Meal Prep 101
Our brains can only make about35,000 decisions a day. While this might seem like a lot, this number can be deceivingas many decisions often relate to one idea. If you look at some of the mostsuccessful people in the world, they form at least one habit daily to save adecision. Steve jobs always used to wear a black turtleneck, jeans, and NewBalance sneakers, Mark Zuckerberg almost always wears a grey t-shirt and a pairof jeans, and Albert Einstein only wore grey suits. All of these successfulpeople wore the same thing every day because they didn’t want to waste theirbrain power worrying about something that they deemed less important than theirwork.
Knowing this strategy, consider how this applies to meal prepping. Meal prepping is a handy technique that will save you many decisions in terms of both time and money alike. If you have all your meals (or most) prepped for the week, think of what you save in the process. I find that a lot of students don’t want to meal prep because they’d prefer to use that time studying, but consider how much time you spend in line at Starbucks, Cogro, or any other food retailer on campus. Often, far more time and money is used at these retailers than if you were to block off a few hours to meal prep on a Sunday afternoon for the week. Simply taking one to three hours on the weekend to prep saves you time cooking throughout the week, including the dreaded dishwashing duty, and gives you peace of mind in the process. Now, a lot of people don’t like the idea of meal prepping because they don’t want to eat the same thing every day. My solution to this is to meal prep ingredients!
If you meal prep a few different grains, veggies, and proteins, you can basically eat something different every day. Just place a few different things into a bowl together and voila, a unique meal! Importantly, taking a few hours to meal prep healthy ingredients isn’t just good for your well-being but vital study fuel as well (plus it’s much cheaper than buying food multiple times a day).
For breakfast, my personal favourite dish to prepare is overnight oats as they’re filling, packed with fiber and protein, and even digest better in your stomach than cooked oats do. Other great options for breakfast that are quick and easy include chia pudding, boiled eggs, muffins, or a simple egg frittata.
If you’re stuck on what to prepare, or are simply in need of some inspiration, don’t hesitate to use the internet to your advantage! There are plenty of blog posts and YouTube videos about meal prepping ideas, including some of my favourites below, in order to help you get started on your prepping journey:
- Downshitology
- Pick UpLimes (Vegan)
- SanneVloet
- NinaMontagne (Vegan)
- MadeleineOlivia
- Sarahs Day
Written By: Amira Ghobrial