5 Easy Steps To Prepare For A Week Of Healthy Eating
Starting the week off right is so important! Not only does it set the tone for the rest of the week, if you do it right you’ll save time in the long run. Let’s jump into our top 5 tips for an efficient meal prep!
1. Set Aside Time To Prep.
If you have kids then do this Sunday afternoon during nap (or movie) time, when they go to bed Sunday night or early Monday morning. If you don’t have kids then the world is fully yours, just carve out 2 hours to shop & prep!
2. Make A Meal Plan.
We post a lot of healthy and clean eating options over on our Facebook page to help inspire some clean eating weeks! If you are looking for a more structured plan, sign up to meet with one of our nutritionists. Not only will they help figure out what foods are best for your goals, there is an option to have meal plans written out!
As a clean eating rule of thumb it’s best to stick with:
Lean proteins: ground turkey, chicken breast, eggs,
Carbohydrates: sweet potatoes, Ezekiel bread and brown rice are our go to for carbohydrate fixes!
Fruits: blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and apples are a great source of fiber.
Veggies: the world is seriously your oyster when it comes to veggies! The more the merrier!
Healthy Fats: natural nut butters, almonds, walnuts, seeds and avocado.
3. Get Organized.
If you are going to successfully meal prep you can’t be spending all day doing it because you will just give up or quit. The key here is to be fast and efficient. Here is how we do it. When you get home from the store put everything on the counter with a cutting board, knife, strainer, bowl for remnants and your containers of choice. The first thing we do is wash the fruit and then lay it out on paper towels to dry. Then while those are drying off, wash and prep the veggies. Start sautéing your protein and if you have a rice cooker, through the brown rice in there. That’s what we like to call, killing two birds with one stone!
4. Prep Everything. And I Mean Everything In Advance.
Seriously everything. We chop up our brussels sprouts and asparagus so that all we have to do is pre-heat the oven, spray a pan, dump out the container and top with salt and pepper. Another thing we like to do is go ahead and snap our asparagus in half, to help store it better.
For the chicken, buy a huge thing of it and half it. We marinate one half in a certain dressing and then chop up the other half for kabobs and marinate it in a different dressing. We really love Italian and Ginger Sesame dressings for marinating.
5. Have Trusty Containers.
Ok this one is big. You have to have containers that you can easily see what is inside of them, that keeps your food fresh and that aren’t a pain in the rear to open and close. We really really love the Rubbermaid® BRILLIANCE™ line. They are 100% Leak Proof. Guaranteed. This is crucial for salmonella freaks like us. You can get them at Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Amazon and other fine retailers!
We’d love to hear how you meal prep for the week! Any of our tips and tricks send them our way!
Emily Vanderwalde
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