Meal Prepping and Supplements Go Hand in Hand

People with a desire to improve their health and lose some weight know that a new health journey starts in the kitchen. While many people think that they can out-exercise unhealthy food choices, this usually isn’t the case.

One way that diet efforts can be enhanced is to combine meal prepping with supplements.

An Introduction to Meal Planning

People new to a health journey may not even know what the terms meal planning and meal prepping refer to.

When someone is meal planning, they are simply planning out the foods they will eat over the next day, the next week, or even the next month. Meal planning is simply having a written food plan.

When a person takes the time to make the plan, they are more likely to follow through with their diet. They may also put in their plan the specific supplements they will take. Supplements are available from FirstFitness at SupplementRelief.com.

The plan is based on a person’s individual health goals. Common goals to build the meal plan around include:

■ Calories – If the person is trying to gain or lose weight, they will have a daily calorie goal. The meals they plan will aim to keep them at or under that daily budget.

■ Carbohydrates – Many low carb dieters, ketogenic dieters, or those following the Atkins plan aim to eat under a specific number of grams of carbs. Their plan will be filled with low carb options to help them stay under a carb budget.

■ Other macronutrients – Depending on the needs of the individual, certain meal plans may aim to hit macronutrient goals and track items such as fiber and protein consumed.

■ Allergy-free and elimination plans – If the person has a food allergy or newly discover food intolerance, their meal plan can be filled with foods that don’t include those certain ingredients. This can be great for someone who eats dairy on a daily basis but has recently discovered they have a dairy allergy. Planning their meals and later prepping their own food guarantees they won’t slip up and consume something with cheese.

■ Increasing produce consumption – Some people choose to build a meal plan with the goal of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. They may build an all-fresh food meal plan that makes fruit and vegetables the star of the meal.

Meal Planning Inspiration

When starting, most should keep the food plan as simple as possible. For people who want to keep it simple, they may plan to eat the exact same meal every single day for breakfast, and the exact same meal every single day for lunch.

Other people find that they need exciting foods to be able to stick to their meal plan, and if they have the time to spend in the kitchen then more power to them. Do whatever it takes to stick to the plan so that those health goals can be reached.

If someone finds themself stuff on knowing what foods to plan, there are many resources out there to help. Common meal planning resources include:

■ Pre-made meal plans can be found all over the internet. Many websites offer free and sample plans.

■ Individual recipes can be found through simple internet searches by typing in keywords like “healthy soups” or “low-fat sandwiches”.

■ Facebook meal planning groups can be a goldmine, many people post their weekly plans for others to use, and post videos and recipes as well. This can also be a great place to make like-minded health-conscious friends.

■ Libraries often have an assortment of books on meal planning, meal prepping, healthful eating, and supplements.

Now It’s Time to Meal Prep

Once the plan is all set out and the person is happy with their food choices for the week, the next step is shopping for the groceries. Many people buy their groceries a week at a time because fruit and vegetables will likely wilt and go bad before the second week comes.

People often meal plan on a set day of the week every week, they grocery shop on a set day, and they prep their meals on a set day. It’s not very common for people to switch things up once they get into a meal planning and prepping routine.

Once the groceries are bought, it’s time to cook. This is where the meal prepping comes in. Meal prepping is when people cook their weekly meals at once. Some people may make a week’s worth of lunches on Sunday, and then the rest of the week all they have to do is make their breakfast and dinner each day.

Other people may make all of their meals for Monday through Friday at once, meaning they don’t have to cook at all during the week. Meal prepping can be very personalized to the individual. Some people want hot and fresh cooked food for every meal, and their meal prepping just involves cutting up a week’s worth of vegetables at once.

Other people may make a big pot of stew on Sunday, and then they eat that for every single meal until it’s gone. As long as they are following their meal plan and the plan works for them, then all is well.

The Benefits of Combining Meal Planning and Supplements

While some people plan their meals, prep their meals, and call it done, those who have studied health know that supplements can be a health-conscious person’s best friend.

Even with a great meal plan, a person may not be getting in all of the vitamins and nutrients that they need on a daily basis. Even those hitting all their vitamin goals through food may find themselves needing something a little extra to help in their journey.

A good example is that a change in diet can leave people feeling bloated and constipated. Detox supplements can get things moving again, get rid of the bloat, and help people feel less sluggish. There are supplements for all types of health conditions, and even some that can boost metabolism and aid weight loss.

If after starting a new health journey a person notices an area they can improve on, such as energy, there’s bound to be a supplement that can help.

In conclusion, sometimes it takes more than just healthy food to get people feeling their best. A good meal plan and meal prepping are a great start, but adding in supplements can be the icing on the healthy cake. By eating healthy and getting the right supplements in, a person can get to feeling better ever!

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