New Year, New You. So how are those resolutions treating you now that we’re halfway through January?

You spent the entire month of December preparing yourself for positive change, but have you had the willpower and support to your goals?

Meal prepping has been in the media for a few years now, and 2018 is the perfect time to jump on board with this healthy trend! Here are a few tips, tricks and recipes to keep your goals and resolutions on track over the course of the year.

Make Time

When you are first starting to meal prep, you will want to pick a specific day to do the cooking and prepping. This will help you make the time and add it to your weekly routine. Many “meal preppers” choose to do their prepping on Sunday, since it is closest to Monday and will help to keep foods fresh throughout the week. Sunday is also a great day to catch up on tasks that were forgotten during the week and over the weekend.

Planning Ahead

Knowing when you will be eating your meals is important to know. Taking a peek at what lies ahead for the week is a good idea. This will help you determine how much food you need to prepare. Will you be visiting with friends for brunch or going on a business trip on Wednesday? Factoring how many days you need to prep for will help you limit waste, save money and stay organized.

Overlapping

When planning what you are going to eat, you can choose recipes that overlap ingredients. Having overlapping ingredients saves you time since you don’t need to prepare as many. If you use quinoa for one meal, such as a buddha bowl, you can use quinoa later in the week for quinoa fried rice to shake things up!

Mix and Match

Making a list is super important to meal prepping. This will help you make sure you buy the right ingredients in the right quantities. Having a list handy will also help you from giving into impulse buy snacks. Just be sure to check if you have any ingredients hiding in your pantry before heading off to your local grocery store!

Get The Right Containers

Mason jars and Tupperware are a meal prepper's dream. Make sure your Tupperware containers are spill proof so if you're on the go, your meal doesn’t end up on the floor!

Save It

Not all food will last the whole week in the fridge so you may need to freeze some of it depending on when you plan to eat it. Make sure to let the food cool after cooking so it freezes evenly. For those apple slices, be sure to grab a packet of NatureSeal to keep them from premature browning throughout the week. Trust us, no one likes browned apples.

Label, Label, Label

Labeling meals is important. You can label the meals as to what the meal is and when it is planned to be eaten. This will help you stay organized and make sure all food gets eaten. Make sure if you freeze a portion, that you write the date on it so you know when it was prepared to optimize your meal prepping. Color coordinating is also a helpful way to stay organized. You can assign a color to each day of the week so when that color is used, you know what day to eat it on. Labeling your healthy meals makes eating easy and stress free!

Check out these healthy meal prep recipes to start your year off right!

Breakfast: Overnight Oats

Lunch: Mason Jar Salads

Snacks: Apples and Peanut Butter