Lifestyle Tips — New Year's Resolution
How to Meal Prep: 6 Key Benefits of Meal Prepping 0
Meal prepping is a food trend that is here to stay. It is a great way to save time and money and reduce food wastage. In addition, it helps you to make quick and healthy meals. It ranges from smoothie packs for breakfast to cooking complete meals for dinner and lunch for a few days. So, if you’re interested in saving time in the kitchen while making healthy food choices, you should try it.
The best part is that you don’t have to spend an entire day prepping. Instead, spend as little as 30 minutes cooking your favorite meals by choosing freeze dried products that are ready to use. Ultimately, meal prepping will make your life easier. This article will share tips on getting started and the benefits you will get. Let’s dive in.
What Is Meal Prepping?
Meal prepping involves grocery shopping, preparing meals in advance, and storing them as ready-to-eat packs. So, for example, you can pack your breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks for a week rather than doing it every evening. The purpose is to have healthy and nutritious home-cooked meals without the fuss of cooking every day.
Why Should You Meal Prep?
Meal prepping is an effective way to save cooking time, especially if you have a busy schedule. It reduces food waste and the temptation to eat out or order in when you’re too exhausted to cook. Additionally, it allows you to eat home-cooked meals without cooking from scratch.
Is Meal Prep For Everyone?
Meal prepping is excellent for people who desire to eat home-cooked meals but have a tight schedule. It is for people who value time, budget, convenience, and efficiency, and want to control their meals rather than eat something different every day. On the contrary, meal prepping is not for you if you prefer eating freshly prepared food to eating leftovers.
What Foods Work Well When Meal Prepping?
Cooked beans, freeze dried vegetables, cooked grains, nuts, seeds, cheese, freeze dried fruits, and cooked meat are excellent choices. However, some foods don’t work well with meal prep, such as soft fruits and vegetables such as berries, cut fruit, and crunchy foods like chips and crackers.
Meal Prepping With Freeze Dried Products
You don’t have to make all foods from scratch. Instead, buy freeze dried vegetables, dried vegetables, and freeze dried fruits to reduce your cooking time. For example, a recipe that would need garbanzo beans will save a lot of time by using dehydrated garbanzo beans or dehydrated black beans. More so for vegetables like dried carrots and broccoli: it saves you the time to clean and chop them. So, all you need to do is rehydrate them, and in minutes, your salad is ready.
How Long Can The Prepared Meals Stay In The Refrigerator?
There’s no one rule about storing meal preps. All foods stored in the refrigerator slowly decline in quality. Also, how you pack the food and the refrigerator’s environment can impact the quality of the meal preps. However, preparing the meal preps for 3-7 days max is a good idea.
How to Meal Prep
First, decide the duration you want to meal prep, whether it’s three days or a week. Then, plan the meals you’ll prepare for those days. Secondly, choose the breakfast, lunch, or dinner recipes.
Then, write down the ingredient you need for the recipes you’ve chosen. Next, schedule the day for shopping and preparing the meals. Lastly, prepare the meals and store them in the refrigerator. See what works for you, and then adjust accordingly.
To succeed as a beginner, start for a day. Pack your lunch box with the leftovers for dinner one night. If you like the taste, you can prepare more food. Start with a single recipe meal prep that provides the protein, grain, and vegetable instead of a meal that needs two or three recipes together. Subsequently, you can try for two or three day’s lunch and dinner.
You will need containers of different shapes and materials, ideally glass or BPA-free plastics that you can microwave. You can also buy reusable Ziploc bags that are BPA-free.
6 Benefits of Meal Prepping
Meal prepping saves time
Cooking homemade meals can take a lot of time. But, using a Sunday afternoon to meal prep the week’s menu in advance can pay off and save you time to rest during the busy weekdays. Also, being hungry and tired can be stressful when you don’t know what to cook for dinner. Imagine beating the evening rush and traffic then getting home, and your mind is blank on what to cook. So, you decide to order takeaway, because you have an early morning and need to rest.
Instead of wasting time deciding what to cook, all you need is to open the refrigerator, get your meal prep, warm it, and enjoy. Meal prepping also means you’ll have fewer dishes to do in the evening.
Meal prepping saves you money
Apart from risking your health because of unhealthy choices, eating out or ordering in every day is costly. So, meal prepping is a huge money saver. It is cheaper to buy ingredients in bulk, and also, you’ll spend less on takeaways. A shopping list for meal prepping also avoids impulse buying when shopping at the grocery store. You can save the money and spend it on your vacation or pay off the mortgage.
Meal prepping saves you energy
Meal prepping is great for busy people who want to maintain healthy eating. Cooking is exciting, but it can be cumbersome to cook daily. For example, you may be on track from Monday to Wednesday. Then you get busy and tired on Thursday and decide to order takeaway.
Having prepared meals means you’ll spend less energy cooking and get more time to rest or do other things. Furthermore, you can prepare cooking ingredients at once for various recipes rather than chopping them daily.
Meal prepping reduces food wastage
When you meal prep, you go grocery shopping in advance with a list of what you need. Everything you buy has a purpose in the recipes you have planned, so there’s less risk of food items that will go bad. Set aside time every week to plan your meals. It is worth the effort. Meal prepping takes time to get used to, but it is the right step for a healthy lifestyle.
Benefits of meal prepping for weight loss
Whether you’re trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy diet, meal planning is an easy way to reach your goals. You control your portion sizes more than when eating in restaurants because they usually have large portions. Furthermore, when you prepare your food, you control the ingredients you use in your cooking. So if you want to attain your weight goals, meal prepping is for you.
Health benefits of meal prepping
When you get home exhausted at the end of the day, it could be tempting to reach out for a quick, unhealthy meal or unhealthy snacks because you are too tired to cook. Unfortunately, we tend to choose unhealthy foods because of convenience. But if you had a ready meal prepared in advance, all you need is to warm it and eat.
Ready to get started with meal prepping? Get out there and prep those meals. Check out our freeze dried products that make meal prepping a breeze. We’d love to hear if meal prepping has worked for you. Please share your comments, tips, and meal prep wins in the comment section below.
References
New Year Resolutions 2022: 13 Healthy Habits You Can Keep 0
2022 is here. A new year. A new you. And there’s no better time to create health goals. As you pop the champagne cocktails and unwrap the gifts, make time to review your New Year’s Resolution. Probably you may not have been successful with your New Year’s Resolution in the past years, but it’s not the time to give up. You are still here; so keep trying.
Get a little inspiration from our list of New Year Health Resolutions that you can make in 2022. Although they may not be your typical ‘lose weight’ or ‘sign up for the gym’ goals, they are achievable goals that are worth adopting as your own. If the lessons from the covid 19 pandemic are anything to go by, the goal is to have a happy and healthier life.
1. Get enough sleep
Sleep deprivation causes many health issues. Get a whole night’s sleep by going to bed early, because it ensures that you get enough rest and helps you stay healthy. So, aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep daily.
To have a quality sleep, put down your phone and switch off the TV at least 30 minutes before your sleep time. Then, maintain a healthy sleep schedule. Lastly, get up at the same time daily. Ignore the temptations to sleep in during the weekends, and don’t snooze the alarm.
2. Wake up early
You probably believe that you’re not a morning person, and that’s fine. But for this New Year, try to wake up early since it could be a trick you’re looking for to usher in a healthier and more happy life. First, it gives you more time to work out and practice a healthy routine. Second, it gives you an extra hour to work on your dreams. Third, it improves your diet and sleep quality, directly impacting your mood.
Wake up early, enjoy the early morning sunshine, and eat breakfast on the porch. Getting sunshine the first thing in the morning helps regulate your body clock.
3. Drink more water
It is easier to reach out for soda or coffee than to drink a cup of water. However, your daily water intake is the key to achieving glowing skin, healthy weight, and recovery after a workout. Set a goal to drink at least 2 liters (1/2 gallon) of water every day.
Above all, drink two glasses of water first thing in the morning to help you achieve half of the daily goal; you can infuse lemon wedges in the water to give it a Vitamin C boost. Consider using an app to track your water intake.
4. Eat nutritious breakfast every day
Make time to eat breakfast. It is not cliché that it’s the most important meal of the day. You had fasted for about 7-9 hours during your sleep and need to reenergize. So, eat a healthy breakfast such as a green smoothie or vegetable omelet. Your body and metabolism will thank you.
5. Get moving daily
Regular exercise is an essential part of self-care. It is not only great for maintaining a healthy weight, but it also makes you strong and confident. You don’t have to sign up for the gym. Simple walking or running is beneficial to your health. Plus, you don’t have to get to 10,000 steps on day one, but the simple act of starting will set you up for success.
Additionally, you can go for a solo walk, a hike with your friends, or run with your spouse. When you spend time in nature, you increase your level of happiness and feel empowered and transformed. However, it is okay to join the gym in the New Year. Unlike working out from home, where you may have trouble keeping your workout schedule, pick a gym with an instructor to keep you accountable.
6. Eat more homecooked meals
Find ways to cook healthier meals daily. Cooking at home is not only therapeutic, but you also have control over the ingredients and your portion sizes. Try out new recipes every week and make nourishing meals with your family. In addition, eat only when you’re hungry to avoid excess intake. Finally, don’t restrict your caloric intake as it increases the production of stress hormones. There are many healthy recipe ideas on our blog that you will love.
7. Eat more fruits and veggies
Nutritious eating is the foundation of good health. It is a form of self-care that you should prioritize. Eat more fruits and vegetables every day and stop reaching out for highly processed foods. First, add greens to your smoothies, such as freeze dried cauliflower, dried spinach, or leafy kale. They blend very well and make a nice, creamy texture.
Next, make a salad with at least two types of chopped greens. Eating salads help control your calorie intake.
8. Start meal prepping
Create a weekly or monthly meal plan to make grocery shopping and healthy eating a breeze. Prepare your meals in advance and put them in storage containers. Put the freeze dried fruits and veggies in front and center of your pantry and make them a quick grab-and-go snack.
9. Book a full body checkup
When was your last dentist appointment? Did you know that missing at least two dentist appointments could make your teeth need a root canal? Subsequently, you’ll spend more than what you would have used for the initial checkup. Book health checkups in advance at the beginning of the year and put them in your calendar, so you don’t forget. Most diseases are preventable and easy to treat once they are detected early enough.
10. Go to therapy or find a mentor
We all need someone to talk to once in a while. Plus, these past months have been hard on everyone due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Don’t just focus on paying bills and advancing your career. Instead, check in with a mental health professional to get back your life. Finding a mentor is also a great way to keep you grounded and accountable. Alternatively, seek the advice of someone you look up to or admire.
11. Start a journal
Start keeping a regular record of your thoughts, mood, feelings, and progress in your healthy habits or work. Journaling helps to reduce anxiety and to regulate your emotions. Note down the changes in your moods to mitigate any triggers so that you can make life adjustments. For example, write down what you’re grateful for every day. It makes it easy to look back and check your progress.
12. Make time to reflect on the positives
Mental wellbeing is just as important as your physical health. Make an effort to practice self-care habits.
13. Take a break from social media
Take a break from social media and spend time with your pet or child or practice self-care. Taking a break can reduce the stress and anxiety caused by excessive scrolling. Also, when you put down your phone, you create more time to catch up with your family and neighbors. Improving your people connections can improve your mood and overall happiness.
Stop using your phone in bed since the blue light can affect your sleep quality. In addition, avoid picking your phone the first thing in the morning. Set a time once every week that you will be away from your phone.
How To Set New Year’s Resolution That You Can Achieve
Your resolutions could be losing weight, drinking more water, or exercising daily. While these are reasonable health goals, it is easier to set goals than stick to them. Unfortunately, about 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail within the first month. Avoid this trap by setting goals instead. A goal should be specific, measurable, and time-bound if you’re to achieve it.
Another practical way to ensure that you achieve your new year’s resolution is to know your why. For example, why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to start a business? When you start with why it creates a mental picture of pain or pleasure that will gear you up to do what you need to do to achieve the goals.
Write down the goals, why you want to achieve that goal, the actions you need to take to achieve the goal, and the timelines for achieving the goal.
5 New Year’s Resolutions Success Tips
1. Create a routine
Have a daily sequence of tasks and activities that you need to do to make your life predictable and reduce your stress levels. In addition, having a routine is a great way to keep new habits such as healthy eating and working out.
2. Ditch the elevator
Choose the stairs and avoid the elevator. In this fast-paced world that we live in, we are always in a rush. So elevators could be the best option when you’re in a hurry. But in reality, you can avoid the elevator if you practice being early on appointments so that you don’t have to rush. Also, don’t rob your body of the necessary activity you need during the day.
3. Find your ideal workout routine and stick to it.
You don’t have to hit the gym at 5 am daily to stay healthy. Instead, you can go swimming, practice pilates, weightlift, dance, or run a few kilometers every day. Do whatever works for you, as long as you keep working on yourself and challenging yourself physically. For example, you could train for a marathon or lift weights, and keep progressing to your goals.
4. Work out to feel good, not to be thinner
Instead of obsessing over the scale, obsess over how amazing you feel after your workout. The New Year isn’t necessarily an invitation to start a diet or workout plan, but a time to set up a lifelong healthy living lifestyle.
5. Stretch it out
We spend so much time sitting and staring at our phones. Endeavor to stretch just 5 minutes daily to loosen the tight muscles.
Start these achievable healthy New Year resolutions today for a healthier and happier life. Which healthy habits will you start in 2022? Please share in the comment section below.
