If you’ve tried meal prepping before and couldn’t keep it up, you’re definitely not doing it “wrong.” Chances are you haven’t cracked your perfect formula yet.
In this post, I'll walk you through how to meal prep in a way that fits your lifestyle and keeps things feeling easy and sustainable. No rigid rules or one-size-fits-all plans here.
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To start meal prepping in a way that actually sticks, we'll identify your biggest meal-time struggle (aka your worst enemy), discover your meal prep style, and choose a meal prep schedule that works for you.
📝 Grab a pen and notebook for this one, you’ll wanna write things down!
Identify your "worst enemy" meal
If you’re not sure which meals to prep for the week, the best way to decide is to tackle the meal that gives you the most trouble (aka your worst enemy). That’s either the hardest one to cook daily or the one draining your wallet.
Ask yourself:
💭 Do you hate cooking dinner after a long workday?
💭 Are you spending $$$ on takeout lunches every week?
💭 Do you rely on expensive store-bought snacks for your kids?
💭 Are you always skipping breakfast because mornings are rushed?
Whatever your answer is, that’s the meal you should focus on first. Prepping this meal ahead of time will give you the biggest return on your time investment (aka the most relief and satisfaction).
If you’re new to meal prepping, start with just this one meal. Once you build confidence and find your go-to recipes, you can expand your meal prep to include more meals.
Start Here!
New To Meal Prep?
I break down everything you need to know before you start: from planning, grocery shopping, and managing your meal prep session to storage
Find your meal prep style
Meal prep isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different people thrive with different approaches. So let's find out which one of these sounds the most like you.
- The ingredient prepper: You like flexibility and don’t want to eat the same meal every day. Instead of prepping full meals, you batch-cook grains, proteins, and veggies separately so you can mix and match (e.g., build grain bowls or dinner plates) throughout the week.
- The zip bag prepper: You prefer cooking fresh daily but hate the prep work. Pre-chopping and portioning ingredients into zip bags so you can literally just dump them into a pot or a slow cooker when it’s time to cook sounds perfect to you.
- The ready-to-eat prepper: You can’t be bothered to cook during the week and want meals that are fully prepped and ready to eat. Meals that you can pop in the microwave or that you don’t need to reheat at all are exactly what you're envisioning.
- The freezer batcher: You don’t love cooking at all, so you batch-cook big freezer-friendly meals once a month to stock your freezer with easy, grab-and-reheat meals.
I’m 100% a ready-to-eat prepper. I meal prep 3 main dishes + 1 breakfast to last me 3–5 days. You can find my exact meal prep routine with a detailed 8-step run-down of my sessions in my how to meal prep for the week post.
Choose Your Meal Prep Timing
There’s no “right” time to meal prep, just the one that fits best into your life.
- The Sunday prepper: You prefer an all-in approach, dedicating a solid 1-2 hours on your day off (usually Sunday) to prep all your meals for the next 3-5 days.
- The multi-day prepper: You like breaking your prep into smaller, less time-consuming chunks throughout the week instead of doing it all at once.
I’m a Sunday meal prepper through and through. I usually grocery shop on Fridays or Saturdays and block off my Sunday afternoons for meal prep. (Yep, it’s literally in my calendar.)
But maybe you have kids and can’t get two uninterrupted hours in the kitchen. Or maybe you work shifts, and Sundays don’t work for you. That’s totally fine!
If prepping everything in one session feels overwhelming, split it up. For example, prep breakfast and snacks on a different day to make the process feel way more manageable. The key is finding a routine that fits your lifestyle.
Join the live program!
I understand that meal prepping alone isn't always easy
That's why I created Meal Prep With Elo, a 5-week group program where I guide you through a meal prep session every Sunday live on Zoom to help you be more confident and stay consistent with meal prep!
Pick Your Meal Type Categories
Now that you’ve figured out your worst enemy meal and know your meal prep style, it’s time to make things even easier. Instead of staring at a blank page and randomly picking meals, I use a simple system that makes meal planning even easier using meal type categories.
Let me give you an example
Every week, I like to meal prep 3 main dishes + 1 breakfast using these go-to categories:
- A one-pot meal such as a chili, a curry, or a stir-fry
- A grain bowl or salad for variety and quick lunches
- A pesto (in summer) or a soup (in winter) for a quick, low-effort option
- Overnight oats to keep breakfast effortless
Other category ideas: quiches, pasta sauces, casseroles, hearty stews, baked oatmeal, energy balls, healthy cookies, etc.
By picking one recipe per category, my meal plan comes together in minutes without overthinking or decision fatigue. Plus, this system naturally balances shorter and longer recipes, keeping my meal prep sessions under two hours.
➡️ Breaking it down into categories reduces the mental load associated with meal prepping because now you don’t have to come up with 3 meal prepable meals (aka a daunting, unspecific task). You just need to come up with a one-pot dish, a salad recipe, and a pesto recipe, which is a lot more specific and easier to complete.
Pro Tip: Create a meal prep binder with your favorite trusted recipes. Use dividers based on your categories so you can quickly flip through and find ideas when planning!
Over time, you’ll probably notice that you gravitate toward the same categories each week, and just like that, you’ve created your very own meal prep formula.
Your very own meal prep formula
Now, let’s put it all together. Based on:
- Your worst enemy meal (the one you struggle with most)
- Your meal prep style (ingredient prep, reheatable meals, freezer meals, etc.)
- Your preferred timing (all at once or spread out)
- Your meal type categories
Example 1
- Enemy: Office lunches & breakfast
- Style: Ready-to-eat meals
- Timing: Sunday & Wednesday
- Categories: 1-pot dish, salad, baked oats
Formula 🎯 I prep two office lunches and one breakfast on Sunday, then an extra lunch on Wednesday to stay stocked for the week.
Example 2
- Enemy: Dinners (especially midweek)
- Style: Freezer batch cooking
- Timing: One big session per month
- Categories: Stew, curry, casserole
Formula 🎯 Once a month, I batch-prep 5 freezable dinners including a stew, a curry, and a casserole to stock up my freezer.
What’s your meal prep formula?
Write it down and let me know in the comments!
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