Meal prep and healthy eating seem to go hand in hand. If you’ve been in the nutrition industry for awhile, it seems like everyone either loves or hates meal prep. As an RD nutrition coach, it’s important to effectively communicate the benefits of meal prep and how to make it easier for your clients! Before we dive into this topic, allow me to introduce myself for those of you who are new around here!
My name is Tony Stephan, and I’m a dietitian business coach. I help RDs make more IMPACT and more INCOME through nutrition coaching. Before becoming a dietitian business coach, I was a dietitian nutrition coach. I served thousands of nutrition coaching clients over a time span of 12 years. My successful nutrition coaching business is what led me to where I am today. Now, let’s discuss the benefits of meal prep and how to make it work for YOUR clients!
Benefits Of Meal Prep
Meal prepping can help reduce monthly expenses on food and groceries. When you have a realistic plan that contains meals and foods you actually enjoy eating, you’ll be more likely to stick to it. This means less money spent on restaurants and less food wasted in general.
Meal prep also helps develop one’s cooking skills. It’s great for self-sufficiency! It helps people better explore new flavors and understand what types of foods they really like.
Meal prep and planning has been associated with a more healthful, varied diet. You can plan to incorporate more plant-based foods that are rich in fiber and antioxidants. This can help reduce relative risk for chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer!
Last minute decisions about food are more likely to result in poorly balanced meals. Meal prep and planning helps reduce stress and anxiety of not knowing what to eat.
Finally, while counting macros isn’t for everyone, meal prep and planning is a must if you happen to be tracking macronutrient intake for certain fitness or performance goals!
Top 7 Meal Prep Tips
- Create a weekly plan and grocery shop accordingly. This helps control your food budget costs!
- Work with your schedule. You want to consider any upcoming appointments, dinners, or events that might keep you from cooking or eating meals at home. This is especially important during the week!
- Keep a well-stocked kitchen. Items such as pasta, rice, beans, oatmeal, canned tuna, frequently used herbs/spices, sauces, and staple vegetables are relatively cheap to buy in bulk. They also last quite long in the pantry.
- Multitask when meal prepping or cooking. This tip gets easier and easier the more you plan, prep and cook. For example, maybe you’re roasting vegetables to pair with your pan-seared salmon. Try to time it right so both food items finish cooking within 5 minutes of each other!
- Reuse and recycle leftovers. This is another tip to help reduce food waste and overall costs! Figure out how to turn yesterday’s dinner into tomorrow breakfast or lunch. If you’re making beef tacos one night, for example, re-use the taco filling to make quesadillas or a breakfast burrito bowl the next day!
- Keep backup foods in stock that are quick and easy to prepare. Sometimes our plans get ruined–life gets in the way! This is why it’s very important to keep backup foods available. Healthier microwaveable meals, canned soups, frozen pizza,
- Invest in quality food storage or Tupperware containers. You don’t need hundreds of dollars worth of food storage containers, but a nice variety does come in handy!
The Takeaway
Meal prep can make your and your clients’ healthy eating goals a reality. When done well, it helps reduce the anxiety and stress of not knowing what to eat. As RD nutrition coaches it’s important to 1) lead by example and 2) help our clients find out what works best for them.
So, do you enjoy meal prep or simply planning your meals ahead of time? Send me an email at tony@tonystephandietitian.com and let me know! Seriously, I want to hear from you.
If you’re a dietitian looking to start your own nutrition coaching business, you are in the right place. I’m proud to be a part of the movement of dietitian entrepreneurs who are making more IMPACT and more INCOME! Check out some of our FREE resources below.
