5 Reasons to Meal Prep

Preparing food in large batches has changed my life. When I first started to focus my diet on healing foods, I was spending every night in the kitchen. I would spend all day teaching at an elementary school and come home to lesson plan while I prepared my food for the evening and the next day. I felt like all I did outside of work was chop vegetables and wash dishes.

Then I started to focus on batch cooking and preparing meals in advance. Every week is not perfect, but my week runs smoothest when I have at least some food prepared for the meals ahead. When I have food prepared, I can spend my evenings with friends, catching up on errands or spending time on other self-care like reading, taking a bath or watching Top Chef.

If you’re not yet convinced that meal planning is for you, check out my Top 5 Reasons to Meal Prep below:

1.) Meals Ready When You Are

Food waiting for you at home means less last minute snacking that leaves you with that feeling of being overfull and hungry at the same time. I am a snacker and I always have been. It is easy for me to return home from work or being out and indulge in chocolate, fruit, packaged snacks or any other easily available snack. These sugary, salty goodies leave me feeling sluggish for the rest of the day and because I’m feeling full I rarely cook up a big plate of veggies after snacking. Since I have adopted meal preparation and batch cooking in my life, it is MUCH easier for me to come home, heat up prepared, balanced meal and spend the remainder of the day feeling good.

2.) Meal Prep is the BEST form of self-care.

No matter how much or how often, adding a few veggies into your diet that you prepared at home will benefit your health and wellbeing. Think of your body like a car. You can spend all the time you want washing and waxing the outside and getting the inside detailed, but if you don’t add the right kind of gas to the fuel tank the car won’t run.

Self-care in our country is often poised as getting nails done, buying new clothes or ‘treating yourself’ to an entire pizza. I want to help you shift your idea of self-care to focus on fueling your body with the best possible, most financially responsible gas: vegetables. There is nothing wrong with spending time and money on your physical appearance, but these investments will not have the same internal ROI as a well-balanced meal waiting for you in your fridge.

My goal as an educator is to teach you the basic skills to be able to plan and prepare meals so that you can love and care for yourself through food.

3.) SAVE $$$$$

Spending money on prepared food from a restaurant, delivery service or grocery store adds up QUICK. Ingredients are much cheaper than prepared food. My goal is to teach you how to plan and prepare quick, easy meals with affordable ingredients. By following my tips for meal planning and meal prep, you will efficiently and effectively use your ingredients to make meals at a fraction of the cost of someone else doing it for you. Because I teach you cooking skills to allow creativity and flexibility, you’ll be able to use up ingredients in your fridge before they go bad (like that partial bunch of cilantro in your fridge right now…….).

If you’re trying to transition to a healing diet on a low budget, focus on veggies and making your protein stretch over many meals. I buy lots of veggies and roast them right away when I get home. This allows me to have lots of veggies for the week without wasting $$ on food that goes bad in my fridge.

4.) Food on the go

We are a culture of eat-and-run meals. Food is made to fit in your cup holder or to be eaten with one hand while the other is scrolling on Instagram. Ideally, everyone would be sitting and calmly eating to allow for proper digestion, but this is 2019 and convenience is the reality. Meal planning allows you to have food prepared so that if you need to leave 15 minutes earlier than anticipated, or you are going somewhere without food options, you have a nutrient dense snack ready to go right along with you.

In my cooking course, Culinary Healing, I’ll share how I store and transport food in my own life. I am a lover of jars and you can always find a container of food in my purse. Having portioned, portable food enables me to take food out or heat up an individual portion with ease. By spending a few hours prepared and storing food, I can spend the rest of the week focusing on time with loved ones, work and relaxation.

5.) Skill Building

Learning a new skill is exciting and fun, but learning a new skill that can change your life is powerful. Meal preparation, no matter the size or the frequency or even the ingredients, will benefit your life because you are accomplishing something positive for yourself. For me personally, learning a new skill makes me feel proud and resourceful. When that new skill is caring for myself and others, it builds up my self-worth and self-esteem. Meal prep will benefit your life, but learning how to cook will benefit the lives of every person around you. When you’re well fed you can be a better friend, partner, parent or coworker. Learn how to cook and show your love by nourishing those that you love.