My Meal Prepping Experience

When starting college, most of my meals were either frozen or fast-food. Since I was not a huge fan of the campus dining hall, I relied on the mini fridge and microwave in my dorm room. I would often skip meals--only causing me to binge during others. This caused me to drastically gain weight and form some unhealthy habits, which definitely did not help with my stress levels. I would attend class and immediately feel the urge to run over to Taco Bell, Zaxby's, or Chick-Fil-A--draining my wallet and going over my caloric budget. I knew I needed to change what I was eating, so I decided to try out meal prepping for the first time during my sophomore year! I lost about 30 pounds in my spring semester alone. I have meal prepped here and there throughout my weight loss journey, but found it to be the most helpful when I was living on my own.

Meal prepping is a way to have prepared meals ahead of time--which saves time, money, and waste in the kitchen. It significantly helped me in reducing my portion sizes and reaching my fitness goals.

When it comes to meal prepping, it is important to set aside enough time to shop for groceries and prep enough food to last throughout the week. I would usually do my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons and cook everything in the evening, so it would all be ready on Monday for the new week.

It gave me relief knowing that I did not need to cook throughout the week, so I could spend more time doing my homework and hanging out with friends.

When grocery shopping for meals, I made sure to buy enough tupperware to divide all the meals. I knew that it was probably not realistic to have my breakfast, lunch, and dinner all prepped--so I mainly focused on having enough lunches and dinners to last Monday through Thursday. I usually did not have any meals prepared for the weekend either since my plans always changed and I was out of town. For breakfast, I would usually have waffles or english muffins + turkey sausage + cheese. I would bring my lunch meal prep to classes and eat my dinner meal prep later in the evening. I would also buy a variety of fruit and healthy snacks to have in-between my meal prep, but still stayed in a calorie deficit. I loved mixing grapes, strawberries, and apples in the same container to conveniently have when I was hungry. Snacks mostly consisted of greek yogurt, rice cakes, veggie straws, pretzels, and pea crisps.

I mainly used Pinterest to look for simple recipes for meal prepping that had a good balance of proteins, veggies, and grains/carbs. Each week, I would have two recipes to alternate for my lunches and dinners. Meaning, I would have about eight containers total in my fridge to have during the week. I made sure that each recipe I made each week would be enough for four servings. When using potatoes in my meal prep, I would use about two potatoes for four meals!

SOME OF MY GO-TO MEAL PREP RECIPES:

Ground Turkey, Broccoli, & Sweet Potato with Hummus or Ketchup

Grilled Chicken, Sauteed Onions/Peppers, & Multi-Grain Rice

Ground Turkey, Corn, and Black Beans with Taco Seasoning

Black Bean Veggie Patties, Asparagus, Cauliflower Rice or White Rice

Grilled Chicken, Stir Fry Veggies, & Mashed Potatoes (I LOVE Trader Joe's frozen mp)

Ham, Green Beans, & Potato Wedges

Grilled Chicken & Cauliflower or Regular Fried Rice

When prepping my meals, I would refrain from using olive oil to avoid the extra calories. Instead, I would use PAM spray before cooking my food. I mostly stuck to using garlic seasoning when preparing my food to cook (or any other seasonings that were 0 calories). Throughout my meal prep journey, I mainly used these recipes and went a long period without getting tired of them! If I wanted some variety to my meals, I would try different sauces such as low calorie BBQ or honey chipotle sauce. If I did not have time to meal prep, I also liked to get a couple salad kits and and would add chicken or chicken sausage to them. After meal prepping for the week, I would definitely treat myself on the weekend. Throughout this journey, I learned how vital it was to be consistent in what I was eating. You should be able to eat what you desire/crave, while also maintaining self-control. Most of my prepped meals were about 300-400 calories, so I was eating under1,500 calories during the week days including breakfast & snacks.