If you don’t enjoy cooking, keto is probably not for you. I have always enjoyed coming up with new recipes, or improving pre-existing recipes, so Keto presented a new challenge for me, culinary-wise. Cooking for others is one of the main ways that I show love, so cooking HEALTHY and YUMMY things that make my loved ones feel cared-for and give me the peace of mind that I am improving their nutrition is a pretty good feeling, BUT I’m busy. Most of us lead really busy lives, I’m no exception, and likely, neither are you. What I discovered is, if I wanted to remain successful, I had to dedicate time and energy to meal prep when I did have time if I was going to eat healthy, hold a full-time job as a preschool Director, be a good single mom, friend, daughter, sister, attend grad school, and fit in some exercise. All of these things are important to me, and I didn’t want to give any of them up, nor compromise at all. I’m stubborn like that.
I tried to avoid dedicating time to meal prep, but it was SO STRESSFUL. I’m sure if I had a significant other at home to share cooking, it wouldn’t have been so overwhelming, but I don’t, so it was. I tried to rush home on my lunch break and put things in the crockpot so that dinner would be ready after my son’s practices, but most of the time, this just didn’t pan out like I’d hoped. I tried cooking everything fresh after work, and still trying to fit in a workout, homework, housework, momming, etc... and most of the time this just didn’t work out either. There are just not enough hours in the day! I get it, weekends are busy too. Sometimes there’s no time for meal prep on a weekend. I’ve been there. Recently, I’ve made a concerted effort to set aside some time to relax and meal prep at the same time. This meant I had to learn to say no to some obligatory social "things". I don’t miss them....at all. My advice, if you don’t have time to meal prep in a given week is to purchase "fast keto foods" that you can slap together really quickly so you don’t fall off of the wagon.
Besides all of the dishes, I really enjoy the time I set aside for meal prep. I cook, and watch Netflix or catch up on shows I’ve TiVo’d. The best part of doing meal prep is knowing that if I have a rough day at work, don’t feel well, run late, etc.... I can have food ready within minutes to feed my son, without having to resort to a drive-thru, AND I have time to execute the ideas that my ever curious culinary mind comes up with.
Because I meal prep, I’ve stayed on-track. It’s definitely the secret ingredient to a successful keto lifestyle.
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