As a busy mom, it can be challenging to find time to prepare healthy meals every day. Meal planning and preparation have been absolute game changers for our family. This is probably the one shift in my day-to-day life that has helped me make healthier choices when it’s mealtime. Without a plan, this can lead to impulsive decisions or overeating on snacks.

Nutrition is the biggest component when it comes to reaching your fitness goals. I’m sure you’ve heard it, “Abs are made in the kitchen.” I have no idea who said that, but it’s a line frequently tossed around in the fitness world. This is why meal preparation is your key to success.

Plan Your Meals

Make a tentative plan for your weekly meals. This includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. When designing the plan, play to your strengths. If you really hate cooking, don’t choose meals that require 4 pots and pans with a 2-hour prep time.

Keep your weekly schedule in mind as you’re choosing your meal options. If you work late on Mondays, that is probably not the night to test out a new 15 ingredient meal with a lot of prep time. The goal is to create something sustainable.

Making a Grocery List

As you get into this routine, you will adapt to what you or your family consumes in a given period of time to adjust the quantity purchased accordingly. Ultimately, saving you money and preventing waste. It is definitely a learning curve. Everyone is consuming slightly different quantities making it challenging to provide you with a perfectly curated list.

To cut back on wasting food, make a list so that you aren’t mindlessly tossing things in the cart. Creating the list makes the trip much more efficient as well. It has helped me to avoid going down the center aisles that don’t contain the foods that will help me continue making healthy choices.

Tip: When creating the weekly plan, leftovers can be used for lunch or dinner on the following day. Keep it simple.

Prepare Ingredients Ahead of Time

Meal Prep

I think the keyword found in this blog post is prep. Preparing your ingredients and snacks ahead of time when you have extra time on your days off will save you so much time when you’re in the thick of the chaos.

Chopping and washing fruits and vegetables for cooking or eating raw can make the perfect addition to any meal or become a ready-to-eat snack. When I have taken the time to wash fruit so that it was easy to grab and consume immediately, I noticed we stopped throwing away as much food.

All in all, the time I take for preparation helps me eat healthier, save money, and save time on creating heathy meals for my family and I.

Bulk Preparation

Use easy prep methods like the slow cooker or grill to cook up more than one meal worth of protein. I like these options because the slow cooker is a hands-off approach without the need to tend to the food and the grill doesn’t require a lot of clean up.

For bulk prepping, you can add a little seasoning or sauce to the meat if you choose, but when you keep it separate from say a whole lasagna, you aren’t required to eat lasagna for your next 7 meals. This gives you a little freedom to break up the monotony.

Bulk prepping can also cut out the decision-making process. When it’s been a long day or week, sometimes removing the meal decision will increase the likelihood that you stay on track for your nutrition goals. If you’re fatigued and don’t feel like cooking, it might sway you in the direction of a drive-thru or Door Dash for convenience. With the food already cooked, all you need to do is reheat it.

This can be applied to your protein, carb sources, and vegetables. I typically cook up large quantities of rice or potatoes and I rely on steam bags of veggies if needed. If you’re a major foodie, you may not love these options, but as a mom they are convenient, yet healthy.

Personally, I rarely reheat my food, I think that comes with the territory of parenthood. The cold food doesn’t really bother me anyway.

Stay Flexible and Adapt When Needed

Life throws out curve balls to even the most well laid out plans. Keeping healthy frozen options on hand will help you get through the occasional shift in plans. Frozen vegetables that steam in the bag, 1-minute pouches of rice, and pre-cooked frozen protein options are excellent quick dinner options.

It’s not an all or nothing situation. If you know that Wednesday is going to be tough to cook a meal, keep your other meals on track for the day and continue into Thursday with the remainder of your meal plans. One meal off your plan won’t ruin your health and fitness journey, it’s the consistent meals away from home that catch up to you.

Try using these tips to streamline your meal prep. Share your tips in the comments!

Happy Prepping!

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