Are women who prepare meals in advance healthier?
Are women who prepare meals in advance healthier than those who don’t? I can speak from experience and say yes. When I don’t cook at the beginning of the week, I come home tired and exhausted and tend to eat whatever I can grab from the refrigerator, usually a sandwich and maybe a snack.
If something salty is nearby, like chips, I may grab that, along with some water. Next, I may drink a fruit smoothie I purchased from the store with a considerable amount of sugar before bedtime. Fresh fruit would be better because there is not as much concentrated sugar.
Prepare Early
However, when I prepare essential food at the beginning of the week, I tend to eat healthier. So, to have a healthy lifestyle, I must plan. This way, I can portion out my meals for the rest of the week, pick them up and go.
You know the old saying, “Fail to plan, then plan to fail?” I think that applies in this situation. If this is an area that you are struggling with, I have some tips that may be helpful to you.
A Few Ideas
First, plan what you will eat for the week in advance. I started doing meal prep on Sunday. Sometimes I cook a few meals and portion them out in containers to take to work for the week, or I prepare veggies for soups and stews by cutting them and then bagging and storing them until needed.
If I steam them later in the week, I chop them and put them in bags in the refrigerator. Then, when I am ready, I add sauce, seasonings, or whatever I need to dress it up and prepare the meal.
Meal Prep Containers
I utilize meal prep containers and store my lunch for the week. Check out these meal prep containers.
You can easily roast potatoes and veggies and save them until needed. Later, add them to stews or soups, wraps, or veggie bowls.
The Versatility of Beans
Try using a large pot of beans one day for chili, another day for burritos, added to rice or Quinoa, or added to soups and salads. If you are creative, you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen trying to figure out what to make. The beans become the base for the week of other meals. I could go on and on with additional suggestions for this protein. Did I mention that you can make bean dip, bean spread, and beans in sweets?
Lentils are the quickest and easiest legume to make if you have time constraints. They are full of protein and fiber and can be used as they are or with rice. I like them in Mexican soup, lentil and spinach soup, lentil tomato and spinach soup, or whatever combination you wish to use. Canned beans with low sodium are another option for quick meals. Curried Lentils are also quite tasty!
Breakfast, the Most Important Meal of the Day
I prepare 3 or 4 days’ worth of smoothies for breakfast, pour them into cups, and freeze them. I take it out in the morning, let it start thawing, and it is ready to eat before I leave or when I get to work. My other option for smoothies is to freeze the fruit for individual smoothies in baggies and, in the morning, blend the fruit and go. This way, I have a variety for the week.
Breakfast Favorites
Another breakfast or dinner favorite is scrambled tofu with onion, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms, if I have them, and spinach or kale. It’s an excellent way to get extra veggies in my diet. I sometimes also add spinach or kale to my smoothies.
I make my healthy whole wheat waffle recipe and freeze them. The preparation is quick, and the waffles cook quickly. I prefer the brands that make four waffles at a time. This waffle maker makes waffles on one side and pancakes on the other. I love it because it reminds me of the one my mother used when I was a child.
Rice cookers are perfect for brown rice, with more nutrients than white rice. Brown rice is a healthier option. I prefer Basmati or jasmine rice because of its flavorful and pleasant aroma. Depending on where you shop, it may be harder to find in some stores. Rice cookers allow you to put the ingredients in the device and return when it’s ready.
A Few Secrets
One nutritious grain that I discovered a few years ago is Quinoa. This grain is not hard to cook. It comes packed with protein. I will write a whole blog post about it in the future. It is so versatile, and you can cook it in various ways. It is an excellent grain for meal prep.
I keep a bag of fresh Spinach and Kale at almost all times. At times, I use spinach in salads. When I eat sandwiches, I use spinach or kale instead of lettuce. They are also tasty in smoothies and scrambled tofu.
Don’t Make it Complicated.
Please keep it simple. I like the convenience, but I also want my food to be flavorful and healthy. Many think one has to sacrifice taste to eat healthily, but that is not true.
Spending long hours in the kitchen is not an option for me. On meal prep day, I do what is easy. You don’t have to make all your weekly meals upfront, but there needs to be enough preparation so you don’t feel like working a second job when you come home.
The Rewards of Preparation
If you take a little time each week for meal prep, you will find that some of your bad eating habits will change. You will be more conscious of what you are putting into your body and feel better about yourself for better care of your body. Try it out next week and comment below on how things worked out.
Hi Karla,
Your site is very easy to read and follow, I think by reading the about you page it gives some empathy to people who find themselves in the same position as you.You have really made it clear how important diet and exercise is to loosing those unwanted pounds.Not only that but having someone to be accountable to for for your effort in loosing the weight and inches apart from yourself is a brilliant idea.I like you page on cholesterol as I suffer from high cholesterol myself, keep up the good work.All the best Fintan
Thank you Fintan,
Thank you for stopping by. High cholesterol is very common today. It is best when we have the tools to deal with it and understanding how cholesterol works in the body. I you found the blog easy to read and follow. It is a work in progress.
Great article on eating healthy. You truly said that in order to have a healthy lifestyle, we must plan in advance. It requires planning and a bit of preparation for the week if we want to eat healthy. Otherwise, just grab whatever you could lay your hands on and choose to be unhealthy! Good ideas on preparing meals in advance. All the very best!
Thank you for your comments and for checking out my site. I hope you found something that you can apply to your health and lifestyle.
Great analogy about our health and the maintenance of a vehicle, which is very similar if we don’t take care of them. Sometimes we do forget to take care of ourselves, however, we try to bypass it like that check engine light ;-).
You are so right about putting ourselves last because of the love we have for others to succeed their best.
I am almost 40 years old and asked myself those same questions. Where did the years of my 20s and early 30s go? I was having that ‘shoulda coulda woulda’ moment. I wasted a lot of my time working and being unhappy while I was working very hard for someone else. You are right, those years are gone.
Therefore, I did a whole 360 on my health and what I wanted to do in life. I became alkaline vegan and started my own business. My health has never been better and my business has improved also:-)
Yes! I am getting all my vibrations intuned 🙂
Thanks for sharing and wishing you the best on your journey,
Cooki
Thank you for your response. I became vegan too. I have to research Alkaline vegan, I’m not familiar with that. Congratulations on starting your new business. I am attempting to do that with this blog. We can’t do anything about the past, but we sure can do a lot about today and our future. The important thing now is that we both took action. I am wishing you continued success in all that you do.