Meal Prepping Tips To Manage Diabetes Naturally

Eating healthy and balanced meals is the key to effective diabetes management. However, with a hectic or uncertain schedule, you may not always get sufficient time to prepare your meals. You may feel overwhelmed and anxious and resort to eating unhealthy junk or frozen foods. This is where meal planning or meal prepping comes in handy.

Preparing your meals ahead of time can help you better manage your diabetes and restrict your consumption of foods that are not diabetes-friendly.

Benefits Of Meal Prepping For Diabetes Patients

• It can help save money and time.
• It aids in controlling weight as you decide in advance the ingredients and portions to be served.
• It can help you make your meals more nutritious and balanced.
• It can reduce stress by avoiding last-minute decisions and rushing in the kitchen.

The Five Fundamental Meal Prepping Tips For Diabetes

• Discuss with your family what foods they would like to eat. Then get creative and think about ways to include these foods in diabetes-friendly meals.
• Find recipes that match the taste and health goals of your family. Look into newspapers, magazines and food blogs and record your meal ideas and favourite recipes in a spreadsheet or document.
• Make a weekly diabetes meal planner and record what you are going to serve each day. You can also include the link to the recipes in that meal planner. As you plan your meals, try to use a different theme for each day of the week and make the meal routine a fun concept at your home. Some interesting themes you may use are Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Wholegrain Wednesdays, Stir-fry Fridays, etc.
• Choose a specific day to prepare your meals in advance and try to make meals on the day when you are less rushed.
• Before you go shopping, look at what you have at home and make a grocery list. Take a thorough look at your recipes and list down all the ingredients you will be needing to make them.

Meal Prepping Tips For A Hassle-Free Cooking 

• Start by cooking the foods that take the longest such as chicken, rice, roasted vegetables, etc. 
• While you are baking, boiling or simmering one food, wash and chop down the vegetables and fruits you need for the next meal. 
• Always make extra portions of your recipes so you can use them as leftovers or as additional food in the subsequent meals.  
• Prepare some quick healthy snacks for the week, such as hard-boiled eggs, fresh-cut fruits or green salad. However, do not add dressing to your salad before you eat them. If you want, you may prepare and store dressings in advance.

Tips For Storing Your Prepared Meals

• Understand the shelf-life of your cooked food and eat it before it gets bad. 
• Label the containers with the date you prepared each food so that you can determine which food to eat first. 
• Always freeze your foods in airtight containers. 
• Pack the individual servings of each meal in separate containers, so that you can control the portion size effectively. 

Additional Tips For Meal Prepping In Diabetes

• After a few weeks or months, you will discover the recipes your family likes the most and are easiest to make. You will have a much clearer idea of the ingredients you use the most. Then, look for sales or coupons to buy these ingredients when they are the cheapest. You can also stock up on ingredients that have a long shelf life, such as pasta, rice, olive oil, etc. 
• Continue to look for new recipes and add new twists to your old ones. It will encourage your family members to only eat healthy and home-cooked food. 
• Ask your doctor or dietitian for help. They can help you plan your meals better and educate you further on dietary regulations for diabetes patients.  

On A Final Note

Eating healthy and balanced meals is essential for managing diabetes. However, this may end up being more challenging than it looks. With a hectic lifestyle, cooking nutritious foods can become troublesome. 

In this case, meal prepping comes to the rescue and helps you manage your diabetes better. You can plan your meals ahead, and with the tips given above, you can make this entire process easy and hassle-free.    

References

• https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/features/meal-prep-for-diabetes.html
• https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/basal-insulin/lunch-prep-guide
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28153017/
• https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/meal-prep/
• https://www.diabetes.ca/resources/tools—resources/basic-meal-planning