Latest / SAY GRACE | Weight Loss + Health for Overwhelmed Women- Stress, Busy, Consistency, Realistic, Motivation, Starting Over, No Restrictions / Do you have to meal prep for weight loss?
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:40We just wrapped up our first weight loss challenge enrollment of 2025,
- 0:45and I got this question often from people interested in our program.
- 0:50Constance, do I have to meal prep on this program to lose weight?
- 0:57So today I'm going to share my answer to this question and my reasons why,
- 1:02plus several reasons why people may actually benefit from meal prepping and
- 1:07some things that could be considered meal prepping that maybe you haven't even
- 1:11thought about before. So let's dive in.
- 1:15Okay, y'all, we have talked about this briefly in the past.
- 1:20And so today, I really just want to focus in specifically on meal prepping.
- 1:24Okay, so do you have to do it to lose weight? Could it help you lose weight?
- 1:29Some ideas for meal prepping, that kind of thing. Because I know,
- 1:32regardless of, you know, I know there are lots of conflicting opinions out there on the internet.
- 1:39And so I really want to give you kind of a zoomed out view of meal prepping
- 1:46so that from there, you can kind of figure out where you land regarding like,
- 1:52okay, do you even have enough time to meal prep?
- 1:55Or, you know, would this even be beneficial to me or whatever?
- 1:57Okay, But first, I want to talk through the difference, okay,
- 2:02between meal prepping and meal planning.
- 2:06Because I will say, while I'm not a huge meal prepper at this season in my life,
- 2:11I am a huge meal planner, okay? And so there's a difference.
- 2:16Meal planning is basically laying out a plan for your week, okay?
- 2:21Whether you say you meal plan or not, if you are going to the grocery store, you are meal planning.
- 2:31It's just how much are you planning, okay?
- 2:34So I'm going to dive into this a little bit later, but meal planning is simply
- 2:40looking at your week and saying, okay, these are the meals I got to fix or these
- 2:45are the meals I got to feed these people.
- 2:47These are the meals I got to eat myself. meal.
- 2:49So let me create a plan for that, right?
- 2:53And then meal prepping is usually when people,
- 2:57a lot of people like to do it on Sunday, you know, but whatever day,
- 3:01they sit down and they prepare their foods for the week so that when it's time
- 3:07to eat them, they are ready, okay?
- 3:10And so this is, we're just, I wanted to kind of give that loose definition.
- 3:14Again, we're diving into it deeper here as we get into this podcast episode,
- 3:17but a lot of times people lump those two together and they are not the same.
- 3:22Okay. So meal prepping versus meal planning. So we're going to talk about meal prepping. Okay.
- 3:29I want to remind you that
- 3:31If you are interested in meal prepping, it does not have to look like,
- 3:35you know, one of these Instagram influencers, okay?
- 3:39Like, it does not have to look like the 75 black containers put out on your
- 3:43counter and, you know, the portioned scoops of, you know, foods into each one.
- 3:49Like, it doesn't have to look like a refrigerator full of these to-go containers.
- 3:54Like, that is not what meal prepping has to look like. Like,
- 3:56in fact, that is extremely overwhelming, especially for someone who is not very
- 4:02comfortable with trying to lose weight or hasn't seen a lot of success.
- 4:05And especially for someone who is not very comfortable in the kitchen. You know what I mean?
- 4:10And so I will tell you that at one point in my life, it ain't now, okay?
- 4:15But at one point in my life, back when I worked in an office daily and I was
- 4:20heavy into CrossFit, this was before Jess and I had kids, I was a heavy meal prepper.
- 4:25Like on Sundays, gosh, oh my gosh, we spent hours every Sunday afternoon cooking
- 4:34and portioning and prepping food. Okay.
- 4:38And this went on for years. I mean, literally years. Okay.
- 4:43And so it became a problem, though, because, well, it was a problem for a couple reasons.
- 4:48Number one, I started to really stress.
- 4:53Us like say my parents have a pool
- 4:55and we in the summertime we go almost
- 4:59every Sunday to their house and my dad cooks us dinner and we swim and you know
- 5:05it's it's just always been our like family tradition in the summer well so when
- 5:10they wanted us to come over on Sundays that interrupted my meal prep time because
- 5:13it literally takes hours it took hours okay and so that would stress me out.
- 5:19I felt like I was choosing between enjoying my time with my family or getting
- 5:25all my meal prep containers straight away so that I knew I had control over my food that week.
- 5:31So that was one thing. Another thing was, y'all, this was true for probably
- 5:37the entire time that we meal prepped, and I would say for Jess as well.
- 5:42We were meal prepping. We had our breakfasts ready to go out the door.
- 5:46We had our lunches ready to put in the refrigerator at work.
- 5:49We had our snacks pre-portioned into little baggies.
- 5:53And it was healthy food, right? It was chicken and salad and quinoa and veggies.
- 6:03But I was still not losing any weight because I was finding any excuse to eat
- 6:13outside of the meals I prepped.
- 6:16Okay. So like sometimes I would eat my lunch that I brought, right?
- 6:20But then I would also, you know, go find a snack somewhere or run down to the
- 6:25gas station or run up to Sonic.
- 6:27It was like I was rebelling from the inside out on these meal prepped foods
- 6:33that I had spent hours and hours on Sunday to prepare.
- 6:36You know what I mean? And so for me, that was something specifically after I
- 6:40had my oldest, Sarah Mason, I was still working in that office job at the time.
- 6:44But that was something I had to let go of. okay because
- 6:48I started to not all I
- 6:51mean not only it just really didn't seem to be serving me that well
- 6:53to begin with you know I wasn't really reaching my goals you know with with
- 6:57this mentality and this hours of extra effort every week but also I was starting
- 7:04to resent it you know like I noticed more and more and more that the meal prepped
- 7:09foods that I brought to work were like,
- 7:12I was trying to find any excuse not to eat them.
- 7:15Like I was texting girlfriends I hadn't talked to in two years,
- 7:18like you can go to lunch today, because I really don't want to eat this rotisserie
- 7:21chicken in the refrigerator downstairs, you know, like I just was not interested.
- 7:26Okay, so I started to resent this whole process, which in turn can kind of make
- 7:30you resent like weight loss in general, or like serving your body well in general,
- 7:35right? And you I don't want that.
- 7:37And so So anyway, the moral of that story is to remind you that meal prepping
- 7:42doesn't have to look like that, okay?
- 7:45It doesn't have to look like these super clean meals, you know,
- 7:48these super healthy things.
- 7:49Obviously, that would be great, right? But it can also lead to like that heavy
- 7:54burnout that I just described for myself.
- 7:56And so just a reminder there, you know, meal prepping, that's not what meal
- 8:01prepping equals is your image on Instagram all the time, okay?
- 8:05And then also remembering that meal prepping is not required for weight loss.
- 8:09It's not. I just told you I meal prepped for years and didn't lose anything.
- 8:13And so it can help for some people, but it's not required for all people to
- 8:19lose weight, if that makes sense. Okay, so first I want to talk through...
- 8:22Some reasons that people do like to meal prep, okay? And I think these are valid.
- 8:27I think they're really helpful.
- 8:29Once you kind of break past that high expectation of yourself,
- 8:33again, of bringing like grilled chicken and steamed veggies every day as your
- 8:36meal prep, meal prepping can be helpful.
- 8:39And so let's talk about why. First of all, it can help with portion control.
- 8:44Okay, so just preparing the portions before you are actually hungry will help you to not overeat.
- 8:52Like y'all know, y'all know if you've, if you've ever fixed dinner at night
- 8:56and it's taken longer than you thought, or you missed your afternoon snack and
- 8:59you were literally hangry,
- 9:01you know that your dinner plate is going to be more full than it would have
- 9:06been if you had fixed dinner at like 4.30 right after you had had a snack and
- 9:09you were feeling really satisfied, right?
- 9:12And so just by kind of preparing it and putting it off into containers for the
- 9:17day, you know, by meal prepping, it helps with that portion control so that
- 9:21you aren't over consuming.
- 9:24Whatever the food may be, you know, even pizza, like this was an old thing that
- 9:28was going around on the internet.
- 9:29But like, people laid out their meal prep containers and put like a slice of pizza in each one.
- 9:35And like, I think I've talked about that on here before. But it's like,
- 9:39that's so funny. And I think it was like mocking the weight loss community in general.
- 9:42But it really, I really believe like if you did that, if you just put one or
- 9:47two slices of pizza in a meal prep container and send it to work,
- 9:52like for some of us, that would be better than the choices and the portion sizes
- 9:57that we are consuming once we are hungry and on our lunch break at work.
- 10:02You know what I mean? Like two pieces of pizza may actually lead to some weight
- 10:05loss for some of us, right?
- 10:07And so that's one of the reasons is just it's got it's portion control,
- 10:11you know, and that's, that is one of our huge focuses here is like,
- 10:15you can eat anything as long as it's in a decent size portion, right?
- 10:19Another reason is they, you always know that you have something to eat, right?
- 10:24It helps people again to not have that, oh my gosh, it's 12 o'clock.
- 10:29It's my lunch break. I have to be back in 30 minutes.
- 10:31What can I grab that's quick? And also I'm starving.
- 10:34You know what I mean? Like it helps you to just kind of know like, this is what I have.
- 10:38I've got this ready. So you don't panic in a moment of hunger,
- 10:41or you don't panic in a moment of decision,
- 10:44you know, and it can just be helpful to someone specifically someone who is
- 10:49new to weight loss or healthy eating,
- 10:51because it gives that extra layer of control, instead of having to tap into
- 10:57some of the more advanced practices in weight loss,
- 11:00which is like being mindful with your choices when you are ordering from a menu,
- 11:04and you know, that kind of thing.
- 11:06It just helps to say like, okay, I don't even have to make a choice because
- 11:09I know I have something here already, okay, if that makes sense.
- 11:12The next reason people like meal prep is because they don't have to think about how it adds up, okay?
- 11:18For a lot of, you know, my clients that do choose to meal prep,
- 11:21they kind of have, you know, a handful of lunch options, a handful of breakfast options.
- 11:26And so they rotate them out until I get sick of them.
- 11:29And then those, like that meal is already entered into MyFitnessPal or wherever
- 11:35you're tracking your intake so
- 11:37that you don't have to manually enter every single food every single day.
- 11:41And it's different every single time. Okay, and so this is helpful for those
- 11:45of us who are, again, people that are a little newer to weight loss.
- 11:50You can kind of say, okay, I spent some time tracking this, you know.
- 11:54Casserole, or if you're a PFN member, you spent some time checking the nutrition
- 11:58label, because we've all, we put the nutrition on every single recipe we provide
- 12:02y'all, and it's already plugged into MyFitnessPal,
- 12:05and so you don't even have to think, like, you know, okay, if I make Constance's
- 12:09buffalo chicken wraps this week, then I know they have about, you know, 300 calories.
- 12:14Actually, I don't really know how many they have, but it's on the app.
- 12:17But I know they have a certain amount of calories.
- 12:19And then I know that my lunch is going to look about like this every single day that I eat these.
- 12:25And so again, it just takes some of that weight off. It takes some of that constant
- 12:29obsession over food that some of us can feel when we first start a weight loss journey.
- 12:33You know, it can remove that for you because you don't have to think about it
- 12:37because it's plugged and it's ready to go.
- 12:39And I have some clients that say like, this is what I'm eating for lunch every day this week.
- 12:42And I've already gone through the whole week on MyFitnessPal and plugged it
- 12:45in so that, you know, I know when I get to Thursday.
- 12:50My lunch is already plugged in and I know how many calories I have left. You know what I mean?
- 12:53So the next one that the next reason that people like meal prepping is because
- 12:58it saves time during the week, right?
- 13:01Some people, y'all, are so busy during the week or golly,
- 13:05they are just so tired during the week that it can feel absolutely impossible
- 13:10to fix meals consistently, you know, or to even want to think about meals consistently.
- 13:17And so meal prepping, I'm such a huge believer in like batch, batching things.
- 13:23I talk about this all the time. Like I batch a lot of things in my work.
- 13:27So like today I'm recording a podcast. I've already recorded next week's podcast.
- 13:31And then like later in the month, I'm recording several with clients.
- 13:36Spoiler alert, we're going to start having clients on, client interviews.
- 13:39And so I've batched them all on the same day so that my focus can be there.
- 13:45Instead of me jumping around, having to think about client podcast interviews
- 13:49one day a week or, you know, every day of the week for like an hour every single day.
- 13:56By batching things, you are just more efficient.
- 13:58You get things more done in less amount of time.
- 14:00And so this, you know, meal prepping can be really helpful for that.
- 14:06Like it saves you time. Yes, you've got, you know, four pounds of chicken on
- 14:10the counter at one time, but you haven't had to cook four pounds of chicken
- 14:15four different times or, you know, one pound of chicken four different times.
- 14:19And so that can be helpful. Meal prepping can be helpful for people for that
- 14:23specific reason. I will say that a lot of my clients like to prep.
- 14:27Lunch or breakfast or both for that specific reason, because a lot of us are
- 14:32mamas running out the door.
- 14:34And if we do not have it prepped for breakfast, y'all, we just ain't gonna be eating no breakfast.
- 14:39Holler if you hear me, you know, because we are all flying out the door with
- 14:42purses and backpacks and everything else, right?
- 14:45And so with that being said, I want to talk about again, it's not required for weight loss.
- 14:50I'm a prime example of that. But there are multiple levels of meal prepping
- 14:57that don't have to look like matching black containers with the day label on top.
- 15:02You know, they don't have to look, meal prepping doesn't have to look specific
- 15:05to, you know, these containers with each meal neatly placed inside of it.
- 15:09And so I will say that while I do not meal prep specifically as often,
- 15:15if ever really anymore, I do a lot of loose prepping.
- 15:21Okay which is more like what I talked about as far as
- 15:24like batching or like that time blocking or
- 15:27whatever to help me be more efficient throughout the week okay so so whereas
- 15:33I am not grilling a bunch of chicken sauteing a bunch of vegetables you know
- 15:39baking a bunch of potatoes cooking a bunch of rice to all then distribute into
- 15:44all these little bitty containers on the counter for the week.
- 15:46I'm not doing that, but I do some prep ahead of time to make the things go smoother.
- 15:53Okay. And so in our program, we are really big on planning for success.
- 15:59Right. And so this is where I'm coming back to the meal plan.
- 16:02I just believe like if you have clear intentions for the days and weeks,
- 16:05like you're more likely to achieve the intentions that you have.
- 16:09Right. And so if you think about it, no one ever succeeded at anything in their
- 16:16life and really looked back and said, I don't know how that happened.
- 16:20You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know how I became a CE.
- 16:23I don't know how I climbed this corporate ladder.
- 16:27I don't know how we built this house. I don't know how I got my newborn on a
- 16:32schedule so that she wasn't up at 2 a.m.
- 16:35I don't know how I survived the day.
- 16:38You know what I mean? and made sure everybody got to everything, right?
- 16:41Like every single one of those examples, there was a plan in place, right?
- 16:46Whether it was rigid or loose, I don't know, but there was a plan, right?
- 16:50Like if you are trying to climb the ladder at your job and become the CEO, okay, you have a plan.
- 16:55Jess works for a very large company and it's crazy to me how they have like.
- 17:02From the jump, like once they realize they're pretty great employees and they're
- 17:05pretty loyal and like they will move in the company, they kind of create like
- 17:10little maps for them, like so that
- 17:12they know what to expect and like what skills they need to improve on.
- 17:16And like, of course, you know, they're not promising them a position by any
- 17:19means, but it's like, if you want to take this next step, these are the things
- 17:24that you need to do to get there, right? That's a plan.
- 17:27Okay. And so if I guarantee the CEO and all the big bosses at his company got
- 17:34there with a very clear and specific plan that they followed, right?
- 17:39Same for your newborn. Okay. That's why there's so many books out there.
- 17:42And I remember Sarah Mason didn't sleep a lick.
- 17:46And back then I believed like, I'm not going to put, I don't need a plan.
- 17:49Like, you know, whatever. We're just going to listen to her needs or whatever.
- 17:53And so her needs were very needy, you know? And so with Glory,
- 17:58I was like, I've got to do something different.
- 18:00So I searched for, I searched all these books, all these different websites, everything.
- 18:03And I was on the hunt for a legit schedule.
- 18:07Like I wanted to see at 7 a.m. we do this. At 8 a.m. we do this. At 9 a.m. we do this.
- 18:12Because I knew that that would create routine for her, which would give me the
- 18:18success, right? That was a plan, okay?
- 18:21Building a house, y'all, they will not even bring materials out here.
- 18:24They will not even hardly clear the land, pour the pad.
- 18:27They will not do anything until they have the house plans, okay?
- 18:32Because there's no point.
- 18:34If there's no plan for how they're going to keep moving, there is no point in starting, right?
- 18:41And then same for like making sure your day, you know, happens.
- 18:45You do not just wake up and say, I'm just going to fly by the seat of my pants
- 18:49and see what happens today. No, you say at 6 a.m., I have to get up and get the kids on the bus.
- 18:54And they also have to be fed before that. And we've also got to make sure they've
- 18:57got their backpacks and their homework done, okay?
- 18:59At 7 a.m., I have to leave the house so that I can account for 30 minutes of
- 19:04traffic and be at work by 7.30, right?
- 19:07At 9.30, I have to be in this boardroom for this meeting because if I don't, I will get fired.
- 19:14I mean, that is how our day progresses, right? We have a plan,
- 19:18okay? And so I know I get going in hard on that, but I just feel like people
- 19:22want to push back so hard sometimes about.
- 19:25Planning your meals for the week. And like, okay, so what if you have a crazy schedule?
- 19:31Like, so what if the plan didn't happen exactly how you set it?
- 19:36On your day-to-day work, family balance doesn't, like, some of the plans you
- 19:41have in place fall through, right?
- 19:43When you're building a house and you expect the, you know, trim carpenter to
- 19:48be there on Monday and he don't come till Thursday, Like he messed up your plan, right?
- 19:53If you are trying to climb the ladder to become a CEO, but then,
- 19:56you know, somebody's son comes in and wants to get that position instead,
- 20:00that can alter your plan.
- 20:04You know what I mean? So in every single plan in life, there are going to be,
- 20:08you know, things that may throw it off a little bit, but that doesn't mean you
- 20:11don't just stop the dang plan.
- 20:14You know what I mean? And so it's the same for meal planning.
- 20:16Yes, you may have ball practice. And yes, you may not know when soccer game is going to be yet.
- 20:21And, you know, yes, your husband may be in and out of town, but that still doesn't
- 20:24mean that you can't have a plan and attempt your best to follow it and then
- 20:29get over it if you can't follow it verbatim.
- 20:32You know, that's life, right? So...
- 20:35There's my harp on that, but we meal plan so that we can think about what we're
- 20:41going to eat ahead of time,
- 20:42so that we can make sure that our path is decent food-wise for the week so that
- 20:50we can achieve our goal, which is weight loss.
- 20:53And so for some of our ladies, all of our ladies are encouraged to meal plan,
- 20:58but then for some of them, they would like to, once they have their plan,
- 21:03they would like to get ahead on their week, right?
- 21:05So then they will prep some things for the plan to be executed better,
- 21:13more efficiently, you know, whatever, okay?
- 21:16But again, to us, the plan is the most important part. But I will talk through
- 21:20now, other than, you know.
- 21:22The extra Instagram style meal prepping, I do want to talk through some things
- 21:27that could be helpful that maybe you haven't considered is actually meal prepping
- 21:33to help you through the week, okay?
- 21:34Especially if you're one of these people that's new to weight loss or you're
- 21:37one of these people that just doesn't have a whole lot of time during the week or whatever, okay?
- 21:41So some things that you can consider as prepping, okay, outside of the normal
- 21:46standard vision of prepping is you could make a dip or a sauce at the beginning of the week, okay?
- 21:55So like if you are, you know, a PFN member and you're making one of our skinny dressings.
- 22:01You know, we don't give you the recipe for one single serving of the dressing,
- 22:07right? We give you the recipe for like a good jar full so that you can have
- 22:12it all week, right? You are prepping in that moment.
- 22:16Okay, so thinking about other things in your life that, my gosh,
- 22:19if I would just prep this ahead of time and maybe, you know,
- 22:22double, triple the recipe, then you would be getting ahead of the game, right?
- 22:28Or another way you could prep is to cook a recipe at dinner, but double it.
- 22:34So like you're not doing really any extra effort. If you were already going
- 22:38to make dinner and you were going to make this one recipe and then you just
- 22:42said, you know what, I'm just going to double it. I'm going to do it times two.
- 22:44I'm going to pull out two pans instead of one. And you put it in containers for leftovers.
- 22:49Okay, you had one for dinner, but then the other one you divided out into containers
- 22:53for leftovers so you could have for lunch or for dinner all week long.
- 22:56And bonus points if you freeze it and then you have a meal for later in the
- 23:01month if you needed it, right?
- 23:03Another way that you can consider prepping is by buying pre-portioned freezer meals or snack.
- 23:10This doesn't feel as noble as like, again, slaving in the kitchen for hours
- 23:15upon hours with your black containers or whatever, but it is considered meal prepping.
- 23:21You are preparing for what you are going to eat this week. And so that can still
- 23:28look like a lean cuisine and a pre-packed bag of goldfish, right?
- 23:33Like that, it can still be considered meal prepping, okay?
- 23:37And yeah, while maybe it's not as nutrient-filled as, you know, the other way,
- 23:42it does still serve you for making sure you've got that portion control and
- 23:48saving your time during the week and just letting you know, like,
- 23:52this is what I'm going to have to eat this week, right?
- 23:54And this is what the calories are, because lucky me, it says it right here on the bag.
- 23:59You know what I mean? So that is still considered prepping, and it will help
- 24:04you feel less overwhelmed in the weight loss process, right?
- 24:08Another way to prep is portioning out snacks for yourself or for your kids on Sunday.
- 24:14I don't know if you follow me on social media, but we do this, you know,
- 24:17pretty often where I buy these little square snack bags from Walmart and I tend
- 24:25to try to buy snacks that are like if they're if they're packaged they are you know somewhat like.
- 24:33A healthier option. They have better ingredients for my kids.
- 24:36And so Jess goes to New Orleans a good bit and I'll have them go to Trader Joe's
- 24:40and get us like a box of some of their things.
- 24:42Or we love like the Annie's brand snacks.
- 24:45And so those don't come in a lot of the pre-portioned, you know,
- 24:49snack bags. And so we have to portion them ourselves.
- 24:52So every so often on a Sunday, I line the kids up and we pull out those snack
- 24:57boxes and we portion out bags for them.
- 24:59Now, Does that serve for portion control for them? Yeah, sure.
- 25:03But that's not really the focus for them at this point.
- 25:06It's just to have it there. It's to have it ready to go. It's when we are running
- 25:09out the door, again, with the lunch boxes and the purses flying,
- 25:12I can say, oh, go grab that bag of those Annie Bunnies so you can have a snack today.
- 25:17You know what I mean? Like that's the purpose of it.
- 25:20And we are prepping in those moments.
- 25:23Another way that I also like to prep is when I go to the grocery store,
- 25:29when I get home or when Instacart delivers it or whatever, immediately for my produce, try to cut up.
- 25:36Like if I get romaine for the week, I try to cut it up and wash it and go ahead
- 25:40and have it, you know, dried and put away so that when I am working and I'm
- 25:46ready for lunch and I come downstairs for my salad, it's already cut and ready to go.
- 25:51Y'all, you would not believe like how long it took me to get there to just to
- 25:55do that. Like for so many years when I was eating salads, you know,
- 25:59when Jess and I were first married and like literally all through college,
- 26:02I did this. I would buy a head of lettuce at that time.
- 26:06Cut up bag lettuce wasn't really as prevalent as it is now.
- 26:10But I would buy a head and two is like way more expensive when we was broke.
- 26:14But I would buy a head of lettuce and every single day I would get my Tupperware
- 26:19container and I would wash the lettuce for just that one portion of the day.
- 26:24And you dry it and then like build my whole salad every day before I left for
- 26:29school or work or whatever I was going to.
- 26:33And like, I, one day I was just like, why am I not just cutting all this myself?
- 26:38And, you know, at one, at one time and storing it. Okay. So little things like that.
- 26:43I also pluck grapes all at once. You know, my kids, we like grapes and I've
- 26:49noticed that if I leave it on the vine, like they, they, we don't eat them.
- 26:53They go bad. Okay. I slice strawberries because that's how my kids eat strawberries.
- 26:57So we're going to get them sliced. I peel oranges, okay, and go ahead and have
- 27:02the little slices ready to throw into lunchboxes or for myself to just grab a handful of, right?
- 27:08Same for like if we're having veggies on my salad, like cucumbers and things
- 27:13like that, or veggies for the week.
- 27:15Like if I get a head of broccoli, specifically out of the garden,
- 27:18I've been getting some broccoli here lately.
- 27:21But I will go ahead and cut it up and store it so that when I'm ready to roast
- 27:26it, just have to dump it on the pan and toss it in.
- 27:29And it just makes for, gosh, one less step at the end of the day,
- 27:34y'all, for dinner when I'm already whooped.
- 27:37You know, like when it is six o'clock and you're thinking about dinner,
- 27:40it already feels like a big old chore to have to put some olive oil,
- 27:43some salt and pepper, and put them broccoli flores up in the oven, right?
- 27:48But then to think about having to cut it all up and wash it and all that before I even do that.
- 27:54I mean, I know I'm being dramatic, but I also know y'all know exactly what I'm
- 27:58talking about. It'll make you order DoorDash in a hot minute, you know?
- 28:02And so anything that will help prevent, again, that impulse later on in the
- 28:08week is worth the extra time, you know, on the front end.
- 28:13And then same for me, like, because we do meal plan, I kind of,
- 28:16I can look at my meal plan and I can say, okay, we're having chicken this day,
- 28:21beef this day, whatever.
- 28:22So then let's say I'm having chicken on Monday and Thursday.
- 28:26Well, you better bet on Monday when I get that chicken to thaw out and get ready
- 28:31to prepare it. However, I'm going to prepare it for Monday.
- 28:33I also thaw out the chicken for Thursday and cook it if it needs to be cooked
- 28:38or, you know, do whatever I need to do so that it will be ready later in the week,
- 28:43specifically later in the week, y'all, because Monday and Tuesday,
- 28:46I'm super motivated, but by Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it's just going all downhill.
- 28:50It's like I'll meal plan specifically for less effort later in the week.
- 28:58Pro tip, you know what I mean? Less effort later in the week,
- 29:01and you can bet by Friday, it's pizza night, okay?
- 29:05And then same for like rice. So if we're going to have rice,
- 29:07you know, on Monday as a side, and then maybe on, you know, again,
- 29:11on Wednesday or Thursday, we'll do hibachi.
- 29:13Like I go ahead and cook all the rice at one time, that kind of thing.
- 29:15So that's just a few things that I do that's considered, I guess,
- 29:19prepping, but it's not so rigid, you know, with all the containers put out,
- 29:23but it really is super helpful. Okay.
- 29:26So with all that being said, if you want to meal prep, but you don't really
- 29:29know where to start, my biggest advice for you is not to Google.
- 29:33Okay, do not Google meal prep ideas or Pinterest meal prep ideas because a lot
- 29:38of those are like really complicated.
- 29:40And also like, gosh, they have you going to the grocery store and buying so
- 29:43much stuff that it's expensive too, you know.
- 29:47And then a lot of the recipes turn out to be a bust.
- 29:51Like they don't taste good, you know, because a lot of people who meal prep
- 29:56really rigid like that are doing it for...
- 30:02Maybe something that is requiring a little more discipline than a lot of us
- 30:06have in our days, like for like fitness model competitions or,
- 30:10you know, they're like super into exercise in a way that they're calling it like athletics.
- 30:16You know what I mean? Like it's not just, you know, 30 minutes a day.
- 30:19It's like, oh, we're trying to be the best and compete and do,
- 30:23you know, all the things. And so a lot of those meal prep type meals can be
- 30:28yucky and can take a lot of time.
- 30:33And, you know, you can end up dreading them by the end of the week.
- 30:36I know there are some really great meal prep accounts out there these days.
- 30:40But if you aren't aware of those, it can be, you know, it can be really defeating
- 30:45and really like, yeah, just defeating to go through all that to meal prep in
- 30:51your pretty black containers.
- 30:52And to find out that the food is gross and you don't want it by Wednesday.
- 30:56So instead of thinking about doing something that way, instead of like trying
- 31:01to find a whole new recipe or a whole new method, a whole new way of going about
- 31:07things, right? By Googling and searching or whatever.
- 31:10My biggest tip here is to think about things that you already fix and eat already.
- 31:15Like what do you already make for your family or for yourself? And just start there.
- 31:20Okay. Start where you're comfortable. right? Like, do you eat poppy seed chicken
- 31:25every week with your family?
- 31:26Okay, start making an extra and portion it out into containers for you to take to work for lunch.
- 31:33Like that is considered meal prepping. Okay, yes, could it be healthier?
- 31:37Could it be less calories? 100%. But.
- 31:40Will you be less overwhelmed by starting at this method?
- 31:44Yes, because what's going to happen is eventually you're going to say,
- 31:47okay, I've got this meal prepping down.
- 31:49I can handle my containers. I kind of feel more comfortable in the kitchen doing
- 31:53this, like cooking in bulk kind of.
- 31:56And then you'll start to think, okay, what else could I do? What's maybe a lighter
- 32:00option? Or maybe I could find a way to make my poppy sea chicken even lighter.
- 32:04If you're a member or you've really ever interacted with my accounts,
- 32:09we give you a lighter poppy seed chicken recipe.
- 32:13But you start to involve. You start to, again, layer that cake like we're always
- 32:17talking about here. You will improve and you will feel more comfortable.
- 32:21And the next thing you know, you may be one of these Instagram influencer meal
- 32:25preppers, or you may just accept that you don't have to be and you can still lose the weight, right?
- 32:29So I hope you enjoyed this one today.
- 32:33I hope you better understand the difference between meal planning and meal prepping.
- 32:37But then, of course, I also especially hope that you find a place for meal prepping
- 32:44in your life that is comfortable for you, whether it is not meal prepping at all, because I cannot,
- 32:50or meal prepping to a T because you feel like the benefits will outweigh,
- 32:55you know, the efforts for you.
- 32:58So as always, y'all, I hope you enjoyed this one. And don't forget to say grace.
- 33:03Thank you for listening to today's episode of Say Grace Podcast.
- 33:05Music.
- 33:08If you enjoyed it, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five-star review.
- 33:13Also, make sure to follow the show so you don't miss another episode.
- 33:18Plus, if you're interested in learning more about losing weight and eating the
- 33:22foods you love, make sure to.
- 33:23Music.