E.42 How to Meal Prep Without the Stress During Quarantine

Erin Christ is a full-time nutrition student and Instagram health and wellness influencer. After struggling with an eating disorder, she found her passion for helping others create healthy relationships with food and give them the power to live their healthiest and most abundant life.

Listen in as Erin shares how to stay on track and lead a healthy life with the help of food.

In this week’s talk show, we are talking about meal planning, shopping hacks, and organizing meal plans.

You can take control, during this time, by re-establishing your routine, eating balanced meals, and being forgiving of yourself.

Here are her tips!

An essential part of meal planning is grocery shopping. First, make a list and have a plan for the week of what you want to eat to keep you on track. When you shop, stay on the perimeter of the store. Produce and necessary essentials are there, while things like sweets or treats are in the interior aisles. Because of limitations on fresh foods during this time, having frozen options are good too because you can still get your nutrition in.

To start organizing your meal plan, get blank calendars, and write all your meals in (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks) to get ready for the week. For Erin, she doesn’t enjoy tracking calories because it can get toxic - the number of calories shouldn’t define you. Instead, she makes sure that she prepares herself balanced meals by mindfully and intuitively eating - eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are full. Turn off all distractions when you are eating to really get in touch with what you are eating by utilizing your senses - smelling, tastes, textures,... Combined with mindful eating, she eats wholesome meals that consist of vegetables (usually half your serving plate is ideal no matter how it is prepared), protein (like chicken, ground turkey, eggs, etc.) to keep you satisfied and satiated for a longer period of time, fats (peanut butter, avocado, olive oil, nuts, etc.), and carbs (sweet potatoes, rice, etc). When you build a balanced diet for the majority of your meals, you would not feel the need to track calories, Erin says. She eats wholesome foods and gives her body what it needs.

Most importantly, Erin has one last piece of advice for you, our dear readers. Have a plan, but also be gentle on yourself. Especially during this time, we are experiencing a pandemic that does not happen every day. Even if you go off your plan, it is alright because we will all get through this together.

You can find out more about Erin and her tips as well as recipes on her Instagram.

Or try out this amazing recipe from Food Network Superstar and Chopped Winner, Rachel Reuben!