Trying to stick to a strict diet plan and eating healthy bodybuilding foods can be difficult when you are working long hours in the office and have an intense workout program to stick to. It can be impossible to find time to cook healthy meals every day and still have a life beyond fitness. Luckily there is an answer, and it’s called meal prep!
Preparing your meals in advance means you can make sure they are perfect for your diet in terms of calories and macronutrients, and all you have to do is chuck your Tupperware containers in your bag in the morning and you’re set for a day of clean eating.
The best way to do this is to pick one evening each week, Sunday evening usually works best, and cook up a load of meals in batches – the more the better.
For example you could cook all your lunches for the week. For variety you could cook 5 portions of one meal and 5 portions of another, and spread them over two weeks. Then you can get 10 meals worth of food for an hour or two of cooking at a quiet time. You can then keep the first few days worth of good in the fridge, and freeze the rest. Just remember to get a meal out of the freezer to defrost 12-24 hours before you want to eat it.
You can also meal prep tons of dinners at once and freeze them to save even more time, defrosting them when you need. Generally, anything with rice and sauce will freeze and heat up well.
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Example Meals for Meal Prep
Here’s a few examples of tasty meals and snacks you can prepare in advance:
Cold Meals:
- Chicken salad (spinach, rocket, pine nuts, olive oil, satsuma)
- Mackerel salad (shredded lettuce, pine nuts, grapes)
- Chicken, Bacon and avocado salad with salt and pepper
Cold Snacks:
- Rice cakes with peanut butter and banana
- Protein flapjack
- Protein brownies
- Protein carrot cupcakes
- Any nuts
- Greek yogurt with honey and berries
- Raw avocado
Hot meals for reheating:
- Blackened salmon with sweet potato and broccoli
- Thai curry with rice
- Chilli with rice
- Turkey curry with rice
- Fish curry with rice
- Baked potato with tuna, avocado & salad