Meal prep vs Meal planning. What in the world do either of them have to do with getting fit?!?!?
In a word: everything!
Eating properly is crucial if we intend to be successful in our fitness journeys. But eating properly is time-consuming. Despite that fact, we still do our best to eat healthily. We head to the grocery store and buy fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. But we still don’t eat differently. Why? Because either there’s no plan or we didn’t prepare anything.
Incorporating meal planning and meal prep into your daily schedule will allow you to revolutionize your eating habits. But a lot of people tend to ask, “Which one should I do? What’s right for me: Meal Planning or Meal Prep? What’s the difference?”
We’ll tackle all of that today.
What is Meal Planning?
Meal planning is simply planning what you’re going to eat during a specific amount of time. This could be done for a family or an individual.
The benefits of meal planning are that it decreases the chances of overeating because you can log your meals into your calorie count as you plan them so that you know precisely where are you are on a given day.
The drawback is that some people think it is too restrictive, but it’s not. Nothing is set in stone. As long as you switch foods with similar calorie counts you’ll be perfectly fine. Especially if you maintain the nutritional content.
What is Meal Prep?
Meal prep is simply preparing your meals in advance. It could occur in different forms.
- You could actually take one day a week as a single person to cook large meals. Then place those meals in food storage containers. You’ll have lunch and dinner prepared for the remainder of the week.
- You could prep ingredients for different meals. Suppose you want to eat a fresh veggie salad for dinner every day. However, you have no interest in chopping up vegetables before work each morning. You could take one day to chop all of your vegetables. Then place them in individual airtight containers in the fridge. When it’s time for you to assemble the salad, just take out those containers.
- You could take some time on Sunday afternoon to assemble a week’s worth of breakfast and lunch for the members of your household. Simply make sure that everything is clearly labeled so picky eaters and folks with food sensitivities don’t get the wrong lunch.
The benefits are that it saves a great deal of time. Plus it helps you maintain proper eating habits by allowing you to control your portions.
A major drawback is that it can be very time-consuming.
Which Works Best?
Here’s where we tackle the question of Meal prep vs Meal planning.
There are those who think meal planning is the way to go. They’re the type of people who feel that a solid plan is all they need to be successful.
Other all but swear by meal prep. They consider it a lifesaver and feel that they lead much more productive lives because of it.
I firmly believe that meal prep and meal planning work best in concert with one another. Both are essential for your fitness journey. In fact, they are opposite sides of the same coin. Ideally, one would plan the meals and snacks prior to preparing those meals and snacks.
Prepping meals without planning when those meals will be consumed results in a lot of wasted food. You know what you’re going to eat, but you just don’t know when. As a result, you forget the food is in the fridge, and it just ends up getting tossed.
Planning meals without prepping means you’ll be spending a whole lot of time in the kitchen. That may be okay for some folks, but I don’t have that kind of time.
Next Steps
If this is new to you, it might be a little intimidating. The idea of sitting down and organizing what are you going to eat and when you’re going to eat it can be very overwhelming, but that’s why I’m here. I have created some amazing free resources to help you get this all figured. I’ll walk you through that next week!
Hopping on the Scale!
Don’t forget to hop on the scale and see where you are this week. Remember: if you were able to maintain and not gain, that’s still a win!
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