Why I Don't Meal Prep

Have you seen the posts?

What posts?

The Meal Prep posts! It seems like people of all ages, on all "diets" like to promote meal prep as part of having success in pursuing a healthy lifestyle.


If you're unfamiliar, many times they make large batches of recipes for breakfast lunch and dinner, portion them out to cover most days of the week. Then, they often include the snacks they will eat, eating the same or similar snacks each day. This ensures they hit their macros, points, calories or whatever they're aiming for.

Whether following a specific diet or not, this way of preparing food has seem to taken off as a healthy living essential. But is that true?

While I do see some benefit for people who are very busy, I don't think it works for me personally. Here's why?

• I crave/desire different meals and variety in my diet
• I don't want to be rigid and don't want food to go to waste if I stray from my prepared meals
• Food is more appetizing to me when it's more freshly prepared
• I need to listen to my body 

Those are my personal reasons for not meal prepping, however, I also like quick, easy meals.

I DO cook up some things in large batches. For instance, my butternut squashes from my garden were all ripe at the same time so I roasted up three squash, put one in the fridge, one in the freezer, and ate one. Now I still have squash for later this week or month. I also use Full Green riced veggies, or steam-able vegetables for quick veggie options. 

I DO eat leftovers but by not specifically "meal prepping", it allows me more flexibility. For instance, if I have grilled chicken breast left over, I can use it in a wrap, a sandwich, a salad, or just grilled chicken with sides. 

So while meal prepping may be beneficial for some people, I prefer the flexibility of NOT meal prepping. Don't get caught up in the hype on the Internet and feel like you need to meal prep. 

I'm curious, do you like to meal prep or do you prefer not to? I know some people truly enjoy the ease of it!