I firmly believe that preparation is the key to success. Spending adequate time on weekend food prep is a such a big part of my ability to eat healthy in the week ahead. I haven’t always done this, I am usually a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ impulsive kind of girl. However I made it a goal of mine this year to ensure I dedicate time on Sunday’s for weekly food preparation. Since doing this, not only am I eating much healthier, I am also wasting less food too! I spend a couple of hours preparing and cooking things for the following week that will provide me with easy and healthy meals and snacks. It’s the snacks that have made a big difference to the way I eat. I am a huge ‘grazer’ and eat quite a lot throughout the day so having pre-prepared snack options means I am never hungry, I have food to take with me when I go out and I make good choices instead of eating crap!

We usually do our food shopping on a Saturday and we buy everything we need for the entire week in one shop. My next goal is to get back to shopping for our fruit & veg at the markets. This is something we used to do and we loved it but having a baby recently has meant that we have let this slide. However, I am planning on making my market comeback very soon now that bubs is getting a bit older (16 weeks now) and will happily sit in the baby carrier. We love the atmosphere of shopping at the market as much as we love the fresh (and cheap) fruit, veggies and health food supplies.  It is also a great outing for kids and I believe it sets them up with healthy food habits for life and hopefully it will become a little family tradition that they will also continue!

Here are some of the healthy weekly foods I prepare and store: (I will start to upload some of my weekly food prep on my instagram – follow me here http://instagram.com/fit_m.u.m#

* Quinoa Bars

* Protein Bliss Balls

* Apricot Balls

* Overnight Oats

* Granola or Muesli

* Trail Mix (almonds, cashews, macadamias, goji berries, dates, cranberries, diced apricots)

* Muffins (sweet and/or savory)

* Cacao & nut choc (make a big tray and break into snack size portions)

* Salads (these vary week to week from mixed green salad to quinoa salad and chicken salad)

* Boiled eggs

* Chicken or Turkey Quinoa Patties

* Spelt Pancakes

* Freeze whole bananas (use for ‘icecream’ dessert)

* Choc Stuffed Raspberries (melt cacao, coconut oil and peanut butter *optional* and fill fresh raspberries and freeze… OMG delicious!)

* Smoothie Bags (freeze portions of berries, bananas & any other fruit for a quick smoothie)

I make a double batch of the Protein Bliss Balls, Apricot Balls and Cacao & nut chocolate (not all in the same week, we rotate between these and other healthy treats) and I freeze half and keep the other half in containers in the fridge. Once we use the half in the fridge we can then use the frozen ones which only just gets us through a whole week as we like these treats A LOT! Again, it is important to remember moderation. Even though these are all healthy (no added sugar) treats, they are still treats and still contain calories.

A little work once a week goes a long way towards staying on track with my health and fitness goals throughout the week. Once you start doing food prep, it becomes enjoyable and saves time and stress during the week.

Hope you have found this helpful, please feel free to leave a comment or even share your food prep ideas and join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitm.u.msa