When it comes to better health, and improving your physical appearance, nutrition is king. Research has shown that people who plan their meals eat more fruits and vegetables, are less likely to be obese, and spend less money on eating out. Meal prepping can drastically affect your progress in a positive way.
Here are 8 ways meal prep can change your life:
1. By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.
The easiest way to achieve any goal, but especially those fitness-related, is to plan ahead. Planning out your meals in advance takes the thinking and the stress out of eating healthy. Instead of scrambling to find something to cook or snack on during the day, you have a perfectly portioned meal or snack ready when you need it.
2. Grocery Shopping Simplified
When you have a plan for meal prepping, you know exactly what needs to be on your shopping list. That means no more wandering the aisles purchasing extra produce that will spoil or unhealthy snacks that don’t benefit you. You go into the grocery store knowing exactly what you need. Even better, if you use a meal prep service, there’s no grocery shopping needed at all!
3. Tracking Ensures Success
When you meal prep, you are thinking ahead about what you need and what fits in your goals. When you plan these meals ahead of time, you are making tracking easier. Knowing what you are consuming will help ensure you are doing what you need to burn fat, build muscle, or reach whatever goal you are aiming for.
4. Time Saver
When the week provides little time and energy for cooking, having healthy food pre-made meals is crucial to your success. Instead of slaving after work to make a macro-friendly meal, you can pick a prepped meal that you know is healthy and will keep you on track. It will also stop you from running through a drive-thru or cooking something processed from a box.
5. Portion Control
Cooking your healthy meals in advance puts you in control of your goals and what goes into your body. You know exactly how much and how healthy each ingredient is. You are making meals that will fit in your calorie or macro budget. This also makes it easy for you to plan small splurges and snacks in advance. Most importantly, instead of cooking and eating until you are full (or more realistically stuffed), you can eat exactly as much as you need and stay within guidelines.
6. Consistency
Consistency is key in almost every facet of life and the health side is no exception. Creating a routine, sticking to plans, and maintaining healthy choices over a long span is the most sustainable way to make progress. Prepping meals ahead of time will ensure that you can count on your diet to be stable even when life gets crazy.
7. Willpower
When you create a plan and stick to it, there is a distinct satisfaction that accompanies that success. You are making a conscious effort to treat your body better and utilizing your willpower to execute your plan. Not to mention achieving small goals can do wonders for your mental health. Building discipline is just an added bonus to the many benefits of meal prepping.
8. It Actually Works
Meal prepping isn’t a fad diet or quick fix. It takes a couple of hours on a Sunday, or a couple of clicks online. By prepping your meals for the week you establish the means to succeed in your daily goals instead of going into Monday “winging it”. You can’t always control what life throws at you, but you can control what you put into your body, and how you spend your time.
Choose from a wide variety of our deliciously clean, macro-calculated meals with the option to customize your own meals today at www.megafitmeals.com.
https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(14)00400-0/
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