LCHF Basics/ Top Tips/ Uncategorized

Meal Prep 101 – An LCHF Lifestyle Advantage

What’s the deal with meal prep these days? If you open up Pinterest it’s basically all you see..
Being someone who enjoys cooking, it took me a while to wrap my head around this one.

 

But I have been doing it along with my meal plans for the week for some time now and it works brilliantly!

To be honest, I’ve been doing it on and off – realising the value in it, but often not making the time to do the prep.
When I set aside a couple of hours for this, it just makes life so much easier during the rest of the week!

So, here’s my Meal Prep 101 Game-Plan that I use:

  1. Plan my menu for the week
    I’ll set out 30 minutes a week to plan the main meals for each day, along with a few other basics I might need for breakfasts, etc…
  2. Write out my shopping list based on my menu
    This is really important and prevents buying unnecessary unhealthy food, and also prevents wastage.
  3. Go shopping!
    I like to do this either on a weekend, or on a Monday. Monday’s are actually my best.
  4. Batch cook / meal prep
    Here’s where the fun comes in – you’ll need 2-3 hrs, depending on the menu…
    Cook everything you can in advance, e.g. baked dishes, roast chicken, cooked veggies, chia puddings, smoothies, etc.
    I also like to make a large green salad, no dressing, and put it into individual serving jars or containers. This really helps with getting in your greens, as it’s much easier to grab something ‘meatier’ when you have no salad prepped.
    I even boil a whole lot of eggs for the week and keep them in the fridge – or even outside the fridge in winter. When you need it – just peel and eat!
    I try and keep everything in individual-serve containers or jars, it just makes it easier.

I was telling a friend about meal prepping the other day and she was concerned about wastage.

The point is, when you shop according to a specific menu, with a very specific shopping list, there really should be no wastage.
You’re not prepping for months in advance, only a week at a time.
Unless you plan on freezing some meals… Your week’s meals can easily last in the fridge.

What I like to do, is to prep all the main meals for the week – perhaps breakfast and dinner – and a few extra bits for the kids to nibble on in-between.
I’ll still cook a lovely meal from scratch on the weekend and make a bit of an event out of it.
For me, cooking is quite a social thing too…

The advantages of meal prep / batch cooking:

  1. Cutting down on food wastage.
  2. Saving heaps of time.
  3. Having healthy snack options and meals on hand.
    You’re less likely to make bad food choices in the heat of the moment then.
  4. Making more time for other things in the evenings.
    Such as spending some quality time with the kids instead of frantically cooking for a hungry audience.
  5. Cutting down on your grocery expenses by not doing any impulse-buying.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how and what I eat lately. You know, when you’ve picked up a few kilos you start to question your lifestyle…
Anyways, so I tried to eat a bit more often {you know, the old ‘fitness’ way of eating}, but was really just left feeling hungry ALL.THE.TIME!!!

Right, so, my head is back in the game and here are a few key things I’ve realised {again}:

  • If you’re going to follow a low carb lifestyle – do it properly
  • Eat your greens
  • Go moderate on the protein
  • Eat when hungry {but learn to listen to your body}
  • Have a small dinner and eat it early
  • Eat a large breakfast and have it later in the morning
  • Lose the dairy
  • Leave the wine for a while
  • Have food on hand in case you’re hungry – and then eat it!
  • You should never feel hungry
  • Lose the sweet treats – even if they are low carb…

And remember, it’s a lifestyle, so it has to be sustainable!

Another pointer on the meal prep – if you have the time and patience {and kids!}, let the kiddos help.
Give them small tasks to perform.
They really enjoy this and it teaches them a little bit about food and cooking.
I’ve noticed that they’re also more likely to eat all their veggies and greens if they were involved in the cooking process! ;)

Hope this helps!

xx

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