You get home from a long, busy day, and the only thing you can think about is food. You walk to the kitchen to see how you are going to get rid of your appetite. However, you open the fridge and search for something to eat, finding nothing.
Many people find themselves with this problem, particularly young people in school who don’t have free time to cook. This is why people utilize meal prepping, which allows them to have quickly accessible meals that can also be healthy. Meal prepping is preparing a meal or recipe and portioning it out to create meals for later on. It is common for athletes or people who are particularly active, but all types of people can benefit from meal prepping.
Kaneland athletic trainer Maggie Walker is someone who advocates for athletes to meal prep.
“I think especially high school athletes can benefit from it because there’s a lot of structure in meal prepping and nutrients that you can get from it that are lacking for high school athletes,” Walker said. “One of the biggest problems I see athletes deal with commonly across sports is their lack of either hydration or nutrition.”
When it comes to high schoolers in particular, they tend to have very little free time, especially if they’re involved in extracurricular activities. This leads to people resorting to quick and easy meals, which often happen to be pretty unhealthy and lacking in nutritional value.
“A lot of times, I will take Sunday afternoons to meal prep just so I know I’m getting lunch because if I don’t do that, then I’m not eating, especially since I work [from] 11-7,” Walker said. “It’s not like a traditional 9-5 job, so I definitely utilize meal prepping. If I don’t, then I am lacking a lot of food myself, especially during my work hours.”
People of all ages can see different benefits from meal prepping. It takes a lot of time, but you really only have to do it once a week. In turn, you can save yourself a lot of time during the week, and it can help you lay out meals specifically for your nutritional needs.
Junior Nick Casey utilizes meal prepping frequently and is very active between lifting, martial arts, running and more.
“Although it may seem time consuming, cooking for one or two hours on Sunday for the whole week is much faster than cooking 30 minutes seven times a week,” Casey said. “When you’ve meal prepped, you don’t have an excuse to eat out or buy food you don’t need.”
Meal prepping each week can also be a lot cheaper than alternatives, like pre-made meals or fast food, along with helping you become quite a bit healthier. It allows you to personalize your meals to your needs, whether that’s high calorie, low calorie or any other specific requirements. Oftentimes, athletes will use meal prepping so that they have meals that are high in protein and calories since they burn a lot through exercise.
Kaneland graduate David Valkanov is now a runner at Waubonsee Community College, and he has found meal prepping beneficial for his performance in cross country and track.
“Meal prepping has helped me keep my body healthy and made my performance in my sport better,” Valkanov said. “My typical meal prep consists of a lot of meats like chicken or steak, anything that has protein in it. Rice, pasta and tons of water.”
At the high school level of sports, nutrition is often overlooked by athletes. However, it is a key component to the quality of an athlete’s performance and is consistently valued more at the collegiate level and beyond.
“Whether you’re an athlete or not, you should always consistently meal prep because it allows your body to stay healthy and functional,” Valkanov said.
