with our own busy lives and jam-packed schedules. It is not uncommon to allow our eating and nutrition habits to slip when everything seems too busy to function. However, there is one simple, beneficial habit that can outrun even the fastest and busiest lifestyles–weekly meal prepping.
Meal prepping is not only about grocery shopping and planning out what you will prepare for your meals each week. It is about dedicating a day or two a week where you cook each meal, nicely package them into reusable containers, and find a fridge stocked with a meal for each day of that week. Not only a dinner for after work, but we can prepare a fueling breakfast for when we are getting ready for our day, a nutritious lunch to bring on the go, and a dinner waiting for us when we get back home.
When our schedules are overwhelming, we tend to forget the importance of nutritious, healthy foods. We may feel like we do not have the time to cook, so we depend on fast food or takeout to get through our days. While a nice treat once in a while, constantly buying out our meals can be harmful for not only our bank accounts, but our health as well. Though our favorite restaurant seems a million times better than having to cook when we get home, we can become our own preferred chef.
It all begins with the grocery shop. Making ourselves a list with the foods we know we like, and our health likes, is the first step. Even better for those on a budget, many grocery retailers offer their employees to shop for us and bring our groceries out to our cars. Once we have the ingredients, the real work begins. Recipes can be found all over the internet–cookbooks, Pinterest, TikTok–you name it, there is some sort of recipe available. We may not all be good enough chefs to be featured on Food Network, but we are all at least good enough to follow recipes found online. Once we have created a decent number of portions, it is time for the most fun aspect of meal prepping–packaging our meals into their cute containers. Meal prepping containers can be found for a low price-tag at retailers such as T.J. Maxx, or even the Dollar Tree! Now, instead of dreading the fridge and the idea of cooking a homemade meal at the end of a long day, our fridge is stocked with meals that can be grabbed and eaten in minutes.
While that one day of the week may be overwhelming, or take up a fair portion of our time, that one day saves the rest of our week. We have something to eat for each time of the day with minimal effort. Instead of shoving a bag of chips down our throats at lunchtime, we have something to look forward to when the clock strikes noon. Send your apologies to our to-die-for restaurant on the corner, they will only be seeing you once in a while now! A new chef has arrived in town, and the time has been made for our health despite the busyness flying around us.
