What It's Like to Try Meal Prep

2016-05-25T02:27:49Z

One of the biggest trends taking social media by storm is #MealPrepSunday, in which people post pictures on Sunday of the healthy meals and snacks they have prepared for the upcoming week.

I usually just order in food, but after weeks and weeks of #MealPrepSunday taking over my Instagram feed, I decided to give it a whirl. After all, everyone I follow on Instagram makes it look easy.

These meals and snacks are typically protein-heavy, with just healthy carbs and vegetables on the side, so I thought it could be a great way to force myself to eat well.

I stocked up on groceries and prepped my meals on Sunday, and ate only those meals for the next five days. But as it turns out, essentially surviving on quinoa, meat and veggies — and denying myself any "cheats" (particularly the chocolate I'd been craving) — was a lot harder than I thought.

I decided to make my #MealPrepSunday as easy as possible — picking up basic proteins and carbohydrates from the grocery store.

I usually eat out (or run to the deli) for most of my meals — which typically costs me around $120 each week. To my surprise, my meal prep groceries were only half that amount.

I tried to select healthy items like chicken, broccoli, couscous, apples and bananas. I thought all of this food would be more than enough — but I didn't stop to consider how boring it would be to essentially eat the same thing over and over again.

I had to somehow prepare a food prep station in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. That involved a lot of creative furniture placement.

I'm not actually "good" at cooking, so the idea of preparing all of my meals for the week was quite stressful. I recruited a friend to assist — basically to ensure that I wasn't going to give myself food poisoning — and it ended up being a bit easier than I had anticipated.

We made chicken and pork — and somehow, the meat turned out really well. That has never happened to me before.

Chopping onions led to a lot of tears.

All in all, I prepared quinoa, pork, chicken, vegetables, couscous and black beans, as well as broccoli, onion and asparagus. These items would be mixed and matched as my lunches and dinners for the next five days.

For breakfast, I opted for smoothies rather than actually cooking or baking anything else. I packaged up my smoothie ingredients in Ziploc bags and stored them in the freezer.

I went to work the next morning armed with prepped meals and snacks (and peanut butter that I clearly did not make myself, to add some protein to the apple I planned on eating between breakfast and lunch).

The smoothie was delicious, and as I sat at my desk, I wondered why I didn't make one of these every morning. It was so easy — and healthy.

I loaded the otherwise bland couscous up with sriracha, in an attempt to give it some actual flavor.

That night, I ate chicken with quinoa and asparagus for dinner. All in all, day one had been super healthy — and delicious. I felt confident that I'd make it through the next four days of meal prep eating with ease.

But the next morning, I overslept. Racing out the door to get to the subway (with wet hair, of course), I peeled and ate a hard boiled egg.

My Tuesday lunch was basically the same as my Monday dinner — but with pork, instead of chicken. Slowly, I was starting to get bored of eating the same thing.

IMG_9565 (1) — I tried to take a selfie with my lunch. Lisa Ryan/INSIDER

Then I learned that they call Wednesday "hump day" for a reason! After two days of basically eating the same healthy things over and over, I was getting hangry.

By lunch, I was absolutely miserable — and starving. My quinoa, broccoli and pork tasted blander than ever, and I just wanted to go get a fresh sandwich somewhere.

Eating broccoli with utter disdain. Lisa Ryan/INSIDER

Then came the worst moment of my life: I couldn't eat any of the babka and crepe cakes that my coworkers were snacking on. I began to regret this whole thing.

Even worse, I was bored of the only available "snack" I had at work: a jar of peanut butter. So I chatted one of my coworkers for advice over whether or not I should eat some of the peanut butter at my desk.

Screen Shot 2016 05 13 at 2.53.05 PM copy — Stephen Parkhurst is a Supervising Producer at INSIDER. Lisa Ryan/INSIDER

But once I had gotten over the "hump," the rest of my meal prep experience was a lot smoother.

My Thursday meals: breakfast smoothie, lunch of chicken, quinoa and broccoli, and snack of just grapes, because I had eaten my last apples the previous night. Lisa Ryan/INSIDER

By dinner, I was actually excited to eat again. Partially out of hunger, but also because I decided to eat more couscous, which I found I hated less than I hated the rest of the food.

For my last two meals, I ate couscous and chicken... again. Despite not enjoying my experience, I actually think meal prep is great. I saved a ton of money, and I ate incredibly healthy all week. But where I went wrong was in preparing boring food.

The last helping of couscous and chicken I'll be having for what will surely be a long time. Lisa Ryan/INSIDER

I tried the meal prep trend that's all over social media — and it got old fast

I decided to make my #MealPrepSunday as easy as possible — picking up basic proteins and carbohydrates from the grocery store.

I usually eat out (or run to the deli) for most of my meals — which typically costs me around $120 each week. To my surprise, my meal prep groceries were only half that amount.

I tried to select healthy items like chicken, broccoli, couscous, apples and bananas. I thought all of this food would be more than enough — but I didn't stop to consider how boring it would be to essentially eat the same thing over and over again.

I had to somehow prepare a food prep station in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. That involved a lot of creative furniture placement.

I'm not actually "good" at cooking, so the idea of preparing all of my meals for the week was quite stressful. I recruited a friend to assist — basically to ensure that I wasn't going to give myself food poisoning — and it ended up being a bit easier than I had anticipated.

We made chicken and pork — and somehow, the meat turned out really well. That has never happened to me before.

Chopping onions led to a lot of tears.

All in all, I prepared quinoa, pork, chicken, vegetables, couscous and black beans, as well as broccoli, onion and asparagus. These items would be mixed and matched as my lunches and dinners for the next five days.

For breakfast, I opted for smoothies rather than actually cooking or baking anything else. I packaged up my smoothie ingredients in Ziploc bags and stored them in the freezer.

I went to work the next morning armed with prepped meals and snacks (and peanut butter that I clearly did not make myself, to add some protein to the apple I planned on eating between breakfast and lunch).

The smoothie was delicious, and as I sat at my desk, I wondered why I didn't make one of these every morning. It was so easy — and healthy.

I loaded the otherwise bland couscous up with sriracha, in an attempt to give it some actual flavor.

That night, I ate chicken with quinoa and asparagus for dinner. All in all, day one had been super healthy — and delicious. I felt confident that I'd make it through the next four days of meal prep eating with ease.

But the next morning, I overslept. Racing out the door to get to the subway (with wet hair, of course), I peeled and ate a hard boiled egg.

My Tuesday lunch was basically the same as my Monday dinner — but with pork, instead of chicken. Slowly, I was starting to get bored of eating the same thing.

Then I learned that they call Wednesday "hump day" for a reason! After two days of basically eating the same healthy things over and over, I was getting hangry.

By lunch, I was absolutely miserable — and starving. My quinoa, broccoli and pork tasted blander than ever, and I just wanted to go get a fresh sandwich somewhere.

Then came the worst moment of my life: I couldn't eat any of the babka and crepe cakes that my coworkers were snacking on. I began to regret this whole thing.

Even worse, I was bored of the only available "snack" I had at work: a jar of peanut butter. So I chatted one of my coworkers for advice over whether or not I should eat some of the peanut butter at my desk.

But once I had gotten over the "hump," the rest of my meal prep experience was a lot smoother.

By dinner, I was actually excited to eat again. Partially out of hunger, but also because I decided to eat more couscous, which I found I hated less than I hated the rest of the food.

For my last two meals, I ate couscous and chicken... again. Despite not enjoying my experience, I actually think meal prep is great. I saved a ton of money, and I ate incredibly healthy all week. But where I went wrong was in preparing boring food.

The slice of pizza I ate the day after finishing my #MealPrepSunday experience was arguably the best meal of my life.

I tried the meal prep trend that's all over social media — and it got old fast

I decided to make my #MealPrepSunday as easy as possible — picking up basic proteins and carbohydrates from the grocery store.

I usually eat out (or run to the deli) for most of my meals — which typically costs me around $120 each week. To my surprise, my meal prep groceries were only half that amount.

I tried to select healthy items like chicken, broccoli, couscous, apples and bananas. I thought all of this food would be more than enough — but I didn't stop to consider how boring it would be to essentially eat the same thing over and over again.

I had to somehow prepare a food prep station in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. That involved a lot of creative furniture placement.

I'm not actually "good" at cooking, so the idea of preparing all of my meals for the week was quite stressful. I recruited a friend to assist — basically to ensure that I wasn't going to give myself food poisoning — and it ended up being a bit easier than I had anticipated.

We made chicken and pork — and somehow, the meat turned out really well. That has never happened to me before.

Chopping onions led to a lot of tears.

All in all, I prepared quinoa, pork, chicken, vegetables, couscous and black beans, as well as broccoli, onion and asparagus. These items would be mixed and matched as my lunches and dinners for the next five days.

For breakfast, I opted for smoothies rather than actually cooking or baking anything else. I packaged up my smoothie ingredients in Ziploc bags and stored them in the freezer.

I went to work the next morning armed with prepped meals and snacks (and peanut butter that I clearly did not make myself, to add some protein to the apple I planned on eating between breakfast and lunch).

The smoothie was delicious, and as I sat at my desk, I wondered why I didn't make one of these every morning. It was so easy — and healthy.

I loaded the otherwise bland couscous up with sriracha, in an attempt to give it some actual flavor.

That night, I ate chicken with quinoa and asparagus for dinner. All in all, day one had been super healthy — and delicious. I felt confident that I'd make it through the next four days of meal prep eating with ease.

But the next morning, I overslept. Racing out the door to get to the subway (with wet hair, of course), I peeled and ate a hard boiled egg.

My Tuesday lunch was basically the same as my Monday dinner — but with pork, instead of chicken. Slowly, I was starting to get bored of eating the same thing.

Then I learned that they call Wednesday "hump day" for a reason! After two days of basically eating the same healthy things over and over, I was getting hangry.

By lunch, I was absolutely miserable — and starving. My quinoa, broccoli and pork tasted blander than ever, and I just wanted to go get a fresh sandwich somewhere.

Then came the worst moment of my life: I couldn't eat any of the babka and crepe cakes that my coworkers were snacking on. I began to regret this whole thing.

Even worse, I was bored of the only available "snack" I had at work: a jar of peanut butter. So I chatted one of my coworkers for advice over whether or not I should eat some of the peanut butter at my desk.

But once I had gotten over the "hump," the rest of my meal prep experience was a lot smoother.

By dinner, I was actually excited to eat again. Partially out of hunger, but also because I decided to eat more couscous, which I found I hated less than I hated the rest of the food.

For my last two meals, I ate couscous and chicken... again. Despite not enjoying my experience, I actually think meal prep is great. I saved a ton of money, and I ate incredibly healthy all week. But where I went wrong was in preparing boring food.

The slice of pizza I ate the day after finishing my #MealPrepSunday experience was arguably the best meal of my life.

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