Do you even prep, bro?

You’ve seen them, the people with their lives all put together who spend Sunday’s joyously cooking, cutting, weighing and placing perfectly portioned “macros” into little black containers so their abs can stay pumped all week long. #mealprep #absaremadeinthekitchen

Okay, it’s not always like that. But social media makes even me feel bad about the way I approach my week sometimes.

I am a firm believer in changing, but changing into something obtainable. If you don’t actually enjoy prepping your week on Sundays or you hate feeling controlled by your food (thats me) then maybe the perfection just isn’t for you. Maybe you’re too busy, don’t like eating the same thing every day or hate the fact that your food touches each other for a few day,  you need to understand that prepping breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in black little containers and to-go bags isn’t the only way to go. 

But while sitting around thinking about how to help you decide how to approach the week I thought about all the different types of people I have worked with…. 

Do you even prep, bro?

  1. The Prepper

This is the classic prep. For the people who love to have everything ready to go and preplanned perfectly.

This is best for people with a hard core goal. Once upon a time it was only bodybuilders and bikini competitors you saw running around with giant lunch boxes of tuna. Now you see numerous walks of life running around in such a manner.

For this strategy I recommend:

  1. Box (reusable) containers. Glass > plastic – but they’re both reusable. I’ve noticed that the classic black box containers are easily thrown away by other people who think they’re take out Chinese for lunch. So be wary. Keep a tight grip
  2. Schedule a few hours to cook Sunday afternoon. I also recommend choosing another day of the week to prep as well. Prepping for three days in a row allows the food to not spoil or absorb weird otherness. I like Sundays and Wednesdays and I have always given clients a free day on the weekend to eat things they love – I also used to prep for people before I went off to grad school. I noticed it also helped to break up the time it takes to prep an entire week and that people looked forward to new recipes throughout the week.
  3. K.I.S.S. – the simpler the recipes the easier to stick to. Enough said.

2. The Cook

This person loves to cook. They’ve written out their dinners for the week and are ready to go each and every night.

This style may be slowly dying out with the “work harder” atmosphere we live in today. But cooking should be enjoyable – and for some people it’s like therapy.

For this person I recommend:

  1. Cooking more than you need and eating your leftovers for lunch each day. Technically that makes you a night prepper, but there are worse things to be called.
  2. Theme your nights. Sometimes it’s too easy to get in a rut, but if you jump on the taco Tuesday train and the one pot hump day… okay that one is a stretch. But nightly themes paired with a happy Pinterest board (the mecca of fancy recipes) you can make your nights as wild as you want. And get to relive the happiness again the next day for lunch.

3. The Crock

The crockpot lover. This person may also prep and cook but they love the pot.

I usually recommend a crockpot recipe on your second prep night, if you go that route. That way dinner is ready for you whenever and you can spend more time that night fixing the next few days worth of meals.

You could literally get up every morning and throw chicken and BBQ sauce in a crockpot and have a different flavor BBQ chicken every night for a month. The possibilities are endless.

I honestly recommend everyone to implement crockpot cooking no matter what the type. If you want to crock it all week, then crock it all week. You go girl (or guy).

4. The Cycler

This is the person who is really just GUNGHO (is that how you spell that) about starting Monday off on the right foot. This person gets ready for the week, shops, cooks, beautifully puts together lots of happy-tummy feeling meals and says “this is the week I change!”

They start off strong. They even snack on baby carrots and hummus dip mid afternoon. They say no to the cookie… the cake… the booze

Then by the of the third day they allow themselves a treat. One treat turns into four and they’ve undid all they did all week long by the weekend. They feel bad, they either try again that Monday or jump back on a few weeks later… or the worst.. never.

I don’t recommend prepping at all if this is you. I recommend reaching out to someone who can help and identify the question “why am I like this?”.

Anyway….

Whichever way you prep… or maybe you don’t prep at all… just know that there isn’t any “right” way. But I will interject that you need to be eating well most of the time. Even when you eat out or go on vacation. Food is always there, you’ve got your whole life to eat and drink it. You don’t ever want to become the cycler because more times than not they end up worse off then were before.

What I recommend more than prepping or preparing or writing out your meals on the weekend is this:

  1. Keep your fridge and pantry STOCKED with meat (or not if you don’t swing that way), fruit and veg.
  2. Canned beans and dried grains are the way to go – they never spoil.
  3. Keep your perishables (fruits and vegetables) where you can see them. They will wither away in the back of the fridge or the bottom of the drawer… I know because this happens to me a lot.
  4. Keep meat in the freezer, thaw it out day of or before. Cook more than you need and keep it ready to go for quick meals…
  5. Also cook more than you need of veggies and grains.. keep them in your meal prep containers you bought and never use and warm up quick meals that way (watch portions)
  6. Enjoy the way you eat. If you don’t it just won’t stick and you’ll be grasping at straws again this time next year.

     

Cut the crap and give up the fads and JUST EAT REAL FOOD most of the time.

 

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