[mandykent111]

My first mini goal is to meal prep for every meal for an entire week! May come to easy to some....but not me!

Any tips??? Thanks

[faiora]

If you have a significant other, get them involved. Make lunches for both of you all at once, together (or all of you, as a family, if you have kids). Make a fun Sunday out of it.

If you're by yourself, find something inspiring to start with. I made a whole bunch of onigiri one week with ground meat stuffed inside it... look up onigiri. If you make cute little lunches for yourself they'll be fun to eat—even the parts you wouldn't normally like as much. (Yes, I treat myself like a child to convince myself to go forward with life improvements)

Make an enourmous pot of chili or soup, and freeze it in single-serving containers. Grab that on days when you haven't made a lunch ahead of time.

Something I do is keep instant oatmeal, canned tuna and beans, and some other healthy-ish snacks at work in a drawer. I also keep lots of happy planet smoothies around (the 900mL bottles) so I can pour myself a cup when I want one.

[rberi]

That's a great idea about the healthy snacks in the drawer at work. I will be doing that this week.

[wendybirdx]

Well, my tip would be to plan everything in advance. You might not need to do this later on, but since you have trouble now, it might be good to separate exactly what you're preparing so you can a) buy the ingredients in advance, b) plan the times you need to go buy fresh ingredients, if necessary and c) figure out how much time it'll take you to prepare your meals and when. I advise giving yourself a little more time than sites often list since you're just figuring it out for the first time (the time they estimate is probably their own time to make the plate, and if they posted the recipe, they've probably experimented with it often).

Good luck! (:

[frawniemae]

First thing to do would be to inventory what you have in the fridge, freezer and pantry. Next would be to plan what you'd be able to and/or like to make out of it. Then you'd make a list of anything you'd need from the store. I've been planning my menus up to a month in advance for years and it sure helps to just be able to take a quick look at what I need to put in the fridge to thaw or get in the produce dept for the week. Once you know what you're going to be making and have all the ingredients then you can take a few hours on the weekend to prep all of your produce, labeling each container with the day you'll be using it. Some meats can be precooked (gr beef and gr turkey for instance) but be sure to use it up within 3 or 4 days after cooking or freeze it for later use. Hope these tips help! I know this way of prep has kept me sane while my kids were growing up and involved in everything from Church and Scouts to band and choir events. good luck!

[Rafase282]

That's a good mini goal, I have only done it for a day or too, maybe I should try it too.

[franola]

I've not heard of that mini goal before. It sounds like quite an accomplishment!