The food we eat has a big impact on our health. However, hectic schedules and competing interests can sometimes leave little time for home cooking, ultimately leading to healthier culinary choices being sacrificed in favor of the convenience of DoorDash and Uber Eats—or late-night munchies. When you and your partner focus on your health and nutrition goals, making time to prepare meals in advance can improve your relationships as well as your health. Cooking at home has been shown to result in healthier meals of higher quality with fewer calories. We also see that these couples who cook and eat at home spend less money on food and lose less weight over time than those who regularly eat out or prepare their own food. If you have a metabolic condition, such as diabetes, cooking at home can help you manage blood sugar levels.
Low blood sugar levels can impact anyone. When you’re consistent with your meal plan and food intake, you help prevent cravings, your body’s own cues for low-nutrition self-sabotage. Staying on track with informed decisions about what to eat when your blood sugars are crashing after a long workday can help you achieve your goals.
About 44% of people in the U.S. say they meal prep regularly, with dinner coming in as the top choice of meals to get ready ahead of time.
Another great thing about meal prepping is that you can save a ton of time. No chance to make dinner? Is it late to leave for work in the morning? No problem, just grab lunch and go! To get those benefits, you’ll need to dedicate some time to getting all that food ready in advance.
The first thing you may think to yourself is just how much time is this going to take? The answer isn’t black and white, but certainly you do not need to work in the kitchen for hours on a Sunday. Let’s walk through a game plan with your partner, divide and conquer on the cutting skills, and make this an integral part of how you love yourself and invest in your relationship.
1. Communicate your food needs and dreams
Consider your objectives and the steps you can take to reach them through preparation. This could be, for instance, slimming down, making life easier, improving one’s health, or saving money. Discuss your favorite foods and whether someone has a health condition, allergy, or dietary preference, such as a desire to focus on Plant-Based Nutrition or a Mediterranean diet. Be sure to discuss your goals with your partner in detail to ensure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to planning out the menu.
Don’t forget to cover other food-related topics, such as:
- Cultural considerations: If your partner comes from a meatless background, you may need to compromise on proteins.
- Limitations on finances: You might want to have Lobster Truffle Mac & Cheese for lunch every day. Your partner (and your dietitian) may remind you that it doesn’t fit in your budget.
- Lifestyle preferences: If you’re balancing nutrition with an exercise plan, you may have different nutritional needs from someone who’s not. While you’re thinking about your macros, don’t forget to talk about how you can help each other achieve their goals.
- Health conditions: For instance, if you have high blood pressure, you’ll want to discuss lower sodium options with your partner.
The next step is to think about where you shop after discussing your preferences and goals.
2. Together, plan your budget and go shopping
Meal prepping is a great way to save money since food can be pricey. You are less likely to buy foods that you won’t eat and to throw away leftovers if you carefully plan your meals. One great way to plan your meals is called the Plate Method. Focus on making sure half your plate contains non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens. Another 25% should be proteins like meat, eggs, or beans. The remaining 25% could be starches like pasta, potatoes, or bread. This method can help you take a healthy approach to almost any meal and any type of dietary restriction or preference. This methodology helps provide balanced energy with satisfying proteins, complex carbohydrates and a focus on always having a vegetable at the meal. Some prepping containers even come with dividers to make the Plate Method easy.
There are a lot of great recipes on the internet for you and your partner to choose from. Sites like Pinterest can help you choose recipes to try, stick to your budget, and spend less time in the kitchen—from overnight oats to quick burritos. Some foodie creators even provide grocery lists and time stamps of how long recipes will take and appropriate storage methods. Outsourcing is simple and can make this even easier for you and your partner. The majority of restaurants offer standard items, or items that they know will be popular and sell well. Find the staple meals for your home and decide on a plan to prep these crowd-pleasers each week.
Consider these tips to make menu planning and budgeting a breeze:
Start with recipes you know you like and add fruits and vegetables to make them healthier. Cut back on processed sugars and other less healthy ingredients.
Build your grocery list based upon those favorite recipes, minus what’s already in the pantry of course. Find out how much you typically spend on food, including eating out, and shop within that range. You can always reevaluate later on. Food expenses can be managed with the assistance of budgeting apps. Seasonal produce will give you the freshest ingredients for your recipes, and sales on bigger-ticket items like protein can reduce the impact on your budget.
Plan for a take-out once a week if that works for your budget. This can give you some flexibility, and it helps to see how much more it costs than cooking at home.
3. Divide and conquer meal prep tasks
Whenever possible, divide and conquer the chopping and cooking. With two sets of hands in the kitchen, you’ll find you can get most of the week’s meals ready in an afternoon or less.
Do you need some ideas for recipes to get started?
Bean salads are quick and easy lunches that last a long time in the refrigerator.
Protein balls that combine nut butters, seeds, and chocolate can be a great mid-afternoon pick-me-up.
Roasted vegetables can be prepared ahead of time and added to a protein for a great dinner option.
Those content creators I previously mentioned also focus on specific eating plans, such as keto or Mediterranean.
No matter what you decide to prepare, you’ll need to package it up into individual (or couple-sized) servings for storage. Frozen meals can be stored for up to three months, and prepared food can last in the refrigerator for three to five days.
4. Assess and adjust
Make time to evaluate your plan and make adjustments to enhance your strategy to get the most out of your meal preparation efforts. Compare your weekly spending on your new plan to your budget for pre-preparation. Look for ways to improve: You can fine-tune your prepping strategy by incorporating healthier recipes, cheaper ingredients, and more appealing options. Need to switch things up? Create a theme week or try new recipes with the same or different ingredients. For assistance, some preppers even turn to apps like MealPrepPro or an AI assistant. Preparing your own meals can help you lose weight. There are many advantages to cooking meals ahead of time, including lowering stress and lowering grocery costs. Improving your nutrition can have a real impact on your health, too. MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s experts can help you find a sustainable nutrition plan that works for your health goals.
Managing chronic conditions can be made easier with a healthy diet. It can also help you feel better, give you more energy, and build a relationship with your partner in the kitchen while trying to keep your relationship healthy. With some thoughtful planning—and a helpful partner—meal prepping can be a great way to get healthier, three times a day.
