Meal prepping: why you should start after weight loss surgery

What is meal prepping?

Meal prepping is nothing more than the preparation of meals. You have different options to speed up the cooking process. Firstly, make double portions of your dinner and freeze them. Prepare soups and smoothies in small portions in the freezer. With complete meal boxes in the fridge, you have always something for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Also, you can slice or peel ingredients in advance to add to a dish.

What are the benefits?

• You’ll experience ease: just get the meal preps out of the fridge or freezer and heat it
• You’ll save time: 1 day per week in the kitchen instead of hours every day
• You’ll not waste food: frozen food lasts longer and you’re not wasting anything because of the portions
• You’ll save money: by doing groceries once a week you won’t get tempted to buy more
• You’ll eat healthier: fewer triggers to grab a fast, unhealthy meal

What do you need when you start meal prepping?

First of all, you need meal-sized containers or bags for storage. Because you’ll eat less after weight loss surgery, choose small containers or bags. They must be recyclable, air-tight, and suitable for microwaves. Go for food you can easily digest after surgery and keep the texture in mind. You don’t want your crunchy veggies to go limp or lose their flavor because you mix them with other ingredients.

Let’s start meal prepping

Start meal prepping before weight loss surgery. This helps you focus on your recovery instead of cooking meals. Sounds good when you’ve just returned home from the hospital, right? Do your groceries in the week before the surgery. Pick ingredients and recipes you can and may eat afterward. In the 2 weeks after surgery, you’ll only take liquid foods. This is because your body needs to recover and swallowing can be painful. Therefore, it’s smart to prepare smooth soups and smoothies.

After surgery, you’ll eat less because your stomach is much smaller. So make small-sized, measured portions, and use a good scale. Even months or years after surgery, meal prepping is still a smart thing to do. By making a list and planning a weekly menu you have to do groceries only once a week. No more stress about what to eat every day and sticking to your healthy habits will be much easier!

Meal prepping for beginners: tips for success

• Choose frozen vegetables and fruits or variants which are easy to freeze like peas, broccoli, pumpkin, carrots, apples, bananas, and blueberries
• Skip ingredients you can’t freeze, for example (coconut)milk and yogurt. In the freezer they’ll curdle. Veggies like tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce lose their flavor
• Buy nuts and seeds. They have a long storage life and they’re rich in proteins and healthy fats. Also, they are high in calories, so mind the amount
• Cool down food before putting it in the freezer or fridge
• De-freeze food first before heating it
• Store prepared food until 2 days in the fridge. In the freezer until 3 months
• Note the date on containers or bags for the expiry date
• Choose one day per week when you have time and peace of mind to do meal prepping.

Healthy meal prep recipes

A healthy diet isn’t just about healthy ingredients. Variation matters too. This provides your body with different, important nutrients which you need after surgery.  To get inspired, we collected healthy meal prep recipes for you. Delicious, nutritious, and specially formulated for a stomach reduction.