Nutrition

Meal Prepping for Busy People: 
Quick and Easy Healthy Habits

You want to eat healthy, but you’re super busy.

So many of you are crazy busy with work, your kid’s school, sports, and other activities that you struggle to consistently eat healthy, homemade meals.

But what if I told you that it could be much easier than you think?

What if I told you that it can be easier, healthier, and more affordable than you’re currently making it?

Well, it can be.

But it takes a little bit of planning and effort.

And that’s why most people don’t do it.

Most people aren’t willing to plan ahead. Most people are flying by the seat of their pants and just tackle what’s in front of them at any given moment.

But I’m going to teach you why you should at least do some meal prepping, how to do meal prep, and give you some easy, healthy options to make for next week.

Why Meal Prep

1. Eating Healthy Will Be Easier

I know every single one of you reading this wants to eat healthy.

But so often, you’re caught off guard by your kid getting sick at school, your meeting running long, or you simply forgot to eat.

But if you plan ahead, that won’t be the case.

If you pull out your calendar and write down when you’re eating what meals, it will go a long way.

You won’t be as likely to graze in the pantry all day, or pick up fast food, or skip a meal. 

2. You’ll Save Money And Not Waste Food

A lot of people think eating healthy is more expensive, but compared to what?

Compared to getting the 4 for $4 at Wendy’s for every meal, yes. But that’s not what a lot of people are doing.

When you’re unprepared, you’ll probably go out to eat more than you planned. And that’s undoubtedly more expensive.

When you’re unprepared, you end up wasting a lot of food and throwing it away, therefore wasting money.

Of course, eating healthy by buying seafood, organic fruits and vegetables, and more can definitely be more expensive. But, if you’re thoughtful and strategic about it, you can make it super affordable.

Generally speaking, when you plan your meals ahead of time you’re more likely to save money and not waste food.

3. You’ll Be Less Stressed And Have More Time

If you’re like a lot of people, you worry about what you’re going to make for dinner. 

It can cause a lot of stress to not have a plan.

It can cause more frequent grocery trips. 

And it can cause you to start cooking something that takes you a lot longer than you thought. 

But when you make a meal plan, that doesn’t happen. You’re not wondering what to have, you’re not cooking at every meal, and you actually end up saving yourself a whole lot more time.

1 hour of meal prep saves 2-4 hours throughout the week - at least!

How To Meal Prep

1. Meal Plan

The first step to meal prepping is to come up with a meal plan for your week.

Take out your calendar or pull up your google calendar and write out what you’re having on what days.

A lot of my clients have a family calendar on their fridge or in their kitchen with what meals the family is having every night for dinner.

You can pick 3-4 dinners that you want to make that week. And pick 1 lunch that you can have for at least 3 days. 

Decide which day you are having what and put it on your calendar.

2. Create Your Grocery List

Now that you have a plan for your meals, build out a grocery list. Take a survey of what you already have in the fridge and pantry, so you don’t buy something you already have and waste more money - I know we’re all guilty of this.

3. Make Your Grocery Run

Because you have a list, your grocery run will be more time efficient, healthier, and more cost effective. I like to plan my grocery runs on Sunday morning right when the grocery store opens so they have everything I want and it's not a nightmare to get around.

When you have a list, you won’t be wandering through the aisles wondering what to make, you won’t pick up unhealthy things that catch your eye, and you won’t buy food that ends up going to waste.

4. Prep Your Foods

Here are a few ideas of the different types of foods that you can prep and pack.

Raw Veggies

Wash and cut some raw vegetables like carrots, celery, cucumbers, and bell peppers to have as a snack or to throw on salads throughout the week.

Roast Veggies

Roast 1-2 pans of veggies that you can quickly reheat throughout the week. You can roast brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, onions, potatoes, or asparagus.

I like to simply drizzle my veggies in avocado oil, season with salt and pepper and roast at 425 degrees for 15-30 minutes depending on the vegetable. 

Prep Your Protein

Depending on the kind of protein and your cooking preference, there are a few different ways to do this. 

You can buy a rotisserie chicken and simply pull it apart.

You can go ahead and marinate and grill or bake chicken breasts.

You can prepare ground beef or ground turkey on the stovetop.

Cook Your Grains

If any of your meals call for rice, quinoa, lentils, or farro, go ahead and cook those. 

Other Snacks

If you’d like to pack some other quick grab and go snacks like fruits, nuts, and cheeses you can do that as well.

5. Store Your Food

When it comes to storing your food, you can do whatever works best for you, what works best for what you’re making, and how you’re spreading your meals out across the week.

For example, you could keep things simple and keep all the protein separated into their own containers.

Or if you're preparing something like a salad for lunch throughout the week, then you could go ahead and put all of your ingredients in each container. You could pull out 4 pieces of tupperware and put all of the following in each of them:

Romaine lettuce, rotisserie chicken, chopped hard boiled eggs, diced onions, diced tomatoes, and cucumbers. 

Meal Prep Ideas

I just gave you one. A simple cobb salad with rotisserie chicken.

Another one that I really like is quinoa, ground turkey, edamame and brussels sprouts.

At the beginning of the week you can:
- Cook 1 cup of quinoa
- Cook 1 lb. of ground turkey
- Cook 1 bag of brussels sprouts
- Buy shelled edamame and sriracha hot sauce from Trader Joes

And you can separate it out into at least 3 meals.

Lastly, taco salads are really easy and healthy to prepare.

Simply at the beginning of the week:
- Cook 1 lb. of ground beef
- Buy romaine lettuce and spinach
- Buy 1 avocado, 1 jar of salsa, diced red onions, and shredded cheese
 
And you will have something that will take you just a few minutes to prepare when it comes time to eat. Or you can go ahead and separate all ingredients into their own containers and bring the salsa with you to work.

Conclusion

When it comes to eating healthy, convenience is the name of the game.

So many of us set ourselves up for failure by failing to plan.

We expect ourselves to make healthy choices but then we get stressed out and tired by lunch or the end of the day and don’t make the same healthy choices we intended to.

Making the healthy choice the easier and more affordable choice will lead to consistency.

Put in some time and effort on the front end of your week to save yourself time and stress later on. 

In the meantime, there are more recipes that you can get access to if you participate in the 1-Week FREE Trial of the 10-Week Transformation. 

You’ll get access to a week’s worth of workouts and some great breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes.

Make it easy to prioritize your health and fitness and go to nickcarrier.com/freetrial to get signed up today! 

To getting closer to your Best You,

Nick

P.S. Be sure you’re following me on Instagram, the show on the Apple Podcast App or Spotify, and you’re subscribing on YouTube so you don’t miss out on future episodes.

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