how I meal prep for the week, easy and healthy meals for fitness

As my training ramps up, both in the gym and with triathlon prep, fuelling properly has become more important than ever. With a busier schedule as a trainer, I don’t have time to stress over every meal.

That’s why my Sunday meal prep is non-negotiable, it keeps my protein intake high, my calories in check, and my meals effortless throughout the week.

In this article, I’ll walk you through my exact meal prep process, what I cook, and the two game-changing dishes that make everything taste incredible.

Table of contents

• Planning the week

• High protein recipes

• Make it tasty

My meal prep strategy: how I plan my week

As a trainer, my schedule tends to change every week. I workout when I can, not always at the same time. Knowing this, I plan to have two or three protein packed meals with me each day and have a dinner ready to go.

I don't meal prep in the classic body building way, with my fridge full of tupperwares with the same meal in it. I prefer prepping certain foods and then easily assembling meals throughout the week.

Part of my pre bed routine is to prep the following day's meals.

This gives me more flexibility with what I prep and also keeps some the ingredients fresher.

Macro break down

My goal is to put on muscle, and sadly, I haven't gained any weight in the last two weeks. I'm planning on increasing my protein intake and overall calories for this week.

I've been eating roughly 150g of protein each day and will bump that up to 200g. Read this article to dive deeper in protein requirements.

I haven't been super diligent with total calories, I don't have a scale so I've been measuring everything with cups instead which isn't as reliable. Regardless, I'll try to bring my total calories to 4000 for the next couple weeks. I'll get a scale if I still haven't gained any weight.

My lifts have been getting stronger and my cardio workouts more intense, so I am seeing progress, which is why I not too concerned with the weight gain.

How many meals a day

My day typically looks like this:

• High protein breakfast, either eggs and chepati or overnight oats

• 2 meals on the go

• 1 dinner

• 1-2 snacks, usually fruits

For this week, I'll try adding protein to my snacks.

I do a Sunday roast every Sunday, which gives me 2-3 meals worth of beef and potatoes for Monday and Tuesday.

Gym meal prep grocery list

A good grocery haul with a bit of everything

To make each fitness meal prep day as simple as possible, start by planning what you need to get at the grocery store. Make a list.

I usually do one big grocery haul on the weekend and another smaller one on Wednesdays. Here is the Sunday list:

• Chicken

• Rice

• Oats

• Ground beef

• Greek yogurt

• Spinach, lots of it

• Red cabbage

• Potatoes

• Beef roast

• Carrots

• Hemp hearts

• Pasta

• Bananas

• Apples

• Oranges

• Eggs

• Salad

These are the most common ingredients I buy every week. The following list is for ingredients that stay longer in the pantry and need to be restocked accordingly.

• Olive oil

• Seasoning

• Peanut butter

• Spelt flour

• Coffee

  
  

What I cook: easy meal prep ideas for strength training

Now that I have all the ingredients, it's time to cook!

I try to be as efficient as possible to avoid wasting time. I'll usually meal prep for the week ahead while I'm cooking my delicious Sunday night roast.

Here's exactly what I do:

• Pre cook all the chicken. Cooking one chicken breast takes 30 minutes. Cooking 8 at a time also takes 30 minutes. By pre cooking all my chicken on Sunday I save myself a huge amount of time during the week.
  

• Batch cook the carbs. Rice and potatoes keep well in the fridge and I try to cook as much of it on Sundays. This also saves me time throughout the week. I usually have to do another batch of carbs on Wednesdays. I usually cook my potatoes in the oven.
  

• Pre chop veggies. Not a necessary step, but usefull nonetheless
  

• Pickle the red cabbage
  

• Do a batch of garlic spinach
  

• Batch of pickled red onions

Meal prep recipes

These are my current go to recipes. An easy way to stay consistent with our diets is to find 2-4 meals you enjoy and varying them slightly. Most busy people will benefit from this approach.

I personally love chicken and rice, so I eat it almost every day. I keep it fun by changing the seasoning and the sides, but this stream lines the meal prep process.

You can also read this post for high protein breakfast ideas.

Oven chicken breasts

• Preheat oven to 200C of 420F

• Coat your chicken breast with olive oil and your favourite seasoning. I do salt, pepper, cumin and herb de Provence

• Leave the chicken for 28-32 minutes. Everyone oven cooks slightly different so play around with the time until you find what works for yours

Oven baked potatoes

• Preheat oven to 200C of 420F

• Cut the potatoes into cubes

• Toss with olive oil and your favourite seasoning. I do the same seasoning as the chicken without the cumin

• Cook for 40 minutes

Oven baked sweet potatoes

Pre cut veggies

Veggies I'll usually pre cut: bell peppers, cucumbers, salad.

I don't like meal prepping salads because I find they get soggy very quickly. Instead, I chop up bell peppers and cucumbers and then assemble my salads on a daily basis. I'll be honest with you, I don't eat enough salads.

Pickled red cabbage

Pickled veggies are great because unlike fresh leafy greens, they don't wilt at the bottom of the fridge where I know you leave them.

They're a really good way to always have veggies ready to. All my pre chopped veggies are gone by Wednesday, but the pickled ones stay good for weeks on end.

• Make the brine

  • 1 cup pickling vinegar, or white vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until the salt and pepper have completely dissolved

• Thinly chop the cabbage and grate some carrots

• I fill each jars with roughly 3/4 cabbage and 1/4 carrots

• Add 2 bay leaves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 or 2 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds and 1 teaspoon chili flake in each jar

• Fill with the brine, that you let cool down for a bit. Store in a cupboard.

• Keep in mind that you should leave it alone for at least a week before eating it. I usually do 2-3 jars at time.

• You can reuse brine from one batch to another.

And now, it's time to make the two side dishes that will bring your meals from blend-this-sucks to omg-I-want-to-eat-this-every-week.

The tasty maker #1: Garlic spinach

I personally think spinach leaves are annoyingly big, I don't like cutting them up in my salads. Thankfully, this recipe takes care of that, by gently wilting them on the pan.

• Saute some garlic in olive oil on a large frying pan. Use as little or as much garlic as your heart desires. This steps takes 2-3 minutes.

• When the garlic is getting slightly browned, dump a lot of spinach in the pan. When spinach wilts it shrinks a lot.

• Regularly move the spinach around in the pan until you reach a level of wilting you are satisfied with. This should take less than five minutes.

• As you are moving the spinach around, add salt, pepper and chilli flakes.

• Store in a container and use as a side for you meals.

The tasty maker #2: Pickled red onions

• Make the exact same brine as the pickled cabbage

• Chop up the onions

• Add the same seasoning as the pickled cabbage.

Quick note on pickling brine and seasoning: the flavour of your pickled veggies will change depending on the seasoning (duh). Feel free to explore what you like, what flavours you enjoy and have fun with it.

Also, if you have a pickling recipe or seasoning ideas you love, let me know in the comments! I'm always looking for new flavours for my meals

Conclusion

Meal prepping allows me to save a ton of time during the week. Since I train a lot, it also helps me to eat enough calories and protein throughout the day.

If your goal is to be in a calorie deficit, it will help you control the amount of food you eat. It's a simple way for people with busy schedules to take control of their nutrition.

You will need some tupperwares to store all the food you prep. I used two big glass ones to keep large quantities of rice or chicken. Then I use smaller sealable glass ones to bring my lunches at work.

Let me know in the comments what else you like to meal prep!

Clem

What the veggies look like in tupperwares. It's so simple to make a salad now. It also allows me to pick and choose what I want to put in each salad. I typically add chopped tomatoes but I always do those as I make the salad.