How To Save Time And Stick With Your Nutrition Plan
Kate Irwin • August 11, 2020
Doing These Things Will Help You Save Time
It’s that time of year when summer comes to an end and life gets busier. September brings new schedules for many families and it’s easy to fall behind. Whether you have school aged children or not, September is a great time to reset some of your healthy habits and focus on being prepared for the week.
START A SUSTAINABLE NUTRITION PLAN THAT WORKS FOR YOU
A helpful tool for both sticking to your nutrition goals and decreasing wasted time and food during the week is meal prepping. Preparing bulk foods (usually on the weekend) to be used throughout the week is a great way to ensure you always have access to things like lean protein and vegetables. Today I am going to share some of my favourite time saving meal preparation tips to help make life a little bit easier this fall!
THINK AHEAD
In the summer it’s the cottage, in the winter the chalet: Many of our members have reasons why they can’t prep healthy food for the week after a weekend away. The key is to think ahead. Always include food for the start of the week in your pre-getaway shopping trip. This means buying things like chicken breast, ground beef, frozen veggies/fruit and having them on hand for when you get home Sunday night. Having healthier options in the house means you won’t be scrambling as much Monday morning.
BULK COOK YOUR PROTEIN
This is probably my favourite tip. I am a little bit skeptical about meat that’s been in the fridge, so I like to batch cook meat on Sundays and Wednesdays to get me through the week. By having my protein prepared and pre-measured it takes the decision out of my lunches (and sometimes breakfasts!). When you have to make less decisions you rely less on willpower and are usually more successful at sticking to the plan. If you get bored easily with meals you can mix things up by cooking your meat plain then spicing it up depending on the meal. A great example to cook chicken plain in the slow cooker and pull it after cooking. Then one day you can add salsa, corn, black beans and rice while another day you can serve it over a salad, or add a light bbq sauce and make it more of a play on pulled pork. Finding ways to make your proteins versatile will keep you from getting sick of the same food day in and day out.
PRE-MEASURE FOODS
Many people pre-measure out the food they bulk cook, but I am talking about pre-measuring everything. Have a big tub of greek yogurt? Measure it into individual servings. Veggies? Cut them up when you cook your protein and package them by serving. It may seem a bit overboard but I promise that you are more likely to consume foods that are quick to grab and ready to go. Something as simple as measuring out greek yogurt and berries every morning can be a barrier to success. Measure them all at once, dirty one spoon and then it’s ready to go each day!
BUY FROZEN VEGETABLES
Vegetables and fruit are hard to keep fresh for longer periods. I find when I shop on the weekend, that by the end of the week I am out of produce and tend to have less ideal meals. By purchasing frozen vegetables and fruit it means you have access to them all week long without having to find more time to get to the grocery store. Frozen fruit goes really well on greek yogurt or oatmeal while frozen veggies are a quick source of vitamins and minerals. A ‘go to’ in our household is frozen edamame, a vegetable with some protein to keep you going!
Overall meal preparation is about routine. Scheduling in one to two hours one day a week to prepare meals for the week will save you time because you don’t spend 15 minutes preparing each meal. Not only are you saving time but you are saving decisions. The less decisions you have to make regarding your nutrition the more likely you are to have success at whatever your nutrition goal is. Take out the need for decisions and you take out the opportunity to fail.
These are some great meal prep ideas to get you started. I will say that I prefer to keep it simple and not try a bunch of new recipes each week. I find my top 2 or 3 options and rotate between them to keep my life more simple.
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