3 Ways to Stick to Meal Prep During a Busy Summer
Meal prep is hard enough to make time for on an average week. Throw in a full social calendar and travel during the summer months, and completing meal prep each week could feel impossible.
I help clients towards their nutrition goals every day, and a common pain point is, “How do I make time for meal prep?” Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the perfect solution for your situation without knowing you. But here are a few quick tips to consider and to help you get started!
Offer to bring what you’re meal prepping
Going to a BBQ, family dinner, or other social obligation? Kill two birds with one stone and offer to contribute a dish that you can also eat for lunch. Two solid choices are hearty green salads or colorful pasta salads. Examples are linked! Simply quadruple the recipe and take a little extra time while you’re preparing a dish you have to prepare anyway to set yourself up for the following week!
Plan way, way ahead
If you’ll be out of town for a week or a weekend, start to plan your meals you cook and eat the week before travel accordingly. What can you eat for dinner, quadruple, and freeze for when you return? Slow cooker recipes are a really strong contender here. Find a slow cooker recipe (tons of good examples linked), make sure you make enough servings to cover both dinner for one night and lunch for a week when you get back. Pop the leftovers in the freezer, and you’re all set for when you return!
Take advantage of grocery stores circa 2023
The majority of grocery stores now offer free grocery pick up. They do all of the shopping for you, and all you have to do is swing by and get it! For those able to spend a little extra, you can also have your groceries delivered right to your door. One of the most common responses to this suggestion is, “But I prefer to pick out my produce myself.” Well, you quite literally don’t have time to! Trust me, having vegetables someone else picked out for you ready to go is much more preferable to the daily stress and scramble brought on by not having any groceries or meal options at all.
From there, take the 45 minutes you would have spent at the store and use your readily picked up or delivered groceries to throw together something simple! Might I suggest something from my “5 No-Recipe Recipes” post?
Like any habit, meal prep can take time to stick. But once you’ve not only developed the habit but experienced all the benefits to having nourishing food ready to eat, you’ll have trouble skipping a week!
Have specific questions or need some extra help getting started with meal prep? That’s what nutrition coaching is for! Click here to schedule your no-strings-attached, complimentary phone consultation, and we’ll help you start to conquer whatever obstacle you’re facing!
