Meal planning and food prep photos are popping up all over social media lately (don’t miss mine on Facebook or Instagram!), and people are constantly asking me why I feel so strongly about meal planning and food prep. The benefits of meal planning are huge, and in today’s post, I’ll share my top 4. And if you’re ready to learn how to do meal planning and food prep yourself, a Meal Planning Mastery webinar with my best tips and tricks is available here.
- Meal Planning saves time. The average person saves about 5 hours per week when they dedicate just 60-90 minutes to meal planning and food prep. Don’t believe it? Just think about all the time wasted thinking about what to make, driving to pick up something “quick,” cleaning the same tools over and over again (imagine just getting out the cutting board once per week!), and making second and third trips to the grocery store for forgotten items. All of that can be eliminated!
- Meal Planning makes healthy eating easier. The average restaurant meal has at least 50% more calories, unhealthy fat, sugar, and sodium than an equivalent home-cooked meal. Even if you crave a pizza or a burger and fries once in a while, you’d be far better off preparing those treats at home. The difference adds up to almost 23 pounds per year for someone who eats at restaurants 5 meals per week (and that includes the “grab-and-go” lunches)!
- Meal Planning saves money. The average American family thows away 25% of their groceries, resuling in approximately $2300 per year. Knowing exactly what you need, and sticking to your list, can prevent that!
- Meal Planning makes life less stressful. Raise your hand if you hate that feeling of staring into the refrigerator and seeing tons of ingredients but NOTHING that looks like a meal (me, too!). Or fighting the internal battle between going home to cook and driving through somewhere? How about hearing the kids yell, “MOM, what’s for dinner?” when you just have no idea? All of that stress can be saved through simple meal planning and food prep.
Are you convinced of the benefits of meal planning? Interested in picking up (or improving) your own meal planning and food prep? A Meal Planning Mastery webinar with my best tips and tricks is available here. I can’t wait to share my very best tips with you!
Now it’s your turn … What are the biggest benefits of meal planning to you? If you don’t meal plan yet, what benefits do you expect when you try it?
I’m doing meal prep for 2 weeks now, and I feel so healthy. There are indeed a lot of benefits.
I am planning to do meal prep too! Thanks for sharing this
I have to admit to never doing the modern version of ‘meal prep’ … but find that most of these benefits are there with the old fashioned type – ‘menu planning’ … set up a menu for the week and make sure you are realistic about what will be required and then stick to it! Crock pot meals help with this, also we divide out our meats into meal-sized portions. Same for potato/rice … veggies we can free-wheel a bit 🙂 I think the ‘less waste’ part is great also!
Maybe when we get back to being ’empty nest’ again we will do more structured meal prep – we were headed in that direction before!