Everyone hears it all the time: “Cooking is always better for you!” And they’re right, it is. However, the reality is a bit more complicated. After a long day, cooking dinner is not at the top of most people’s list of priorities. This is precisely where a lot of diets go off the tracks. Meals get skipped, and fast food is substituted, or we grab whatever we can to keep us satisfied.
Here’s how it works: you take one or two days a week and spend a certain portion of them preparing some meals ahead of time. You no longer have to think about cooking every day. That’s really it.
And you know what? It makes your whole day easier. You don’t have to wonder what to cook. You don’t have to check in your fridge to see if you have anything edible. You don’t have to rush to your grocery store at the last possible moment when you realize you have nothing to eat. Everything is done for you.
I can assure you that if you’re someone who has always considered cooking to be a hassle, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how many decisions you’ll no longer have to make. It’s a very small thing, but that small thing makes a big difference in your life. Also, let’s say it’s not so much the decision of whether to cook or not, but how long it’ll take to find something decent to eat. Because once you’re in the mood to cook something decent, you’d better hope that you’ve got something good at home. But the same thing doesn’t happen with prepared meals. You’ll have your choice right away.
When it’s time to eat, you no longer need to worry about anything. And that’s huge, because it helps you save a lot of time. You’ll have more time for other things.
It’s also true that many people prefer to eat the same thing every night, or at least something that tastes the same (but isn’t exactly the same, like the case of a meal-prepped bowl) every day. But you don’t have to do this. You can still prepare your food with variety. You can do something like cooking up some chicken breasts to have throughout the week, then preparing different variations of them (i.e., grilled chicken with veggies, chicken Caesar salad, chicken curry with rice) throughout the week.
Of course, this is also a skill that needs practice. If you’ve never meal prepped before, the first few times you’ll feel awkward. I would advise doing some planning ahead of time, figuring out what you want to cook, and going from there. Some people are tempted to do too much the first time, so I would advise cooking one or two meals to start with. Also, make sure to use simple ingredients, as the easier the recipe, the easier it will be to meal prep.
The first few times you meal prep, you might feel like you’re wasting time. But don’t! It’s the best time investment you can make. It’s like getting yourself in the habit of grocery shopping every week or brewing coffee in the morning. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never go back. It gets so much easier.
In short, meal prep is not about cooking. Rather, it is about thinking less about food during the week. Once you understand that, it’s hard to go back.