Salad Prep Made Easy

Salads are one of the healthiest meals you can have. If you've been following me, you've probably seen me mention that I love them, a time or two -- or gazillion. It's true, I'm a huge fan of a bowl of greens loaded with veggies. But putting together a worthwhile mix takes time. And if you're short on time, like I often am, freshly making a salad, just doesn't always fit into the schedule. 

Each week I plan my meals ahead of time. If I have salad on the menu more than once, I find that prepping all the ingredients in advance helps save time and frustration. When I don't have everything prepped, the mere thought of freshly chopping lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, etc., is enough to make me second guess my meal choice.

I put together a photo tutorial of how easy it is to prep all of your ingredients. Check it out.

And ...

There are a couple of things I'd like to mention. One, if you don't have a salad spinner, I strongly encourage you to buy one. They make all the difference when storing lettuce in a plastic zip lock bag. If there's too much water inside the bag, the lettuce will go bad very quickly. The salad spinner knocks off all the excess water -- and I mean, all. I'm still amazed my how much water comes of lettuce that looks fairly dry to me.

The second thing I'd like to mention, is you should buy a large plastic storage container if you don't have one already. I find that storing all the ingredients in one container is so much easier. In the past, I have used two or three containers because I didn't have just one large sized one, and almost always, I'd forget about one of those containers and end up skipping some ingredients.

If you like salads or are looking to incorporate more salads into your diet, take my advice and prep in advance. It make take a little time to chop everything, but you'll only have to do in once. As soon as everything is placed inside the storage container, you pop it in the fridge and you're done. Now, anytime you want a salad, all you have to do is get a bowl and put it together.

31 Days of Weight Loss Tips: Day 14 Plan Your Meals

In order to successfully shed some pounds, you need to plan. Going from meal to meal and trying to figure out what you're going to eat at the moment hunger strikes, is a recipe for disaster.

What happens when you are hungry and have nothing on hand to eat? Most likely, you'll find whatever is closest and fastest. And oftentimes, those choices sabotage your weight loss efforts.

Before the week starts, you need to know exactly what you'll be eating and at what time for the entire week. So, if I were to ask you, "OK, what's for lunch on Thursday?" you need to be able to answer that question immediately.

Here's how to do it: Since for most of us our week starts on Monday, let's use that as our week start point. On the Saturday before, sit down with a piece of paper and pen and write out all of your meals for the week. Make a grid that includes each day of the week  meal times -- everything from breakfast to snacks to dinner. On Sunday, write out your grocery list accordingly and go shopping.

On Sunday, do any necessary prep work or meal preparation for Monday's meals. You can even pack those meals in storage containers and sit them in the fridge so they're are ready to go on Monday. Repeat this process every day. The key is that you want to have the next day's meals ready to go the day/night before.

And of course, if you usually make dinner each night, that's fine to do -- you don't have to make dinner the day before.

Here's a useful tip: Making large quantities of meals that will last a couple of days is a big time saver. A friend of mine who works full-time and is a super busy mom has a great strategy. She makes Sunday her cooking day and cooks all of her meals for the week and stores them so that every day all she has to do is heat up her food. This way she saves herself a ton of time because the cooking is already done.

With a little planning and preparation, you'll set yourself up to succeed with your weight loss efforts. And adopting these habits will make for long-term success.