Many – if not all – of us desire to live a happy and healthy lifestyle that makes us feel content, energised and fit. But between work, chores, family life and the never-ending list of responsibilities – life can become tiring and there just isn’t time for healthy meals every single day. Cue meal prepping.
The faithful meal prep has become a lifesaver that’s rocking the world as schedules get busier and busier.
Preparing your meals in advance doesn’t just help you avoid processed or ‘on-the-go’ foods it, also lessens the anxiety that comes with deciding what to eat every other day.
Here are four reasons why you should consider meal prepping:
It helps you save a lot more cash
Let’s face it, sometimes we all love to go out to eat and have food cooked for us, and that’s okay. But the cost of such luxuries can really add up when we indulge too often. A Forbes study, using Wellio data, discovered that home-cooked meals are approximately three to five times cheaper than having the same meal from a fast-food place or restaurant, and yes that includes UberEats.
But with meal prepping, you actively take a bit of time to plan your meals and so can control your expenditure by shopping smart, decreasing aimless purchases and overindulging in restaurants and takeaways.
That’s a lot of money saved and over time it could do wonders for your budget.
You’ll waste far less forgotten food
Have you ever had to toss out a bunch of food items or leftover meals that either went off or lost their nutritional value before you’ve had the chance to cook or eat them? It’s not a very pleasant sensation at all. Not to mention, the overcrowding of already full landfills and the damage it adds to our environment.
But when you meal prep and shop accordingly, you tend to use up most – if not all – of the ingredients that were on the shopping list for the week and are thus less likely to spoil or forget food that hasn’t been cooked or eaten yet.
According to a Sustainability study, food waste is far greater in households with increased rates of dinner planning spontaneity than those that practice meal planning.
You’ll get into the rhythm of healthy habits
It’s a widely known fact that people don’t 100% know what exactly is in their food when getting takeaways or ordering from a restaurant. More often than not, the food you are ordering from has some form of hidden excess saturated fat, sodium, and total calories than the food you would be cooking yourself at home. Additionally, according to the CDC eating from larger portion sizes that are often served at fast-food places and restaurants indirectly leads to the unhealthy habit of overeating.
Meal prepping allows us to reap the health benefits of controlling what exactly goes into the food we eat as well as the amount, so we end up ‘accidentally’ practising portion control. It also gives us access to meals throughout the day, keeping us energized and fueled with minimal effort put in.
Variety is served!
The spice of life is a little bit of variety in all spheres of our lives, including the kitchen. You might think that it’s ironic for meal prepping (which often includes cooking in bulk) to embrace diversity, but the reality is with some of your meals already prepared, you get to curate your own diverse menus instead of opting for your last-minute usual easy fix.
Meal prepping not only gives you the opportunity to create nutritious meals that are great for your diet, but that nudge you onto a journey of newness by trying out new recipes and combinations to keep life spicy.
There are a plethora of meal prep options, guides and hacks. For starters, try searching #mealprep on TikTok.
Author: Tauhira Ajam
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FEATURE IMAGE: Project Meal Plan/ Pinterest
