160420 - CrossFit | Wednesdays with Hannah P.
Meal Prep
This is a term that pops up here and there in fitness groups. Meal prep is a great tool that helps many people succeed with health eating. It’s not for everyone, and it definitely takes some getting used to, but it can be very helpful in getting your eating on track.
The premise of meal prep is batch cooking a large quantity of one or more meals for the coming week. For example, some people may cook 5 servings of one meal and eat that at work every day at lunch rather than eating out or having a frozen meal. Some people like myself may cook up large quantities of 4 or more meals for the coming week, so that all or nearly all of our meals are prepared for the week. Extra servings can be kept in the freezer or the fridge and reheated at meal time.
The advantage to meal prep is that when you are exhausted after a long day and your willpower is depleted, you don’t have to think or put any effort into getting in a healthy meal. You don’t have to spend an hour or more cooking a meal, washing dishes, etc. You don’t have to stop by the grocery store on your way home and remember every ingredient for a recipe, or find a recipe and get all of the ingredients. You can simply come home and eat. (This logic also applies to lunch, or whenever you choose to eat your prepped meal.)
Diet is such an important part of weight and body fat. Exercise can’t do all the work for you. Meal prep doesn’t have to be any fancy recipes with expensive ingredients. Some of the meals I made for this week were: baked chicken thighs with garlic powder/onion powder/sea salt sprinkled on top with frozen plain broccoli, baked chicken breast with canned tomato pasta sauce with sautéed plain frozen spinach, ground pork mixed with some Mrs. Dash herb blend and baked in sausage patties with frozen carrots and cauliflower, and stew beef sprinkled with Korean BBQ herb blend combined with frozen mixed veggies. I prep my starchy vegetables separately and have some fresh and frozen fruits available to eat with meals.
You definitely do not have to follow the ideas I prepared this week. If it is your first time meal prepping, I would suggest starting with just one meal with multiple servings. A good place to start is either with baked chicken or buying a rotisserie chicken and pulling the meat off, and packaging it with any kind of plain frozen veggies you like. You can also cube and bake sweet potatoes to throw in for some whole food carbs. Everyone eats different portions, but a good place to start for active days for an adult is about ½ pound of protein, 2 or more cups of non-starchy vegetables, and about 1 cup of starchy vegetables like sweet potato, butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, etc. You can tweak portions as you see how it settles with you.
For me, the key to meal prep is having variety week to week. If I make the same meal every week I am eventually going to get sick of it and not want to eat it anymore! If I don’t eat the meal I prepped then that is a waste! I also like to keep my meals really simple which keeps me from being overwhelmed and also keeps the grocery bill affordable.
If you have not meal prepped before, anticipate spending 1-3 hours on making one meal in bulk for the week. It would be a good idea to start with just one “recipe” like chicken and veggies and sweet potatoes. I hope you will give meal prep some consideration and maybe do a little research to see if you can make it work for you.
If you have any questions about meal prep, please feel free to comment here! No question is too silly!
-Hannah P.
SKILLS
Skill work in one of 5 areas
WOD
"Grace"
30 clean and jerks 135/95