Last Updated on June 10, 2019 by TheMealPrepNinja
My name is Jim Lopez and I’m the Meal Prep Ninja! I create quick and easy meal prep recipes that are perfect for people who want to meet their fitness goals through meal prepping.
Bodybuilding and fitness was something I have been always been passionate about but later found out that nutrition is just as important if not more then working out at the gym. As the saying goes, abs are made in the kitchen. So that is where the importance of meal prep came from.
In my early 20’s I was really focused on bodybuilding and meal prep for muscle gains. But life happens and I got married had some kids and started a business so I no longer had time or the focus to want to work out for hours in the gym.
Over the years I would try all the fad diets or new things I would hear were popular like intermittent fasting, keto and detox diets. The only thing that would happen is that my weight and mood would roller coaster up and down. Over the years I gained 25 extra pounds of fat and felt out of shape. And then I realized that I knew what I needed to do all along. I needed to meal prep for weight loss.
In the first month of meal prepping all of my food, I was able to lose 15 lbs of weight without having to go to the gym or doing any cardio. There are many benefits to meal prep including, saving time, eating healthy and saving money. And of course, eating tasty homemade food. I want to share all of my experiences and knowledge with you about meal prep for weight loss.
My blog aims to help other people with busy lifestyles like me eat low-calorie wholesome foods that taste amazing. If you love to cook or are just starting to meal prep this blog will be for you. I will have all the resources needed to meal prep with confidence.
I will have everything you need from recipes to meal prep resources to help you eat healthier and lose weight. I will share all of my knowledge that will save you time and money and just be more efficient in the kitchen. One of the main secrets to making meal prep successfully is eating foods you love and that taste delicious.
I will go over a few basic things about Meal Prep.
What is Meal Prep?
Meal prep is when you prepare a meal or meals in advance.
There are many benefits to Meal Prep:
It saves you time
It helps you track your calories and macros
It saves you money
It helps you lose weight
It is convenient and lets you try new recipes
I know what you might be thinking, I don’t want to have to eat chicken rice and broccoli all the time. Well, you don’t have to!
Meal prep is about making your life easier not harder. I will have tons of recipes that are great tasting. I don’t believe that you should not eat foods you love, you just have to figure out ways to eat them the healthiest with the least amount of calories.
How to get started with Meal Prep
The first question you have to ask yourself, do I want to meal prep for weight loss, weight maintenance, and or weight gain. Once you know that you can figure out your daily calories and macros. I will have other blogs post on how to calculate your daily calories and macros.
Identify if you want to meal prep for breakfast, lunch, and dinner or just start off with lunch. I would recommend starting off with just a couple of recipes per week to start. I started off with making three days worth of lunch and dinner to start. I worked my way up to making five days worth of meals.
Why Should I Meal Prep?
Meal Prep is about planning. Anyone that is dedicated to healthy living meal preps their food. There is no way you can calculate your calories eating out and not planning your meals in advance. Meal plans make it easy to calculate what you are consuming.
In a world of fast food chains and eating out, processed foods are full of empty calories and ingredients that we cannot pronounce. When you meal prep you at least know what is in your food. When you prep your food you now have the convenience of fast food without all of the extra calories, fats, and sugars.
Healthy meal prep saves you time and money while replacing poor health risk and realities with overall health and wellness. You will discover a myriad of tips and best practices that make planning and preparing healthy meals simple.
Do I need to be on a diet to meal prep?
When I think of dieting, I picture someone having to eat chicken rice and broccoli most of the day to lose weight. But the truth is that you can eat many different foods that are not high in calories but that still taste great. You don’t have to eat plain foods to lose weight. All you have to do is eat low-calorie dense foods and you will never have to feel like you are on a diet.
My background and meal prep story
Ever since I was a little kid I loved to workout and have a muscular body. When I was a kid I would do push-ups and look at myself in the mirror. When I was in my twenties I started to work with a personal trainer and nutrition coach. I learned a lot about working out and nutrition from him. My nutrition coach would make meal plans for me to follow. That is when I learned about meal prep. The only problem with bodybuilding meal prep is that it is very bland. So I started to experiment with different ingredients to try to create better recipes. It is very hard to stick to a meal plan if the food does not taste good.
As I mentioned previously, life happens and I stopped working out and eating healthy. I started to eat fast food almost every day for lunch. And as the years went by I started to gain more and more weight. So I started trying all of these yoyo diets with no success. But I recently went back to what I know works and that is meal prep for weight loss.
Follow me as I share everything I know about meal prep and healthy tasty recipes!!
Jim Lopez, the founder and editor of The Meal Prep Ninja, shares his journey from a passionate bodybuilder and fitness enthusiast to a certified nutrition coach. Certified by Precision Nutrition, Jim aims to empower others with knowledge on meal prep and nutrition, offering resources for busy individuals to enjoy low-calorie, tasty foods. His blog is a community for sharing healthy eating habits and meal prep recipes
