How To Do Healthy Meal Prep Weekly Like A Pro With These 10 Tips
One of the most crucial aspect of pro cheer fitness is nutrition through the right food. It is because we usually have little control over what we eat. Most of the time, we go for highly processed products such as burgers, pizza, bacon, and takeouts because they are widely available, convenient, and delicious.
Although they’re all filling, they are also the primary cause of weight gain because they contain complex compounds that are hard to metabolize even with regular exercise. And nothing beats preparing your own meals at home when it comes to eating healthily.
Yet, meal prep can be challenging especially if you’re just getting into dieting and fitness. Here are the tips from fitness and dietary professionals on ensuring that you meet your nutritional needs every day of every week.
1. Make a menu and follow it
Here at PRO CHEER LIFE, we share a lot of healthy recipes so you can be fit without dreading what you eat. And you can take inspiration from our list on what to cook for your breakfasts, lunches, dinners throughout the week. You can also research more online. What’s important is you know the ingredients well and the steps to cook your chosen healthy dishes.
List of recipes:
- 10 Healthy Breakfast Recipes for Weight Loss
- 8 Protein Cookies to Try For Your Pre and Post-Workout Snacks
- Tired of Eggs? Try These 6 High-Protein Breakfast Options
- 6 Energizing Vegan Meals for Your Active Pro Cheer Lifestyle
- 9 Healthy Low Sugar Recipes to Start the Year Right
- 9 Healthy Low-Carb Desserts to Make That Satisfy Your Sugar Cravings
- 9 Breakfast Toast Recipes to Fuel Your Day
- 9 Smoothie Recipes for Beautiful Skin
- 6 High-Protein Salad Recipes That Will Fill You Up
- Try These Recipes That Taste Like Junk Food But Are Actually Healthy
- 8 Healthy Air Fryer Recipes That Will Make Your Life Easier
- 5 Dairy-Free High-Protein Smoothies You Should Try
- 5 Healthy Pastry Recipes to Reward Your Fitness Efforts With
- 5 High Protein Lunch Recipes That Support Weight Loss
- 4 Healthy Dinner Recipes to Sleep Well and Wake Up Energized
2. Plan your menus based on the availability of ingredients in your area
While every dish on the recipe list you browse is highly enticing for you to try, you must be realistic about the availability of the ingredients. It’s important to visit your local grocery store and farmer’s market regularly to see what they all sell. This will help you make a menu that’s easily doable.
3. Stock up and chop up
Now that you have a doable menu and a list of ingredients to buy, it’s time to go back to the merchants to stock up for the week. When you arrive home, chop all the ingredients in portions as instructed by your menu recipes.
Store them in containers before preserving them in your fridge. This will make it very easy for you to cook your planned meal because the preparation process has already been done in advance.
4. Rearrange your pantry based on your menu
Read your menu and rearrange your pantry based on the successive meals. For example, if your breakfast is a specific dish, put the spices, condiments, and other necessities for the recipe in front of the pantry and the ones for your lunch at the rear. This will help you save even more meal prep time by shortening your cooking process.
5. Always take time to read labels
There will be times when you will really have zero time for meal preparation. In such a scenario, eating food from a convenience store would be the easiest option. But easy doesn’t always mean best. So read the labels carefully before checking out at the counter. You don’t want to eat something that contains more calories and fat than the amount your workout routine can burn.
6. Consider having leftovers for every meal
Aside from eating food from a convenience store, you can choose to cook bigger servings per meal. You can then freeze the leftovers and reheat them in case of a meal prep emergency.
7. Go carb-less at least once a week
You should have at least one meal from your week’s menu that doesn’t contain any carbs or has a low count of it. This will significantly reduce the amount of fat your body will store because you won’t have any excess glycogen in your liver.
8. Discuss your meal plan with your housemates
The #1 challenge of meal preparation is when you’re living with others such as your family or friends. It’s because what they’ll eat is usually what you’ll eat. You must discuss your weekly menu with them first, especially if you’re a pro cheer mom.
They might have some favorite dishes that you can make a healthier version of. And this will be a win-win situation for everyone.
9. Vary your menu each week
If meal prep can be hard, so is following it. To make your weekly menus interesting, swap out some recipes you don’t like with newly-researched ones at the end of every week. It’s also recommended to keep some of your favorite recipes so you can have meals to look forward to.
10. Use a portion of your weekend for meal planning
All the tips on this list will be useless if you don’t have the time to follow them. Schedule a part of your weekends for researching healthy recipes, making your weekly menu, grocery shopping, chopping ingredients, and discussing your meal plan with your housemates.
Healthy meals are made from nutritious ingredients. There’s no argument for that. While you’re at the grocery store or farmer’s market, refrain from buying processed products or goods that are high in refined sugar. It’s fine to buy a pint of ice cream as long as it’s designed to be your cheat meal and not your snack.
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