You Better Meal-Prep
So picture this...everyday, you’re headed home from a day of work or from a day of studying at school, you plop yourself on your comfortable couch, and you realize you’re starving. It may take an act of God to get you off the couch to cook something that would take even 15 minutes. In that case, what better way to feed yourself than pulling out your smartphone and having something delivered straight to your front door (or do they deliver to your couch these days?). Hell, even I can’t blame you for wanting to do this – it sounds appealing just writing this blog post. BUT, let’s be honest here—that isn’t the most optimal way to eat in terms of health, price, and sustainability (though I guess you could do this for the next 50 years if you so choose, but if you’re reading this, hopefully I’m going to convince you otherwise). Here’s where Meal Prep Sunday (or whatever day) comes into place. I’m going to highlight five major benefits of this weekly holiday, and hopefully I will have convinced you to ditch the front door deliveries of food.
Benefit #1 – Time & effort. Give me one small block of your time on Sunday, and you’re good to go for the entire week. Literally 5-7 days worth of food (depending on how far out you want to meal-prep for). Sunday morning, take one-to-two hours out of your day, and now you have just saved yourself from the effort of having to cook during the week, every night, when literally all you want to do is come home, relax, and focus on your own activities. You can use this saved time to dedicate to your hobbies or other things when you get home from work or school (everyday when I come home from work, the night is literally mine to have. I don’t have to worry about what’s in the fridge, what I’m going to eat, etc). Everything is ready for me due to the small amount of time I dedicated on Sunday. I’m giving you time & effort back by meal-prepping.
Benefit #2—cheaper, you are saving money. This one speaks for itself. Chicken thighs at Costco run $3.99 a pound. If you eat 1 lb of chicken a day (whew), add in some veggies, rice, etc, the total cost of your meal is now $5.00. I guarantee you that’s cheaper than your $10-$15 burger or General Tsao’s orange chicken down the street. Seriously, save your money on this one. What more else is there to say about this particular benefit?
Benefit #3–More control of your diet. How are you supposed to know how many calories you are hitting if you don’t know what’s in your food? I know that you can get a “general” idea of how many calories are in your General Tsao’s chicken, but bottom line – tracking calories is not “general” in nature. A few hundred calories can be the difference between a caloric surplus and a caloric deficit. By meal-prepping, you control every piece of ingredient that goes into your body, and know exactly how many calories you are getting. Every Sunday, I pull out my onions, my garlic, my vegetables, chicken thighs, etc. Sometimes, I tell myself, “I’m not feeling onions and garlic this week,” and I’ll throw in a substitute, and adjust my calories accordingly. Unless you’re in the kitchen of these restaurants that are prepping your food, you don’t know how much butter they’re rubbing all over your burger or steak. You have no idea what all the ingredients are or many calories you are getting. Take control of what’s going in your body and track calories more effectively. Tracking calories is extremely sensitive. Meal-prep.
Benefit #4—Setting the stage for the week. This arguably is the most important benefit here. Depending on where you are in the world, Sunday is the first day of the week. By meal-prepping, you are starting off your week on the best possible foot. It is the first step of getting yourself in the mental state of what’s to come this week in terms of diet & fitness. It is the single most important step. Every time I meal-prep, I tell myself, “this is my workout week. I own this. This is the first step of owning this week and making it mine”. You are telling yourself that you are serious about this, and there is nothing that is going to get in the way of you and your goal physique.
Benefit #5—You’ll feel better about yourself. Honestly, coming from someone who has meal prepped over the last 5+ years, you just feel good about yourself whenever you’re done. You go to bed Sunday night knowing that you are prepared for the week. You feel accomplished – you feel great, and in this day in age, we need as much positivity in our lives as we can get.
Look, this whole working out thing and diet & fitness is a long journey. Keto, vegan diets, PRs, max pull-ups, counting calories – the list never ends. I get how easy it is to plop yourself on that couch and just order that food or snack on something, but meal-prep will help eliminate that temptation and give you one less thing to worry about on a daily basis. “What am I going to eat when I get home? What am I going to order? What do I feel like?”" — these are questions that you normally ask yourself everyday. Meal-prep instead, and that will give you the answers to those questions, and never-ending benefits. Good luck, you got this.
