Blogpost
How to meal prep and plan your workouts
At a young age we all want to be as healthy as we can possibly be. It is also the Trent to live a happy and balanced life. But how to meal prep and plan workouts isn’t always easy. Especially, not as easy as all those influencers make it look. But what if I tell you it isn’t impossible. The answer is actually in the title: PLAN. Plan as much as you can so the only thing left is fulfilling the task.
How to start meal prepping
Meal prepping can be as easy or as complicated as you make it. First of all you start by picking the frequency of your meal preps: daily, weekly, monthly… Personally, I prefer to meal prep every 3 days or weekly but only for 5-6 days. This is how I leave room for eating out or unexpected cravings for a certain food without my prepped meals going bad
Why is it important to not meal prep every single meal? We are human and we do have cravings and social events to attend that often require some food that isn’t in our plan. If you do leave room for these occasions it is easier to stick to your healthy habits and not fall into the snow-ball effect. Also if you calculate those meals in advance into your plan it is actually not ‘cheating’. You have simple planned it this way and are sticking to your meal plan.
After choosing the frequency it is time to pick the meals. Try to include in every meal a source of protein it helps you fill up longer. Make sure there is a balance between protein, carbs & fats. Let the word carrés not scare you, they energise the body see it as fuel. When you are in the store you can tell that products are often packed in multiple pieces or the price is better when you buy it in bulk. This is where I decide on how often I will eat the same meal in the week. Mostly I will have 3 portions per meal. So I meal prep 2 times a week for 3 days.
Create a grocery list with the items and run to the store. When all the items are collected it is time to meal prep. Take your time, don’t try to do it in 30 minutes you will feel rushed and will not be able to prep it all. For a 3 day meal prep I take around 1 hour. For a full week it is more 1,5-2 hours.
TIP: if you lack time, do your groceries the day before you meal prep. Less time consumed in one day.
HOW DO YOU PLAN YOUR WORKOUTS
The goal is to stay consistent and be enjoying the process of working out and moving the body. Again we will start with the frequency. Two questions:
- How often do I want to work out in an ideal situation?
- How often do I know I can work out for sure?
For me the answers are: 4 & 6. So let’s start planning the first question. You decide on which days you know you can workout for sure for example: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. After that your nice to have days: Tuesday & Friday.
Let’s now pick your workouts, this can be anything. Also your paddle lesson or golf session. If you are a gympie you can fill out your muscle groups, for example:
- Workout 1 (Wednesday): hams & glutes
- Workout 2 (Thursday): biceps & chest
- Workout 3 (Saturday): quads & calves
- Workout 4 (Sunday): tricep & back
EXTRA
- Workout 5 (Tuesday): run
- Workout 6 (Friday): tennis
Try to fill it out for yourself. If you only have 3 days were you know for sure that is fine fill it in that way. Hot girl walks are also workouts.
The key to succes? Create a plan that you know you can stick to, don’t try to do more. Once you have created that set routine and that ‘easy schedule’ starts feeling like a routine and not a task you can start adding in a workout or level up your meal plan game. I have an amazing digital & printable guide that can help you to plan out your meals & workouts.
