- What's the freaking point of meal prep?
(upbeat music)
Hey you, welcome to the series I'm Alyssia,
and I'm so glad you're here.
Before we get started, don't forget to subscribe
and hit the bell.
Today we are talking about meal prep.
Now for years on this channel, I have done meal prep videos,
and they've looked all different ways
because I've tried pretty much every approach
to meal prep and dieting.
What I have ultimately realized is,
there is no right or wrong way to do it,
but what I wanna talk about today,
what is meal prep really?
Meal preparation.
We have this idea of what we think meal prep is,
but all meal prep is supposed to be,
is preparation for our meals.
The point is to have meals prepared,
so we aren't so stressed about food.
Now, this is good in theory,
but is it really working
if meal prep is so freaking stressful?
So let's shift our perspective.
The only thing holding us to this idea,
of what meal prep should be,
remember what we said about should.
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Is a conditioned thought.
So without the thought, meal prep should be this way.
All of our options are suddenly in front of us.
This is really life wisdom through meal prep.
So I have to ask, what really serves me?
Only I know, only you are the expert of you.
In my Mind Over Meal Prep course,
I help you connect with your inner wisdom
through a data assessment process,
so that you can start to trust yourself
as the expert of you.
When you trust you as the expert,
you feel more confident,
making decisions about your health,
rather than feeling you need validation from someone else.
My course is open now for enrollment,
but only for one more day.
I love to teach about meal prep,
using the example of a spectrum.
On one end of the spectrum, you maybe have,
every meal for every person in your household,
prepped for every single day.
Now there are pros and cons to this of course.
So, on the one hand, everything's done,
I don't have to think about it.
I would argue though,
that this might actually be a con,
so additional cons, is a lot of time planning, shopping,
cooking, portioning to have everything ready.
It's very stressful to do.
And if the point is to eliminate stress,
is this really gonna do that
or is it gonna add to it?
The other con, you're stuck with what you've got.
You can't be flexible with, if you change your mind,
if you feel like eating something else, it can be stifling.
You can't change your plans,
if you wanna get postmates one night,
and if you do change your plans,
then you're gonna waste your food.
To make this kind of meal prep versatile,
it's very time intensive,
it requires a lot of planning,
a lot of organizing, and a lot of cooking.
Now I would argue another con,
which I initially said is a pro.
A lot of people think the reason that they want to meal prep
and that they want the Instagram page
where everything is prepped in advance,
is because they don't wanna have to think about it.
This I would argue is a con.
And based on everything you've seen in the series so far,
you'll understand how this kind of approach
can disconnect us from our bodies.
They can lead us to dysregulation.
Instead of listening,
what do I want to eat today?
What sounds good?
How much do I need?
We predetermine all of that.
And if we do that for every meal every day,
we have no reason to tune in and listen.
So it can actually force us to tune out.
I have come to the line of thinking that
set it and forget it as much as, as a rule follower
I used to cling to it and love it.
I really think it made it harder
for me to find my inner wisdom.
On the other end of this the spectrum,
maybe you have no actual meals prepped.
You only have ingredients or components.
There are pros and cons to this approach too.
Pros, this is a very easy prep day.
It requires not very much planning,
it's not too stressful of an experience
when you're actually doing the meal prep,
and it leaves space for flexibility to go with the flow.
You can change your plan,
you can order out one night.
If you have, a dinner prep for a couple of days in the week,
and on Tuesday you decide you wanna order out you can,
and you're not gonna waste the food.
You can also maintain some control of your life
instead of being controlled by the food.
Now the cons, this does require
some flexibility and creativity.
I don't wanna say in your personality
because I wouldn't have considered myself
a very flexible person before.
I really liked the rules and the scheduling,
but being flexible makes me so much less stressed.
I can just, oh, figure it out as I go,
and it's not, doesn't have to be a big deal.
And I've learned to be this way,
I'm not naturally a flexible person.
Another con, this kind of prep requires thinking,
and thinking is hard.
This is actually a pro, okay?
Thinking it's good to think.
Another con is you still do have to do
some cooking during the week,
although it's less than you might actually think.
Now, of course, these aren't,
if this is a spectrum, it's not all or nothing.
There are some middle path options if you will in this,
here is the middle but it could be over here,
it could be over here.
And this will be some variation of prepping,
maybe some meals and some components,
maybe a full breakfast with partial lunches and dinners,
or maybe you prep one full meal only
for the week, breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Maybe you prep components for every single meal
but not any actual full meals,
there's no end of permutations.
I'm sure that is some end someone can calculate it.
But this is ultimately going to give the most people
the most gratifying experience, and the most flexibility.
It's not just three options, it's a spectrum.
So I would say starting over here,
this is where I hang out in the mind of a meal prep course,
the initial course I did a couple of years ago,
Meal Prep Ignite,
it tried to acknowledge the spectrum,
but it really leaned this way.
It was like the goal was to get here.
Now the goal is to be here and star here,
and then as you star around here,
as you become more comfortable,
you work your way up as much as you want.
And then once you get the confidence and the skills,
you can choose week to week, what do you need?
If one week you're like, I'm so freaking busy,
I need every meal prepped in advance,
you can have the confidence to get over here,
but most of the time that's probably gonna be too stressful
and you can adapt.
Transformation requires transition.
I talked about this last week, I think, little at a time.
And in the course, we teach,
let's start with just the meal you need the most.
How do you know which meal you need the most?
You gotta do a data assessment.
You got to do your homework,
and check in and fill out all the worksheets
to see what do you really eat?
What are you struggling with?
Once you see yourself clearly, you see what you need,
you meet yourself where you're at,
and then you start to grow.
So this comes back to something I talked about
in a video last year, the anxiety,
the Foods That Cause or Reduce Anxiety video,
the concept of baby steps.
I won't give the whole study again
but essentially they've shown in the study
that they've reproduced all over the world,
people who get free stuff, free gym memberships, whatever,
versus people who are told, just take one more step per day.
They come back two and five years later.
And the people who establish healthier habits
are the people who just take one step a day.
So I wanna help you meet yourself now,
where at, without judgment,
and just take one step a day to get to where you want,
not where you think you should be.
This is about shifting your perspective
about what meal prep is.
Whatever basic preparation
you can do to set your meals up for success,
is a meal prep win.
So we've got to get to know you.
I can help you do it with my new
Mind Over Meal Prep Course, enrollment closes tomorrow.
So it is coming to the end.
I hope that you will share in the comments.
Let me know what's your biggest meal prep tip,
to try and keep it easy and maybe
share what's your biggest question about meal prep.
What do you not know?
Also, if there's someone that you think would benefit
from learning this flexible
mindfulness approach to meal prep,
please share this video in your social media.
Thank you, and remember,
it's all a matter of Mind Over Munch.
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