Plan, prepare week's worth of healthy meals in advance
Oct. 25, 20002

By DAVE PATANIA
The Cincinnati Enquirer

QUESTION: You always tell readers to eat five or six small meals a day. I simply can’t cook that often. How can it be done?

ANSWER: It isn’t hard at all. The trick is to have a plan. Rather than coming home after work, looking through the fridge and wondering what to have for dinner, designate one day or two days out of a seven-day period to prepare your food and meals.

My format calls for clients to eat three meals a day with a supplement, such as a protein shake or bar, between each of the meals.

A normal day would go as follows: Eat a balanced breakfast, two or three hours later have a protein shake or bar, two or three hours after that eat lunch, two or three hours later have a protein shake or bar, then two or three hours later eat dinner, then maybe have sugar-free gelatin for an evening snack.

With that in mind, I have clients devise a grocery shopping list, then choose a day (preferably Sunday) to prepare, cut and cook meats/veggies, soups, potatoes, etc., for the week. They then are asked to organize and/or prepare all of their salad, stir-fry and other ingredients for when they will need them.

Once the food is prepared and cooked, you can package meals for each day in plastic containers that you pop in the microwave at work or home and enjoy a healthful, great-tasting meal.

The partially prepared salad greens, stir-fry ingredients and ready-to-cook meats are great for those who have families and say that there is no way to package whole meals for differing tastes and schedules. Having a lot of the foods prepared and ready to cook makes cooking for a family much easier.

Dave Patania, a certified personal trainer, welcomes your questions. Send them to Personal Trainer, The Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. Or e-mail davpatania@aol.com.