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I call this the Doomsday Technique because you’re being a prepper- like the weirdos who have their compound stocked with Twinkies in case of World War 3. I’m a big believer in simplicity, so I keep this process as easy as humanly possible. You won’t catch me pre-packing everything into Tupperware, measuring everything to the 1000th of a gram, or sourcing crazy ingredients. However, it’s important to prep some food so you can grab and go when you’re in a hurry. Here’s my process boiled down to 7 simple steps.

1. Use our healthy recipes (https://locomotionfit.com/healthy-recipes) or the google machine to find healthy and delicious recipes. Make sure you pay attention to the recipe ingredients (for food quality) as well as how many servings the recipe makes. If you’re prepping food for the week, you’ll probably want to double the recipe so you have more than 2 meals for all your hard work in the kitchen. I typically try to find 3-5 recipes, depending on my plans for the week.
2. Write down all the ingredients you’ll need to make your main meals for the week. Go through the recipes’ ingredient lists and write down everything you need from the grocery store. Don’t forget to double the amount of an ingredient if you need to double the recipe. Between finding the recipes and writing down the ingredients this takes me between 30-60 minutes.
3. Write down all the other foods you typically like to have on hand that won’t be part of a meal. Remember, buy single-ingredient natural foods found in the produce aisle, butcher shop, and farmer’s market that don’t require labels. These are things like, fruits and veggies for snacks, milk, eggs, food for the kids in your life, cheese, sauces, yogurts, and dessert (yes having dessert from time to time IS NOT the end of the world). Avoid almost all pre-packaged and/or processed foods!  Estimated time is about 5 minutes.
4. Go shop on your day off. Since you have a list this shouldn’t take you very long. Stick to the outer edge of the grocery store and avoid the aisles like the plague. The aisles are just processed carbs in different flavors. Ignore all claims of “heart healthy,” “low-fat,” “low in cholesterol,” “part of a balanced diet,” etc. What those warnings should say is “Low in Fat, High in Chemicals”. Make a game out of how fast you can get this done. Keep it under 40 minutes for sure.
5. Prep everything you can ahead of time, especially your fruits and veggies. The more you do now, the less you’ll have to do when you’re super busy the rest of the week. Chop all your veggies and large fruits (cantaloupe, pineapple etc.) into bite size pieces and put them in Tupperware. It’s amazing how much of an impact pre-cutting your fruits and veggies has on your consumption of them. You’ll be much more likely to eat them for a healthy snack if you don’t have to sit there and chop them up when you’re starving. Plus, many recipes call for diced veggies, and you’ll save a TON of time if that step is already done. You can also prep any meats that need it, cutting chicken into cubes for example. Depending on how much you have to prep this could take anywhere from 15-45 minutes.
6. Cook. Try to cook at least half the meals you plan on eating for the week on Sunday. I generally cook the stuff that looks like it’ll reheat the best, like casseroles or a meatloaf. I’m not a huge fan of chicken after it’s been microwaved for example, so I’ll cook that meal the night I plan on eating it instead of reheating it throughout the week. I generally try and throw something in the crockpot, put something in the oven, saute on the stove, and cook meat on the grill all at the same time. Approximate time: 1-2 Hours (though you may have to come back for something like a crockpot meal).
7. Put everything in giant Tupperware containers and throw it in the fridge. Like I said earlier, I like to keep this process as simple as possible. So when I put my food away I just throw it in giant Tupperware and scoop out a serving at a time as needed throughout the week. Some people like to portion everything out ahead of time, but for me that just seems like overkill. However, if you think that’s going to work better for you do it!

Congrats, you’re done! Now you’ve got a fridge full of healthy, delicious food you can easily grab during the week. You’ll be AMAZED at the impact this has on your nutrition. It’s not easy, especially when compared to going to the McDonald’s drive thru, but just think of the impact this can have on your health AND your waistline.  Happy Doomsday Prepping you crazies.

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