Preparation is Key

A great way to get your nutrition in track is to focus on the preparation.
There are numerous reasons for this which I will now try to elaborate on, followed by a couple of strategies you can use to make keeping on track that bit easier.

First of all if you are following any kind of plan, such as our 30day Kickstart, then you should know exactly what your going to eat and when your going to eat it. Having the vast majority of it pre made means that, for most people, you will find it easier to stick to said plan. It is believed that will power is a finite resource, so everytime you have to make a decision about what to, or not to eat you are using a bit of this will power. This could be a huge reason why we all find it more difficult to say no in the evening as are running low on will power from resisting all day. Anecdotally this most certainly holds true for myself.

Secondly it saves time, we are all busy people with jobs, kids, lives to lead and eating real food does take time to prepare and cook. Cooking most of your meals in one go saves huge amounts of time and best of all, you don’t have to do it after a long hard day at the grindstone, when it’s all to easy to just dial a takeaway or grab anything fast. Think of it like this, it takes me about 20mins to knock up a portion of chilli, it also takes me 20mins to knock up 5 portions of chilli and about 5 extra mins to portion it out and freeze. That 1hr 15min saved. This is the same for bolognase, omelette, liver, cottage pie, you name it really.
Additionally you can decide when this time is spent, for me I do all my meal prep on a weekend in the morning whilst the rest of the family are still waking up. This means I’m not using up time I can better spend with them.
Here are a few meals I’ve prepared this Sat and Sunday, these all took around 2 hours tops and will keep me in lunches and afternoon meals for at least 2 weeks.

Thirdly it cuts out on exuses such as “I overslept” or “I had nothing ready” right now as I write this it’s 19:00 on a Sunday and I will be up and out of the house by 4:40am in the morning. My meals are all sitting in the fridge, fruit is in my cooler bag and supplements are portioned out in a tub.

All I need to do when I wake up is grab these out of the fridge, place them in the cooler bag and walk out of the door. No thinking, no need to wake up and no need to think. Just grab and go.

Finally I genuinely believe that the reason a lot of diets work is that they give you structure and take that decision making and willpower out of the equation. The reason many fail is they aren’t sustainable or life gets in the way, as it so often does. By having a stack of meals sitting in the freezer you make yourself a bit more robust and protected against lifes little problems.

There you go, have a great plan, prepare ahead of time and enjoy all of your new spare time with your family.

If you’d like us to write your plan for you then please email is Carl@busybeefitness.com for information on how our precision nutrition coach can help.