Meal Prep, Made Simple

Forget white-knuckle willpower. We’re building a wellness identity that makes healthy choices automatic—and it starts with a simple, repeatable meal prep system you can run in two hours every Sunday. We break down the plate method, portion anchors, and the exact order we cook to keep the kitchen smooth: slow cooker first, long-bake next, then sheet pans, stovetop, and no-bake to finish. You’ll get practical lists for veggies, high-quality carbs, and healthy fats, and a no-nonsense plan to shop smarter with bulk buys, seasonal produce, and the dirty dozen in mind.

We also lean into the science of temptation and why prepped meals lower decision fatigue during chaotic weeks. From freezer labeling and headspace for liquids to portioning single servings for quick reheats, you’ll learn how to keep food fresh for three to five days in the fridge and three to six months in the freezer. Leftovers become building blocks for new meals—sweet potato folded into eggs, greens blended into smoothies, “everything but the kitchen sink” soups, and the freedom to eat dinner for breakfast when it works.

To keep momentum high, we share our weekly ritual stack: planning meals midweek, curbside pickup by the weekend, and a Sunday morning cook that fuels the whole week. We’re also rolling out daily glow-up rituals and a weekly curriculum on Instagram, plus a free Substack workshop every Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern for women over 40 ready to transform health, money, relationships, or any goal by 1% at a time. Tap play, steal the system, and start designing a week that supports the woman you’re becoming. If this helps you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us your best prep hack—we’re learning alongside you.

Recipes

Chapters

• 2:01 Welcome And Episode Focus
• 3:34 Mindset Over Diets
• 5:23 Why Meal Prep Beats Willpower
• 7:10 The Plate Method Essentials
• 9:34 Specific Goals And Weekly System
• 11:48 Go-To Veggies, Carbs, And Fats
• 14:12 Save Money While Prepping

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:01

Hello, welcome back to the Midlife Glowgetter Podcast, Season 2, Episode 30, a brand new year. So today's podcast is about meal prepping and how I'm positively mad about meal prep. They are one of the keys to my massive amount of weight loss. It has kept me focused and on the right foods, saved me time, saved me energy, saved me money, and have just so improved my well-being and lifestyle. I have been meal prepping continuously every Sunday morning for over two and a half years. I have learned so many tricks and practices, and I'm sharing that with you today on this episode. So we'll get started. So we'll start with the basics first. Eliminate the word diet. Use lifestyle, mindset, not diet. This is a healthy lifestyle. You are now a healthy wellness lady. You need to visualize yourself as this new persona, new identity, and take action as if you were that girl. Wellness girls take care of themselves no matter what. They put their health and wellness first. Once they take care of themselves, they can help and take care of their loved ones. You are now that girl who meal preps, walks, moves, plans, cleans, and learns. You now are becoming 1% better every day. So you may ask yourself, why meal prep? It's like your golden ticket to a healthy lifestyle and wellness. It's the land of consistency and results. Plus, it is faster and more efficient than cooking every day. It decreases your stress because you will have healthy meals waiting for you no matter how crazy and chaotic the week goes. It puts you in control of what you put inside your mouth. Research states willpower is like a muscle that can only stand tension for a certain amount of time. The more temptation you face, the harder it will be to turn them down. Meal prep exposes you to fewer temptations. You are in control of what and how much and when you eat. Meal prep is life-changing. Meal prepping stops the hunger and binge cycle because you already have meals prepped and easily available. Meal prepping allows you to cook and clean at once. This cuts down on the time you spend in the kitchen. You save so much time prepping, and the more you meal prep, the more faster and efficient you become, providing you valuable time for other things you love to do. So next, we need to learn and practice the plate method. Still, I use AI to snap a picture, and I have an app that estimates my macros, but I do not count exact calories, weigh food, and track macros to a T. I use the plate method. So what is the plate method, you may ask? It's a healthy balance of protein, fats, carbs, and fiber. So I fill half my plate with veggies, the other half combo of healthy fats, protein, and a healthy high-quality carb. Keep it clean and keep it simple. Lean meats and fish, and red meat and pork sparingly, like once a week. Plenty of vegetables at every meal, different colors, of course. Hard healthy fats, avocado oil, olive oil, canola oil for cooking, low-fat dairy like yogurt and cottage cheese, avoid sugar and processed foods, and of course, drink plenty of water throughout the day. So now we have to set targets. Your goal. Do not set a generic goal like to lose weight and get healthy. It should be a specific goal. Like my personal goal is to be a health and wellness girly and to lose 100 pounds by the end of 2026. So that comes out to about two pounds per week on average. And to achieve this goal, I will plan out my meals during the week, pick up my food via curbside on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings, and block two hours every Sunday early morning to prep and cook my meals. I will concentrate on about six ounces of lean protein, one to two tablespoons of healthy fats, two fifths of non-starchy veggies, and a half a cup of starch. So here are my go-to veggies for meal prepping: artichokes, asparagus, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, mushrooms, onions, salad green, spinach, squash, tomatoes, zucchini, and broccoli. My high quality carbs include the following: barley, beans, brown rice, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, peas, couscous, corn, and whole fruit always, not juice. Healthy fats include the following: avocado, egg yolks, fatty fish, olives, organic grass-fed dairy products, nuts, cold pressed avocado oil, and olive oil. I only drink water, black tea, green tea, black coffee, infused water, and sparkling water. Oh, and low sodium beef bone broth. So here are some ways I save money with meal prepping. I buy in bulk things like beans, cooking oils, grains, nuts, poultry, seeds, shellfish. I avoid buying bulk of things that will go bad and can't be frozen. I cook a meatless meal once per week. I eat from my pantry. I use what I have. I freeze unused fruit for smoothies. I limit organic foods to the dirty dozen. I shop sales and coupons, and I shop seasonal produce. So, how do you plan your meal prep day? This is what I do. Slow cooker recipes should start first. Then recipes cooking a long time go next. Then sheet pan recipes with shorter cooking times next. Stove recipes follow. And then finally, no bake recipes are completed last. So here are some effort-saving tips. Cook items in bulk that can be used for various meals like brown rice quinoa, shredded chicken, freeze remaining portions for another week. You don't need to cook every single beal. Cook components of meals like grains, proteins. If budget allows, purchase pre-cut and pre-washed produce. Also, you can use frozen to save prep time. Repeat meals. Do a variety from week to week, but repeat during the same week. Repeat meals to save time in the kitchen. Try to use some ingredients in multiple recipes. So here is the fridge versus freezer and what I do. Check expiration dates. Once food has been cooked, it usually will stay good for three to five days in the fridge. If you will not use it then, throw it in the freezer. Freezer foods can stay three to six months good. Freeze meals in individual portions so you can reheat just one. Store food in airtight containers and wrap with plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Clearly label and date the date you froze it. Liquid expands. So liquid meals leave generally 40% of the container empty. So this is my leftover repurposing section. Freeze unused portions for use later. Small amount leftover use as a side dish for a next meal. Use side dishes in a meal. Leftover sweet potato added to scrambled eggs. Eat dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. No one is stopping you, and there are no rules. Start thinking of leftovers as ingredients. You may be able to use leftovers as an entirely new meal. Have a leftovers night where you eat bits and pieces of whatever is left over. Leftover salad greens can be sauteed, added to eggs, ground meat, or hidden in smoothies. Leftover melt can be used in an ice cube tray and added to smoothies. Leftover veggies can be thrown into an everything but the kitchen sink soup. Fruit can be frozen into smoothies. Some of my go-to recipes are attached in the show notes. You can download and try if you like. Finally, to end this episode podcast, I wanted to touch on a couple things I'm doing online coming up for the year. First things first, I am putting on my Instagram channel my daily glow up rituals, which are even like seasonally based things that I'm doing to improve my life on a daily basis. I'll be sharing that on and off on my Instagram channel. Also on my Instagram channel, I'll be sharing up my glow up curriculum for the week every week and sharing tidbits of what I learned from reading a book. I plan on reading one book every week, listening to a podcast and a YouTube streaming video, and sharing what I learned with all of you wonderful ladies. Finally, on my Substack channel, I will be introducing the Midlife Glowgetter Workshop. A weekly workshop. I'll be sharing a post, homework, information, and exercises for women over 40 looking to reinvent and become 1% better and transform their lives. This will be every Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern. I will post my Substack is free. You can find it at my link in bio on Instagram. And so I will post every day every Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern and it will go throughout the entire year. It's every week. And it is free. This is how I'm getting my toes and feet wet with the coaching industry. And I will be and I created this 52-week transformational workshop. It covers anything you want to transform. It could be money, wellness, weight loss, relationships, what your goals are. This will help you find your values and your goals and make those transformational changes. So that is free on my Substack. Follow, subscribe, and get that post every Sunday at 2 p.m. and do the homework and reinvent yourselves or become 1% better every day. So that's what's coming online. And so that's it. I hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening to this podcast. And if you follow me on social media, thank you for following, checking out my website as well. If you found this podcast episode good and interesting, please leave a review. It helps other women like you, like me, find this podcast and gain some knowledge in their midlife years. I appreciate you. If you have any comments or questions, DM me on social media or email me. All negative and positive comments or questions I take. I am learning just like you, and I take them with open arms. So that's it. Have a great week. Thanks for listening, and I will check in Nick next week. Love Jax.