Hey y’all, Hayden again!
After explaining my background in my health journey last week, I wanted to further go into depth on how I was able to manage eating healthy while being busy. When I first learned these things, I was still in the middle of basketball season, going to school, on long bus trips and weekend trips for playoffs, and even more. I also had come to terms with myself that I was not going to compromise my health again just because I was very busy.
I learned how to “meal prep” as you may have seen it called on social media. With being in high school, and our head coach being in charge of the meals we got to eat on the road, it was always either Raising Canes, Pizza Hut, or Jason’s Deli. And at this point, I had learned enough about all of those types of foods, that I did not want to touch those things with a 10 foot pole. After eating Raising Cane’s every week or even sometimes twice a week with travelling to Lubbock for district games back then, it got pretty old. Even before I got healthy, I had to stop eating it when we went there because of how it made me feel after eating it! You’d think that a head coach of a program would care about the nutrition that he was feeding his athletes (Ha, think again)!
As I previously mentioned in my last blog, I had no clue about calorie awareness, or what a calorie even was (even after losing all the weight). So I started using the app, “My Fitness Pal” to help me keep track of all of the foods I was eating and how many of each macro nutrient I was eating also. If you are new into a health journey and are not aware of how many calories a lot of things are, this would help you fairly quickly and get you familiar with calories and how much the everyday things you are eating are! It is definitely eye opening for sure!
While using My Fitness Pal, I began preparing my meals for road trips in advance. If I knew that we were going to be on the road until midnight, I would pack a meal that I could eat cold on the bus, usually a salad with a clean protein source. And I would also pack another small snack. I always joke and remember, but when our coach would tell us that we were going to Raising Cane’s, my team mates would argue over who would get my bread, extra sauce and fries. I learned how to meal prep in high school, and I feel like this was valuable for the rest of my life! I would take my meals with us everywhere (literally). Into the Raising Cane’s, Pizza Huts and Jason’s Delis. I got some light harassment from those around me that completely did not understand health at all, but I am better for it in the long run. The discipline I learned in the last two years of high school and basketball trips, was worth way more to me than a Box Combo from Raising Cane’s.
In my everyday routine now, most of the time I do not have to meal prep, but on the days that I do, I know how to do it quickly and efficiently!
In my opinion and experience, here are some tips for success in meal prepping!
- Have a plan for what you are wanting to make and take with you! This could be from snacks for your work day, school day, road trips, lunches, etc! For example, if there are days I know I won’t be able to come home for lunch, I pack a serving of my Arbonne protein in a zip-lock bag, and place the bag in my shaker cup! This makes for easy transport and storage for wherever I am going to make my shake. Now all I need is water.
- Think about the availability of what you are going to have time to eat, make, and sit down with! This means that if for example, you’re going to be on the road for 6 hours, it may not be very reasonable to pack a large bowl of your favorite soup that needs to be microwaved and managed well in the car! That would not work out so well. Possibly consider packing some protein bars (my Arbonne one’s below for an example), or a healthy wrap, sandwich or even fruit to snack on while you drive! Now, if you are just taking your lunch or snacks to work where you have the availability to prepare anything, then take whatever you want! You aren’t very limited there.
- Have the proper containers on hand for the type of food you are prepping! Sometimes trying to figure out how to transport certain things can get a little tricky. For example, taking a protein shake? Use a shaker cup and your protein in a bag like I showed above. Taking grilled chicken and quinoa? Go and get some seal-able glass containers (they sell these everywhere) and fill ‘er up! Wanting to make a cup of hot tea later in the day, but not sure that you’ll hold onto the tea bag long enough to not lose it? Choose your favorite cup with a lid, and simply put the tea bag on the inside (without water of course). This makes for easy transport and is the same concept as the shaker one!
- Be intentional about sticking to your plan and making time to prepare! A myth about meal prepping that a lot of people believe, is that it takes hours to do! This is totally untrue. After you spend maybe an hour a week preparing the bigger stuff, but in the day to day, it takes less than five minutes! Most of the time only one minute! When you are intentional and make the time to prepare, you’ll be glad you did! You would rather be “Safe than Sorry” in instances that you might not know what kind of food will be available! I have had to learn this the hard way! I would go into events or even trips sometimes thinking that surely there would be something I could eat! Too many times I had proved myself wrong. So take the time and prepare, you will be happy you did! Your health and future self will thank you also!
Thank you so much for reading on how to prepare and tips for success when starting to prep your meals and snacks! I am really enjoying this blog and I am excited to share with y’all more on other things!
Stay tuned!
A Better You 