Practice. Class. Homework and Studying. Work. Training. Social life. Games and Meets.
Woah, student-athletes have some pretty busy schedules!
How do you make sure that you are meeting all the dietary requirements that we have discussed during our nutrition series? MEAL PREP! Not only will meal planning and prepping help you save time, but you will also be able to make sure you are hitting all your nutrition numbers. It will help you eliminate more fat-laden convenience meals. Oh, and a big bonus, knowing what you are going to eat, buying only what you need, and removing take out will save you $$$.
Related: Nutrition for Athletes: Overview
What is Meal Planning and Prepping?
Meal planning is when you decide what you will be eating over the course of a day, a week, or on rare occasions, a month.
Meal prepping is when you prepare one or more meals. You can portion the meals out for individual meals or leave it in a single container and portion out each time you want to eat it. Essentially, you are making yourself grab-and-go meals!
How Do You Meal Prep?
Below we provide you with the steps you should take to get started and some pro tips to make things easier.
Plan your meals
The first thing you need to do is to plan your meals. Sit down with a piece of paper and pen (or your computer) and decide what it is you want to eat for the week for each of your meals and snacks. Think about meeting your protein, fats, and carbs goals for each meal.
Map out your meals day-by-day. If you have a visual of what you will be eating each day, it will be easier to decide what you are going to prepare in advance and what can be made the day of.
Pro Tip: Repeat meals. This will save you from buying lots of different ingredients. For example, you could choose to make the same breakfast sandwich everyday for the week! If you love the meal enough, you can continue to make it for as long as you wish. If you get bored easily, you can vary the seasoning, the protein type, or have two meals to switch back and forth between.
Related: Breakfast for Athletes on the Go: Kale, Apple, and Carrot Smoothie
Make a grocery list
Now that you know what you want to eat for the week, you need to make a grocery list! Write out an organized list (think produce with produce, aisle items, meats, etc.) of everything you will need to make your meals. With an organized list, you'll save time when doing your grocery shopping. Add a couple of extras to the list for “just in case” moments where your schedule abruptly changes, like a couple of easy freezer meals and shelf-stable items that you can always have on hand.
Pro Tip: Eat something before you go to the store. If you go shopping hungry, you're more likely to buy things you don't need.
Get to the store
Now you need to get to the store! Try picking a time where the store will have the least amount of people, like late at night or super early in the morning. This will allow you to get your grocery shopping done quickly without a ton of people.
You could also go the route of ordering your groceries online and having them delivered or pick them up too. Just note that some places charge extra for this!
Pro Tip: It is okay to buy checkout candy here and there. Just try not to make a habit of it!
Decide how you want to prep and when
There are several ways you can prep for the week. What works best for you may not work best for someone else. Shoot, what works best for you this week may not work best for you next week as your schedule evolves.
Make-ahead meals: Prepare full meals in advance to be refrigerated and heated later. This is particularly handy for dinners and some breakfasts, like casseroles. These meals can be individually portioned for the week or stored and portioned as you need them. These are meals that can be prepared, frozen, and cooked at a later date.
Batch Cooking: Making large batches of a specific recipe that can be divided into individual portions for refrigerating or freezing. One of the best methods for this is big batches of protein pancakes, crock pot meals, and freezer meals. These meals can be individually portioned for the week or stored and portioned as you need them.
*The difference between make-ahead meals and batch cooking is that make-ahead meals are not cooked in full before freezing while batch cooking is cooked fully and then refrigerated/frozen to be eaten later.
Ready-to-cook ingredients: Instead of fully cooking your meals for the week, you can prepare the ingredients ahead of time to cut down on the cooking time later in the week. Some ways to be prepared would be to pre-wash fruits and veggies, sautéing or baking veggies, and pre-portioning snacks. This is particularly good for stir frys, lunch items like salads, steamed rice, and snacks like veggies and hummus.
Related: Why Athletes Need Protein: Muscle Repair and Growth
Bonus Tips:
-Sundays are the best days for meal prepping. It gets you ready for the week!
-Buy meal prep containers made of glass. They allows you to store your food longer, see your meals, and they don't hold onto flavors or stain like plastic containers.
-Always start with the items that will take the longest. Once those are cooking, you can spend the rest of the time getting the less time-involved elements ready.
Meal prepping takes time to learn and make part of your routine. It's best to take it step by step. For some, it may be easier to start with meal planning and prepping for only one meal and then build into other meals. Also you will pick up tips and tricks the more you do it. There is no one size fits all for meal prepping, so make it your own. Have fun with your food!!!
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* Originally published on March 3, 2022, by Rebecca Lutz
