So, the first thing you do is head to your app store, download myfitnesspal and then agonisingly start weighing and scanning your foods in the hope your calories come under the number that your PT gave you. 

But by the time you get to the evening, you realise you’ve left yourself with zero calories for dinner and the stick of celery in the fridge is looking like the only thing that will fit within your target. As well as that, you take a look at your protein goal and suddenly start wondering how on earth anyone could ever consume that much protein in one day? 

Now, if this all sounds a bit familiar, stick with us on this one as we explain how planning your meals could be the answer to all of your problems. 

So, meal planning is by far one of the best ways of ensuring that you meet your health and fitness goals. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying “you can’t out train a bad diet” and what you put into your body will have a direct impact on the kind of results that you can expect in the gym, as well as the way you look and feel on a day to day basis. 

Now, the thought of meal planning can be a pretty daunting prospect, but like a lot of things in life, the thought of doing something might actually be worse than doing the thing itself. 

3 tips to help you become a meal prep king or queen!

1. Plan the whole week in advance over the weekend

Now we know that life can be pretty full on for most of you during the week. Between work, family, day to day life, admin and other commitments you’d be hard pressed to find the time to properly plan your meals for the following day, let alone the rest of the week. 

Picture this scenario…you’ve had a difficult Monday, you’ve had to juggle commitments once you get home, and then, just as you’re about to think about going to bed and falling into a blissful slumber you suddenly remember you’ve got to work out Tuesday’s meal plan. Now, are you likely to put a lot of care and effort into the planning, if plan things out at all? 

So why not avoid this situation by scheduling yourself half an hour at the weekend to put a meal plan together for the following week. Once you’ve practised doing this for a few weeks the whole process will become faster and more streamlined saving you time in the long run as you recycle old and tested recipes rather than trying new things from scratch. 

2. Keep it varied

As the saying goes…variety is the spice of life, and that’s just as true for your diet than anything else. And what’s more, studies have shown that a varied diet is simply better for your health and can help to reduce type 2 diabetes by as much as 30%. 

So your meal prep doesn’t have to look like an endless cycle of chicken, rice and broccoli! A large part of the key to success with any diet is staying engaged with it and making it an enjoyable lifestyle shift rather than a chore that you could do without. 

So take the extra time to plan a few different meals throughout the week to avoid getting bored of eating the same thing each day. Bulk cooking a couple of dishes which you then spread out across the week is a great way of mixing things up as well as helping you to save a bit of time. 

3. Calculate and track the calories and micronutrient contents of each meal

Now one of the key benefits of planning your meals is that you’re able to work out just how many calories, and what proportion of protein, carbs and fats are that you’ll be getting in your diet.

Tracking and planning your meals in this way gives you more structure to your diet and takes away the stress of tracking as you go which can lead you to not hitting your nutritional goals at the end of the day. Not only will this make you happy…but it will also make your PT pretty happy as well! 

As well as this, prepping your meals in advance to match your calorie and micronutrient goals in advance is also a great way of ensuring that you don’t under or over eat. You’ll literally start each day knowing just what, and how much you should be eating. 

Our final thought on meal prep is this…

Meal prepping and planning is a great way of adding structure to your diet and takes away the stress of tracking as you go. As well as this, it can be an easy way for you to encourage healthy eating habits as well as making a busy life a little bit easier. 

So, find some time at the weekend, put the Netflix on pause, and get some meal prep ideas down and start prepping!