5 Ways To Make Food Preparation Easy For Weight Loss

I remember at school when my headmaster used to tell us about the five p’s - Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

As corny as it sounded to me at the time, I began to realize what he was getting at when it came to succeeding in your efforts, whatever those pursuits may be.

Being prepared is important. Anticipating your future demands and putting measures in place BEFORE they happen can be the difference between moving forward and being stuck where you are.

Daily life can move fast, and if we are not prepared then we can be subject to acting impulsively and reacting to situations around food and diet that do not serve our goals and desires.

We’ve all been caught out when we’re out and about when we haven’t eaten, and we’re left to grab whatever is readily available to us.

This also goes when we’re at home, and there’s nothing left in the house or nothing readily available to whip up quickly. That’s when we log onto Deliveroo, or start hitting the snacks instead.

We’re all impulsive (some more than others), so it’s inevitable that there’s going to be scenarios where we’re tired, angry or just feeling lazy. Being prepared for these scenarios is what separates those who make progress and those who stay stuck.

So without further ado, let’s get into a few ways you can prepare yourself for your weight loss journey and set yourself for success on the good and the bad days.

Batch Cooking

When you experience how easy it is to succeed when you batch cook meals, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it.

Batch cooking is exactly how it sounds - you prepare a large quantity of a certain food in preparation for a given period of time in the future.

This could be a casserole, soup, a whole chicken, or anything that you can cook en masse really.

The beauty of batch cooking is that not only do you save time by not having to cook on subsequent days after you’ve done it, but you can also save money too.

When you buy in bulk you can get better prices, and you end up buying less ingredients as well.

I am sure a lot of us have cooked meals from a recipe book and ended up buying ingredients that we haven’t used in months to cook anything else.

By batch cooking, you end up saving on costs because you buy less ingredients.

There is the fact that you’ll be eating similar meals regularly, but to avoid getting bored of the same old thing you can batch cook 2-3 different meals at a time, and make sure you switch up what you batch cook every couple weeks or so.

One of the major upsides for your weight loss goals is you can make batch cooking healthy, and also cater each meal to your individual tastes. That way you don’t have to compromise when you’re out and about, and sacrifice enjoying a tasty meal for a more healthy option. At home you can make it tasty and healthy.

When you have all your meals prepared at home, you either have them there ready to rock n roll or you take your meals in batch cooking containers (plastic takeaway containers) with you out into the world.

Batch cooking is a budget and time friendly way to prepare yourself healthy meals that support your weight loss goals.

Pick a day, maybe on the weekend to fire out a few meals and set yourself up for success in the week following.

Try A Meal Prep Service

Even if you’re an experienced batch cooker or meal prepper, there’s often those times where you need something to lean on.

Maybe it's a tough week at work, or you’re traveling the country or have just got back from a trip and don’t have time to go to the supermarket.

Having a company (such as Marvins Den) to hit up when you’re short of options and time is always a good Ace to have up your sleeve to stay on track with your weight loss efforts.

Unlike a food box service, meal prep delivery provides a meal that's ready to go when you are, all you have to do in most cases is just heat it up.

You also have the advantage of being able to choose from a huge range of healthy meal prep options. In the case of The Meal Prep Market that’s over 200 meals!

Talk about variety being the spice of life.

You can order as many or as little meals as you want, and also rotate what meals you eat on a regular basis.

You can even order your meals to your workplace and keep them there, and tailor how you want the service tailored around your lifestyle and unique needs.

Use A Menu Planner

You’d be surprised at how useful this one can be. Again, it helps us be less impulsive and get out of our own way when we’re trying to lose weight.

Sometimes, we may get home from work from a rough day, and turn to some comfort foods.

This is especially the case when there’s no plan for dinner, and there’s maybe not even anything in the fridge.

We can all fall victim to excuses, and something like being tired or not having food available can easily be used to sabotage yourself and your efforts - so why put yourself in that situation in the first place?

Having a weekly menu planner can help you prepare in advance, and source the right foods from the grocery store before needing them. This just removes another step in the process, having food available, plus it removes the possibility of excuses cropping up to derail you.

Although you still have to actually prepare the food each day / night, at least you have thought about the meals ahead of time, and selected healthy foods and meals that are complementary to where you want to be with your target weight, fitness and health.

Choose Quick and Easy Meals

Sometimes the cooking methods and type of meals you choose to make can make all the difference to your weight loss progress.

Usually it’s the quick and easy meals that end up winning the day for weight loss, as the time and commitment factor is minimized, and allows you to live and enjoy more of your life.

An elaborate meal or recipe can be daunting, and introduce an unnecessary barrier for you and your efforts.

If you’re someone that gets caught up in what they do, and doesn’t have the desire to commit too much time for food preparation, then a great option is to just have easy meals to lean on.

An easy meal is something like an oven bake, where you just chop and throw a bunch of vegetables and some meat into a baking tray, cover it in oil and just leave it. It’s a hands off cooking approach, and it’s not too labor intensive.

You can do the same thing with a slow cooker, or one pot. There’s even recipe books which specialize in one pot cooking.

Buy Ready To Cook Ingredients

You want to do anything that can save you time and effort when pursuing your weight loss goals. Set yourself up for success, by making your life as easy as possible.

One way to do that is when you’re at the supermarket, instead of buying let's say whole peppers, onions and cabbage, choose a ready chopped stir fry pack, or pre-sliced ones.

Sure, they may have lost a tiny bit of their nutrition this way, but you are still eating healthy whole foods and also taking the headache out of chopping the veg when you’re at home.

Sometimes the thought of chopping veg can be enough to put us off and have us reaching for the phone to order something, so having absolutely no room for excuses is always a bonus when sticking to your commitment to weight loss overtime.

Other examples of removing preparation steps is to buy canned stuff like sweetcorn, beans and legumes. Again, there is a trade off as these have not been properly ‘activated’ or soaked to process the anti-nutrients, but for a lot of people that’s not a big deal.

Summary

There’s loads of ways you can set yourself up for success with meal prep for weight loss, and we;ve covered just a few of them.

What you can do now is try a few of them, and see which ones work best for you and your lifestyle.

You may rely on one, two or maybe a combination of all of these methods, the most important thing is that you find the ones which are the best fit for you personally.

Hopefully this has provided some insight into the options available to you. I would just say that if you are really time starved, then it’s really worth giving Marvins Den a shot as there are some really delicious and healthy meals.