Getting Ready with Meal Prep

​We all see it all over the internet "meal prep sunday", everyone is laying out their containers filled with beautifully seperated and protioned out meals, heck  I even do it...

Yes sure this definitely looks great and it for sure makes my life and the lives of my clients exponentially easier throughout the week, but do you need to lay it all out on your countertop, buy a million new tupperware containers and pre-portion everything out to make a meal prep day work for you?  In short the answer is NO.  

​There is no need to make everything all instagram worthy, especially if you are new to this whol meal prep thing.   The most important part at this stage is to get you chopping up some veggies, preparing some proteins, pre-washing your lettuce and just taking any little steps possible to make that Thursday evening pizza craving easier to avoid.

Here are 4 simple tips to help you stay the course and begin developing one of that healthy meal prep habit:

1. 1. It is going to take time whether you do it now or do it later.   Cooking food for yourself will at first definitely take more time than ordering in, and yes sure there is a bigger clean up afterwards.  But the pay off is that you know exactly what went into your food, you have the opportunity to ensure the healthiest and best quality produce, fats and proteins are in your meal and let's be honest it always tastes better when you make it yourself. 
2. If your meal prep is also a part of a new dietary lifestyle it can sometimes feel overwhelming, so do yourself a favour, pick a day when you are going to focus on your meal prep and schedule that into your calendar.   Now that you have set that date in stone don't break the appointment with yourself.   You wouldn't just cancel a coffee date with a friend or not show up to a meeting at work, treat your meal prep the same and make sure you show up week after week, even when you really don't want to, eventually it will become a habit and it'll feel like second nature. 
3. So, you are new to meal prep and the idea of selecting 4 different recipes, buying all the groceries and standing around in your kitchen for 3 hours isn't super appealing, I get it.  So instead of jumping out of the gates and setting the bar at "meal prep level expert" start with just making sure your veggies are chopped, your salad is washed, and maybe cook up 1 protein.  Even this smaller step of making sure your carrots are peeled and chopped and waiting for you in the fridge will take the willpower out of making the healthy choice because you have made the healthy choice so easy to make. 
4. The one thing we should all take away from those perfectly curated Instagram stories is that they make a plan.  They aren't just turning on the camera and hoping they will have enough vegetables, grains, protein and fruits to last them the week, they are making a plan.   When meal prepping planning is your very first step.  Sit down, check out some recipes, make a grocery list and then get chopping.   Without that plan you are more likely to cause yourself extra stress, zap up all that finite willpower and make yourself feel like "this meal prep thing just isn't for you".  Take the time to plan first and the whole process will be much more enjoyable and less likely to cause stress.