This is Optimal Health Daily, episode 2581.

Meal Prep to Eat Healthier with Less Effort by Leah Genders of leagendersfitness.com.

And I'm Dr. Neil Malik.

Happy Saturday. Thank you so much for being here and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily,

where I act as your narrator of the best health and fitness blogs, all for free.

And now, let's get right to today's post and start optimizing your life.

Meal Prep to Eat Healthier with Less Effort by Leah Genders of Leagenders Fitness.com.

I thought that people who meal prepped were the type of people

who had their S together, the kind of people who dust their mini blinds every week and throw

Pinterest-worthy parties with handmade decorations and snacks. That ain't me. I'm usually a frazzled mess who opens a bag of pretzels for parties.

Who am I kidding? I don't have time to throw parties. I used to think that I barely had enough time

to eat, let alone meal prep, but I was wrong. Meal prep takes a little more time on the front end,

but makes my weekly meals so much easier and

saves time and money. Preping your meals in advance can help you make healthier choices all week

long. Five reasons to meal prep. One. Meals prepared at home are almost always healthier,

have fewer calories and sodium than restaurant meals.

Meal prep puts you in control of what you eat, rather than relying on the whims of a hungry person,

and that hardly ever goes well.

2. It's less expensive to eat meals prepared at home.

If you consider the average cost of a meal for lunch during the

work week is $10, then that equates to about $50 per week or around $200 per month just for lunch.

You can save a lot of money by preparing meals in advance, rather than going out to eat.

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