‘How To Meal Plan & Meal Prep For Weight Loss Like A Pro – Full Guide’ – Monica May

 

Eating right is the first thing you want to do if you want to lose weight, get fit or just make the healthiest version of yourself.

And the first step to eating right is planning.

Planning plays a crucial role in every weight loss journey since without it you’d be lost and will not have time for anything.

In fact, most people are giving up their weight loss efforts because they’re can’t find the time to prepare healthy foods.

And yes, we’re all busy trying to make a living, socializing, keeping our home clean, some of us even raising children along the way, and making time for our health is often at the bottom of our priority list.

The only reason for that is not having enough time.

Well, what if I told you that you can do it faster than you think?

You just have to plan it right!

That’s why today we’re learning how to meal plan and meal prep for weight loss, without spending lots of money and time on it.

It’s the same with everything you do in life – If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

And there are billions of meal planning guides and eating programs out there that sounds like they’re great, but what they lack is they don’t take in consideration 2 pretty important things:

  • Your time
  • Your budget

But that’s not me!

I’ve came up with the perfect solution to make your meal planning:

  • FAST
  • EASY
  • BUDGET FRIENDLY
  • FUN
  • DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY!

Let’s jump right into it!

How To Meal Plan & Meal Prep For Weight Loss Like A Pro - Full Guide

You are 4 steps away from becoming a real meal prep pro!

And most important of all, I’ll make sure to give you an easy and fun guide to meal prep for weight loss.

Let’s get started!


How To Meal Plan & Meal Prep For Weight Loss

Step 1: Planning

Food Planning

Meal planning is a process of planning ahead the meals you will eat.

So, the very first step when learning how to meal plan is actually knowing what foods you should eat and what foods you should avoid for weight loss and staying healthy in general.

You can do that by simply googling the healthy foods that are good for weight loss, and the ones that aren’t.

However, a rule of thumb would be to double-check everything you find online because there’s so much misleading info on the internet.

In order to make everything easier for you, I made a nutrition guide on how to eat healthy.

It’s all about learning a little bit of nutrition, packed in an easy read eBook.

It’s called ‘The Hungry Fit Girl’, so if you’re having trouble deciding what’s healthy and what’s not, it got it all.

Inside you’ll find listed foods that are healthy and are good to go, foods that you should avoid, and a list of foods that are somewhat healthy and you can eat in moderations.

Also, you’ll find my personal formulas for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Collect Recipe Ideas

Once you decide what’s good for you and what’s not, you should start to collect healthy recipes.

You can search them on google, or on social media.

There are tons of Instagram profiles that will give you healthy ideas daily.

Also, on my blog, there is a ‘healthy recipes’ section, starting from breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks – I have it all.
So make sure to go through them and select your favorites.

How To Meal Plan & Meal Prep For Weight Loss Like A Pro

Check out >>> 7 Days Of Healthy Meal Prep Ideas
Ready To Eat Meals and Protein On The Go With The Best Meal Containers

Write down your favorite healthy foods and find healthy recipes including them.

If you are not into doing this yourself, or just can’t figure out how to meal plan and what you should be eating to lose weight and get fit – no worries I got you.

Go ahead and grab my 28-Day Burn Baby Burn Meal Plan with 28-days of healthy meals, schedules, shopping lists, and everything you need to start eating healthy today.

You’ll find 28-days of recipe ideas there, meal planning schedules and everything you need to eat healthy and lose weight.

Plan Your Week – Make a Meal Schedule

This is the fun part – deciding exactly what you’ll eat each day during the week.

This one gives you the chance to budget your meals, be organized and finally get them ready.

You get to write it all down and organize your meals in a calendar.

So sit down, grab a pen, and start writing down.

If you want to go a step further, start planning in a fitness diary or fitness planner.

Head on to check out my Fit Babe Fitness Planner right now!

This will make planning more important and much more fun for sure.


Step 2: Shop

Make a shopping list

After deciding what you’ll have for breakfast lunch and dinner, you should focus on shopping.

Shopping can be so stressful, but if you organize yourself right you can make it easy and fun.

What you should do is go through your meal schedule and recipes, and make a shopping list.

Arrange your shopping list so it’s easy to follow

After you write down everything you need to buy, arrange the groceries in different categories

Dry pantry goods in one column, meat in another, frozen goods, fresh veggies/fruits.

This may seem unnecessary, but it’s a really smart tactic that will help you navigate the store quickly and efficiently.

In my 28-Day Meal Plan, you will find 4 weekly shopping lists, with everything you’ll need to buy to actually eat healthy.

Never shop on an empty stomach

This can cause a series of unfortunate events:

You’ll rush your shopping, increase the chance of forgetting something, increase the chances of reaching out for products that are not even on your list or even worse products that are not healthy.

So, grab a bite before head shopping.

Choose a shopping day

And avoid doing it on weekends.

On weekends everybody goes shopping and we don’t want stressful queues.

Shopping should always be fun and relaxing, so pick up another day of the week.

Always check for sales

If you want to keep it as budget-friendly as possible you can also organize your meals by what’s on sale.

Check out your grocery store circular and adjust your meal plan or shopping list a bit.

If the chicken is on sale, you can just add it up to your meals instead of let’s say turkey or tuna.

Also, if you are into subscriptions, check out this article to determine which is the best meal delivery service.


Step 3: Meal Prep

Get Yourself Meal Prep Containers

They are pretty cheap, yet they’re so practical to take with you at work, college, or anywhere you go.

Just make sure they’re leak-proof and you’re all set!

Here’re the containers I use:


 

Or, if you like it better, you can always prep in jars.

Here’s how to do that: Healthy Meals In a Jar – Healthy Meals-To-Go and Recipes For A Last Minute Takeaway

Freezing is a great strategy

You can always cook and freeze your meals.

Here’re my ideas for perfectly freezable meals, and a sneak peek to my weekly meals :)

7 Days Of Healthy Meal Prep Ideas – Ready To Eat Meals and Protein On The Go With The Best Meal Containers

Don’t be afraid to improvise

Sometimes you’ll just have to do it free-style and make a meal out of whatever you have in your fridge or pantry.

And that’s perfectly fine and practical.

There are actually plenty of blogs that can help you make a recipe out of the ingredients you have, so if you don’t have any ideas just “google it” and you’ll get some.

Pick a day for meal prep

I hate Sundays!

They make me feel lazy and remind me how much work I have to do starting the new week.

That’s why I always prep on Saturdays.

Saturdays make me feel like I have the time to make a mistake or skip one meal or two, since I always have Sunday left to make it right.

Also, I tend to prep twice a week.

That makes it easier to organize and make sure you don’t feel like you work – instead you’re making it short and fun.


Step 4: Prepare

Always have a backup plan

Plan B is a must.

Sometimes you just won’t have time to cook your meal or you’ll forget to unfreeze your meal and it’s already time to eat.

Plan B is actually a backup meal you settle for when you don’t have time to cook.

My backup plan is usually canned food I buy on my way to work, for example my backup plan for last week was tuna and chickpeas – I just mix them up, add a few spices and it’s all set.

 

Make a list of easy to prep – last minute foods

Healthy starches like quinoa, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, and sweet potatoes are easy to cook and will last up to five days in the fridge, so making a big batch on the weekends is a smart time-saver.

Use sticky notes

Okay, now this one is for all of you that have family like mine.

It’s such a mood killer when you’ve been cooking the night before and someone ate it while you were asleep.

Oh yes, that happens to me ALWAYS – that’s why I started using sticky notes.

I just write down “Monica’s” on my meals in the fridge or even better “Don’t eat!!!” :)


Now it’s your turn – get ready to meal prep like a pro!

Yaaaay!

You did it!

Now comes the fun part – trying it out next week!

Let me know how it was for you in the comments bellow, or contact me trough my contact page.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Till next time, babe!
xoxo

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