5 reasons food preparation will elevate your fitness and simplify your life.
Over my years of training and coaching I have seen a number of positive impacts that food preparation can have on my own and others health and fitness journeys. Taking a short amount of time to prepare your food can have a huge positive impact on your day to day life, and can also be a huge contributor to achieving your goals. Here we will discuss these reasons in further detail.
Saves time
Personally I don’t see huge enjoyment in cooking, after a long day of coaching and getting home late in the evening, the last thing I want to do is take a long time cooking a meal. As someone who works with a variety of busy professionals , it is very clear to see that the reason a lot of people struggle to hit their goals and eat a healthy balanced diet is time. For many people , including myself, when short of time and getting home late the appeal of ordering a takeaway a lot of the time is a temptation too hard to resist. Food preparation allows you to cook your meals in bulk, rather than cooking every single day. This will allow you to have more free time to relax. Once prepared , all you will need is a few minutes to reheat your meal, ready to eat.
2. Encourages healthier eating
When meals are prepared in advance, it’s easier to make healthier choices. Heavily linking to my previous point, having your meals prepared and ready for you saves time, you can access this food straight away and the appeal of a quicker unhealthier option becomes less tempting. Also having your meals already prepared makes it much easier to control portion sizes and also include a balanced serving of nutrients. Preparing your own meals, you’ll have control of exactly what foods are going into your meals, and also how they are being cooked. Whereas on the other hand ordering food, you may not have a full understanding of portion sizes and how the food is being cooked. Preparing meals balanced in nutrients will therefore encourage healthier eating.
3. Helps with weight management
Consistent meal preparation will make it much easier for you to control your calorie intake, this will make it easier to stick to a weight loss or maintenance plan. Being fully prepared will help prevent you from over eating and indulging in high calorie alternatives. With meal prep and buying ingredients in bulk, it is very easy to portion control based on your specific goals. You can easily portion out meals and keep them stored for the week or the next few days, depending on how much preparation you do.
4.Reduces stress and decision making
Having your meals planned and prepared ahead of time will eliminate the stress of deciding what to eat each day. This reduction in time spent decision making will allow you to focus more energy and time on your workouts, and personal goals. You’ll be able to relax a lot more after a long day as you won’t have to rush around to cook a meal, this will allow you to have much more down time where you can be fully relaxed. In my own experience often finishing with clients relatively late in the evening, having a meal prepared allows me to be more efficient with my time, have more time to relax with friends , and will even allow me to get to bed earlier. These factors have a huge positive impact on my day to day life.
5. Saves money
Often more than not preparing your meals at home is more cost effective than eating out or buying food on the go from a supermarket. By buying ingredients in bulk and cooking in larger quantities, you can save more money whilst also enjoying healthier meals. In my own case, being prepared with my food causes me to have less trips to the supermarket. Whethers it’s popping to sainsburys multiple times a day between clients or being lazy and grabbing something quick at the end of the day, preparing food will allow you to eat a balanced and cost effective diet. I’ve always found myself aswell that when I do make these trips to the supermarkets for a quick snack, I will always buy more than I previously intended. The snack shelf before going into the self service area always seems to be too much of a temptation for me .
In conclusion
If you are someone who has a lot of spare time and is able to cook a variety of balanced and delicious meals everyday, then food preparation may not be for you. However if you are someone who is struggling with their diet and has a busy schedule then I firmly believe that taking a short amount of time to prepare your meals in bulk will have drastic and positve effects on not just your diet, but also your everyday life. Clients often tell me that the main reason they struggle to maintain a healthy diet is lack of time. I firmly believe that food preparation completely overcomes this and will have huge positive impacts on peoples lives.
If you are looking to make healthier choices with your nutrition a big part of the packages I sell is optional weekly nutritional feedback. If this is something you are interested in, please get in contact!
