Batch Cooking: Low Motivation Required, Very High ROI for Nutritional Goals
One thing I have noticed many successful clients, busy professionals, and students do is batch cook. Batch cooking means you make most of your meals on one day of the week and then just have to heat them up when you need them.
It makes portion controlling your food throughout the week easy, allowing you to stick to a certain predetermined calorie level as well as know what you have to do to increase or decrease your energy needs as your activity changes.
For example, Rob is a busy professional. He makes all his chicken and potatoes on Sunday and just has to heat them up when he needs them throughout the week. He doesn’t have to deal with cooking and the associated pot and pan scrubbing you have to deal with each night. He just puts his dishes in the dishwasher.
Another example, Bertha wants to gain weight but is a busy graduate student and doesn’t have time to cook every night. She can’t afford to eat out (or if this is you and you can, you can think of this as a way to save money).
She batch cooks all her beans, lentils, and rice on Sunday and just has to add vegetables and sauces and heat it up when ready to eat. She can make it a different flavor every night if she cares to or use different vegetables.
When I was growing up, we made all our peanut butter sandwiches on Sunday and stuck them in the freezer. They would thaw on the way to school and be ready to eat by 11:30a when we had lunch.
These techniques just require forethought and planning on the weekend, when you have the time, in order to make nutrition a priority in your life during the week. Now you aren’t scrambling at lunch time figuring out what you’re going to eat. You have a portion-controlled meal ready to eat when you need it that was cheap for you to make and has what you want in it. What is to lose?
From a motivation standpoint, you just need to have motivation once during the week to meet your nutrition needs. You don’t have to make decisions requiring motivation 21 times for 3 meals a day times 7 days a week. People who struggle with motivation need to look at it from this perspective.
This isn’t just something people do who are dieting or have nutrition goals. It is just a smart way of being time and motivation efficient in your life so you can be in control of what is important to you.
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