At the beginning of the year, you probably set some kind of health-related goal, right? Perhaps you want to lose weight, put on some muscle, eat more fruits and veggies, or just be healthier in general.
These are great goals to have, and you’ll thank yourself for making the effort to stick to them. However, once the January motivation wears off, you’ll need a reliable habit that you can stick to. That’s where meal prepping comes in. Taking an hour or two each week to plan and prep for your meals over the following days is a great way to be consistent and achieve your goals. Here’s how it can help you.
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It’ll Help You Stick to Your Diet
We all know that it’s easier to stick to something when you have a plan to follow. If you’ve planned to eat a chicken and vegetable stir fry on Tuesday night, and you already have some of those ingredients prepared, you’re far less likely to head to the McDonald’s drive-through instead!
It helps you be specific too. If you’ve decided to start a ketogenic diet in January, then doing some keto meal prep will help you be prepared for all your meals throughout the day, and you won’t need to plan how to manage your carb intake.
You’ll Become Healthier
In the new year, most of us are looking into implementing a few habits that will make us a little healthier. Eating more wholefood, nutritious meals is a great starting point because it has far-reaching health benefits.
When you’re consciously planning and preparing your meals in advance, you can think carefully about how many veggies and fruits you’re including, and you’ll essentially be forcing yourself to eat them by preparing them and leaving them in your refrigerator!
You’ll Save Money
We’re all looking for ways to save money on groceries, especially in 2023. Meal prepping is a great hack that can help you spend less on food each month because you’ll be wasting a whole lot less.
When you’re not coming home from work exhausted after a long day and having to make a decision on dinner in that moment, you’ll be less inclined to spend extra on takeout or dining out, because the effort of cooking and deciding has already been made on Monday.
You’ll Save Time
Many people avoid meal prepping because they believe it’s too time-consuming, but the opposite is true! Meal prepping can actually save you time. By spending only an hour or two on a Sunday or Monday to choose your meals and prepare some of them in advance, you’ll save time each evening because you won’t need to be doing any of that after work. You can simply come home, reheat your meal and relax.
When you have a few meal prep recipes up your sleeve and know how to prepare them, you’ll be able to make them quickly and easily and have a few days’ worths of food ready in no time.
