How to meal prep for PCOS
You’ve seen the people with the fancy little glass containers- they’re fit, they’re disciplined, they make chicken and brocolli look glamorous.
But then you try to meal prep and realize that the veggies taste soggy after a few days, the meals don’t make you feel good (not filling enough, make you tired, give you headaches and cravings) and so you end up with a bunch of fancy, empty glass containers, a takeout bag and a feeling of failure.
Meal prepping for PCOS is not something out of reach for you and it’s not something that requires you to sacrifice taste in pursuit of a fitness or health goal.
It IS something that will help you stick to a lower grocery budget, reduce PCOS symptoms, and save you a TON of time- you just have to know how to do it right!
Here’s a few tips for how I meal prep and make it work for me.
PS. In PCOS Foundations there is a whole bonus video on meal prepping for PCOS that even comes with recipes and shows you my exact step by step process and help you with all the portioning math! You can find more info here.
- Start by picking a day to prep. I like to do Sunday afternoons- I wake up Sunday morning and write down a few dishes I think sound good for the week, make a quick grocery list, and go out to a fun lunch that I walk off at the grocery store! BTW- go with a plan bc if you’re hungry or don’t know what you want, you’ll end up spending a ton!
- Center meals around your protein source– we know with PCOS that we need a palm sized amount of protein with each meal. Some simple math and we can figure out how many servings of meat we will need for the week- we can then divide this up any number of ways. I usually do a few servings of fish and then equally divide the rest between two other meats.
- Choose sides that are separate but coordinate. Typically, you’ll want a starch or a grain- beans, rice, corn, bread, or potatoes and you’ll want a non-starchy veggie- broccoli, greens, cabbage, zucchini. Potatoes are an excellent choice for your starchy side- you can make a big batch of mashed potatoes and portion it out for the week and it goes great with everything!
- Get frozen veggies to roast the day of. There’s nothing more gross than a soggy vegetable and prepping for a whole week tends to result in lots of them. Instead, get bags of frozen veggies. You can coat these in olive oil and throw under the broiler for 20 minutes with some salt- it makes a great side that gets your fiber in. You can do this with individual rice cups too.
- Don’t get too perfect– you want to make food that actually sounds good and that you’ll actually WANT to eat. I tend to choose a comfort dish like pot roast along with super healthy dishes like salmon. I always prioritize flavor- that means roasting my veggies in an oil, using sauces, salt, and herbs. Whatever you do, don’t bake and steam everything or you probably won’t actually want to eat it. The best prepped meals are the ones that ACTUALLY stop you from hitting the drive through.
- On that note, don’t forget to add things that satisfy. A small serving of pasta, potatoes, bread or another starch at each meal will be far more sustainable than making super low carb meals that leave you with tons of cravings two hours later.
There’s a lot more to this, of course, including some math that can get complicated but if you struggle to know what to eat, how much to eat, and how to prep it for PCOS, you’ll love PCOS Foundations! It’s currently $49 and all the info on what’s included can be found here. Good luck with your prepping!
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