Meal prepping offers many benefits, especially when it comes to balancing nutrition and adhering to specific dietary lifestyles. By preparing your meals in advance, you gain control over portion sizes and the nutritional content of your food. This proactive approach simplifies the process of sticking to a particular diet, whether it's focused on weight loss, carb reduction, or other dietary goals.

Moreover, meal prepping caters to various dietary lifestyles such as vegetarianism, veganism, paleo, keto, and more. Planning and prepping meals ahead of time ensure that you have nutritious options readily available, eliminating the need to make last-minute food decisions that may not align with your dietary preferences. This approach is particularly beneficial for individuals with specific dietary restrictions, including those managing diabetes.

For added convenience, consider using a [meal kit delivery](https://www.hellofresh.com/) service like HelloFresh, which offers a variety of meal options tailored to different dietary lifestyles:

• Low Calorie
• Low Carb
• Vegetarian
• Pescatarian

You Can Save Time with Meal Prepping

Meal prepping comes with an obvious plus: saving a ton of time. First of all, prepping for meals gives you a head start on the week, and who doesn’t need that? Plus, the process will help you feel more in control of what you’re eating and take the stress out of (read: put the joy back into!) mealtime. As a whole, meal prepping is great for people who are super-busy during the week (but have at least a day or two on which they can prep) and those who simply want to have better control over what they eat. It’s also perfect for students who have more free time on certain days over others.

You Can Stick to a Budget with Meal Prepping

It’s easy to meal prep on a budget. In fact, the process will end up saving you money! Instead of aimlessly wandering aisle after aisle multiple times a week, meal prepping gives you what you need to shop like a pro: a purpose. Plus, since you’ll be taking inventory of what you have at home beforehand, you can feel good knowing that everything you buy will be used in the upcoming week. (This also helps to eliminate a ton of food waste!) Finally, the more experience you have with prepping, the more you will be able to identify items you can buy in bulk for much cheaper.

For a more in-depth look into each step, here’s what you’ll want to do to meal prep the week away:

1. Plan out your meals for the upcoming week. We prefer to do this on a Friday, but you should do what works best for you. On whichever day you choose, you’ll select recipes and create a meal prepping grocery list so you only buy what you need and avoid unnecessary spending on a vegetable that’ll end up wilting in your produce drawer anyway. Likewise, be sure to always take inventory of your fridge, freezer, and pantry first so you don’t end up buying items that you already have.


2. Pick a day of the week that you’ll devote to grocery shopping. Considering that we planned on Friday, we suggest doing this on Saturday.


3. Gather everything you need and set aside time to do the prep work. If you went shopping on Saturday, Sunday is the day you’ll want to devote to meal prep work. If your Sunday is busier than usual, you can always do the shopping and prepping on Saturday to keep things simple. Your prep can include everything from washing and portioning produce and cooking grains and proteins, to whipping up whole meals. (Pro tip: Put on your favorite music, book, or podcast while you prep!) When the prep work is completed, portion everything out and store in airtight containers. Be sure to follow the FDA’s refrigeration guidelines on how long you can store prepared foods!


4. Cook, eat and evaluate! The final step is to analyze everything you worked on and determine whether it can be streamlined for the following week. If meal prepping was particularly hard, examine why and make some changes to make prepping easier next time.

• First, we highly recommend combining meal prepping with meal planning. Thinking ahead about what you’re going to cook, then shopping and preparing ingredients (or whole meals) in advance will make mealtime a snap. (Download Free Meal Planner!)


• Additionally, consider creating a game plan before you prep—essentially, a list of what you’d like to accomplish. This’ll help you stay super-organized and make prepping feel a lot less overwhelming. Plus, is there anything better than crossing items off your to-do list? (We say no.)


• Try choosing simple recipes rather than ones that require a lot of attention and hands-on cooking (we’re looking at you, risotto!). Stick to foods that can mostly cook unattended, like soups and stews, grains, and roasted veggies. Psst—even better, plan for and prep meals with similar main ingredients. You’ll thank us later!
• In order to really set you up for meal prep success (and help you avoid common mistakes), make sure the process is completely personalized to you and your schedule so you don’t end up doing some last minute scrambling. Remember to carve out enough time to prep so you won’t feel rushed.


• Another thing to keep in mind: Make food you actually can and want to eat! It may sound simple, but trust us. Meal prep inspiration can look super-glamorized on Instagram and Pinterest, but it can also be very intimidating. Be sure to choose balanced recipes that look delicious to you.


• Prepping the exact same meal for every day of the week may save you a lot of time, but it can also get…well, boring. If you can, plan for switching things up! Exchanging sauces, garnishes, or even proteins will keep your meals interesting.


• Employ a good set of storage containers. Having good storage containers for all that delicious food you prepped is key to staying organized and on top of the process. The containers don’t have to be fancy or expensive, but since meal prepping will look different week to week, it’s best to get a variety of sizes. Also, consider buying a few containers that are microwave-safe and freezer-safe.


• Finally, you can’t prep everything. Items like cut-up fruit and herbs, cooked pasta, or crunchy foods like nuts or crackers will get oxidized or soft in your fridge. In other words, know what to prep and what to leave for cooking night.

Happy meal prepping!