Meal Prep: More Than Just Saving Time & Money – Here Are 3 Unexpected Benefits

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I started my meal prep journey, because it was important to me to eat nutritionally well-balanced meals in an affordable way. Along the way, I realised that there were more benefits to meal prepping then I could have ever expected.

A variety of meal prep dishes.

Yes, I saved money and time, but unexpectedly, everyday life became easier, I had a lot more free time then I expected, and I actually became more creative in the kitchen.

This post is all about: Meal Prep: More Than Just Saving Time & Money – Here Are 3 Unexpected Benefits

What Is Meal Prep?

Meal prep is the process of preparing meals ahead of time, usually in bulk so that you have meals ready to go at any time.

Meal prepping can involve batch cooking and freezing, portioning out ingredients for single-serve meals, or simply prepping ingredients ahead of time so that meal assembly is faster.

No matter what approach you take, meal prep can help save time during busy weeks and money by reducing impulsive grocery runs and take-outs. All while ensuring you have nutritious meals on hand.

But, there’s more! Read on to find out more about the unexpected benefits of meal prep!

3 Unexpected Benefits Of Meal Prep

1. It Will Make Life Easier

According to findings from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, more than 4 in 10 Americans now follow some type of dietary restriction. Some of the main reasons why people follow dietary restrictions include food allergies or sensitivities, religious practices, and ideological beliefs.

Even though dietary restrictions have become more prevalent, they remain challenging to navigate in everyday life especially when you don’t work from home or are on-the-go a lot. It won’t always be easy to find a meal, let alone a nutritious one, close to your workplace or wherever you land up.

Meal prep can make life with dietary restrictions a whole lot easier! Preparing your lunches ahead of time, will reduce the stress of finding something appropriate to eat in the middle of a busy workday.

Even if you don’t follow any dietary restrictions, meal prep will make life easier. Deciding what to eat, several times per day, can cause decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse. The more decisions you have to make, the more fatigue you develop and the more difficult it can become.

By meal prepping your meals in advance, your future self will have to make less decisions during an already stressful workday you will thus preserve precious mental energy.

2. You Will Have A LOT More Free Time

You will have A LOT more free time when you meal prep, but you will need to invest a bit of time upfront to make that happen. I promise, it will be worth it…

When you wait until the day-of to decide what you are going to eat, you are bound to make a last minute grocery run or order take-out. But when you spend time upfront to prepare for the week – making a meal plan, grocery shopping, and preparing your meals partially or entirely – you will free up a lot of time during your busy work week.

In essence, you are better managing your time, by grouping similar tasks together. You save yourself time and mental energy by trying to complete all of one type of to-do before moving on to the next. Just like you separate chunks of time at work for answering emails, making phone calls, filing, etc. Instead of answering emails and messages as they come in.

By preparing a bulk amount of meals in one go, instead of preparing them when you are ready to eat, you save yourself serval hours throughout the week to spend on other activities.

3. You’ll Be More Creative

Have you ever felt like you are in a recipe rut? You are just making the same few recipes over and over, because that is all you feel qualified to make. Or, you consider yourself too busy to learn how to make something new. You might even believe delicious meals must be terribly complicated, and this believe is holding you back to try new recipes.

A recipe rut is often just a sign that you’re overwhelmed and need structure in the form of a meal planning and/or meal prepping habit.

A meal planning and prepping habit can help you feel less overwhelmed in the kitchen and thus help you find your groove back – trying new and exciting recipes on a weekly basis.

Did you find this post helpful? Don’t forget to let me know, by leaving a comment below.

This post is all about: Meal Prep: More Than Just Saving Time & Money – Here Are 3 Unexpected Benefits

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