MEAL PREP TRIAL PERIOD

My former boss in the company that I used to work for always reminds his direct reports (including me) that "failing to prepare is essentially preparing to fail" and I have practically used that as my personal life mantra. This mantra is can be applied practically to any situation that we are in. Yesterday, I mentioned that I will be jumpstarting one of my 2017 goals on February 21st. Even if I am now a full-time stay-at-home mom, I still find it a little bit difficult to manage my time efficiently because I feel like there's just too many chores at home and it seems like the hours in a day are not enough for me to be able to accomplish everything on my to-do list. 

Most of us, working in offices or working from home, are pretty busy to be quite fair. We all feel like we have so much on our plates and so we sometimes take shortcuts and we sacrifice the time allotted for cooking our meals - healthy meals. We find it easier to call the delivery food hotline or to walk towards the nearest fast food stall. However, if we plan our day accordingly and diligently meal prep, then we can save so much time, eat healthier, and absolutely decrease the chance of impulse eating.

I am not going to talk about what meal prep is all about because I am just in the trial period, in fact, I'm only starting so I am no way in any authority to school anyone. I'll try this out for at least one month before I share with you the benefits and tips and tricks on how to make this routine work for you too.

After our bank appointment today, I decided to do a bit of grocery shopping. I bought microwavable containers, color-coded for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (I can be OC like that). I bought vegetables, fish, and ground pork as well. I spent less than Php1000 for everything. That's a bit cheaper than ordering from calorie-counted meal delivery plan service. I'll polish my grocery list next time and I am sure that I will save more. 

Meal prepped meals for 3 days

Three days meal prep done! This is actually easier to do than what I hoped it would be. I didn't include the snacks in my preps because I'm not yet sure what to include. I'll probably just have an apple or carrots in between meals or a little tub of yogurt. Do you have any suggestions? I need all the help I can get because I need to lose 10kg before the 21st of May. I would just like to reiterate that this is not another diet but lifestyle change before we start to TTC. Wish me luck! Breakfast: Chia Seed (2 tablespoons) with 2/3 cup Strawberry Milk and Banana Lunch: Boiled Egg, Pasta, Tinapa and Tuna sautè with Mushrooms Dinner: Baked Cream Dory Filler with Tomato and Chili, Stir-Fried Veggies (Zucchini, Broccoli and French Beans), Uncooked Carrot . . . . . #2017Goal #MealPrep #MealPrepDaily #MealPrepper #PortionControl #FoodInMyLunchBox #LifestyleChange #HealthyEating #HealthyFood #MealPrepOnFleek #TTC #TTCJourney

A post shared by Kessa Thea's LunchBox (@foodinmylunchbox) on Feb 15, 2017 at 2:37am PST

I used plastic meal containers for now but I plan to invest in glass containers so I could use it longer and the food quality will be maintained while stored inside the fridge. I'll probably also keep my meal preps to 3 days as I find it manageable. Eating the same food for more than 4 days would be too much to my taste already.

It took me a total of a little over 3 hours to wash, slice, cook and arrange the food in the containers. I plan to do it a little bit faster next time by organizing my work table and being more efficient with my mise en place.

As you can see in the photo above, I did not include the snacks yet but after we had dinner, I decided to snack on watermelon tomorrow. I have yet to decide what to snack on on Friday and Saturday. I'm not forcing myself to do more than what I can do because I don't want to feel pressure early on. I am just taking this lifestyle change one step at a time and strive for continuity rather than crash and burn.

I will be documenting my journey in my Instagram account - @FOODINMYLUNCHBOX - so I hope you can follow me there. I am also looking for an accountability buddy that could probably do this as well. If you are willing to join me in my quest to better time management and a more healthy living/eating, let me know. I would love to discuss the details with you.

PHOTO CREDIT: Haute Chocolate Styled Stock Image