Why I started meal prepping (and maybe you should too)

I used to be under the impression that meal prepping is such a huge task that’s gonna take all my time and energy. The planning, the search for recipes, listing down of ingredients, going to the grocery store and the actual cooking consume all my strength just thinking about it. But times have changed, and maybe I just grew out of all my childish excuses. It’s been a few weeks since I started preparing my meals for work, and let me tell you why I continue doing so.
Korean chicken curry


I am so serious about living the healthy life, I swear! Living with an autoimmune condition is a bitch, and you don’t have any choice but to fight it. Every. Single. Day. If you’ve read my About Me page, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’d say I am so lucky to have met a doctor that was able to alleviate my symptoms through proper dosage of medications and surgery. But then it shouldn’t end at that. I also have to do something in order to experience that overly-coveted remission. And so I decided it’s time for me to end my long-time love affair with Jollibee Chicken Joy and McDonald’s fries. I should eat healthier meals. Balance my diet. Be well all over. Not that I am completely depriving myself of my beloved desserts. Maybe one day, someday, I’ll ditch them too. Coffee, on the other hand…
It’s waaay more inexpensive. If you’re an office babe like me, well, it’s either you agree with this or you think otherwise. I noticed that I, along with my colleagues tend to be more adventurous when we eat out for lunch, especially when our paycheck arrives. Once,  we ended up paying Php400 each just for a single meal, in the name of kare-kare and sisig cravings. Then we’d pass by a milk tea stand. Drop by the convenience store to grab some munch-ons to be consumed for the rest of the day. I tell you this kind of lifestyle has taken its toll not only on my wallet, but also on my health. I was gaining weight. I acquired infection. Needless to say, meal prepping and bringing my meals to work saved me a lot of the hassle of going down the building during the lunch hour. It delivered me from the temptation of buying bad and expensive and nutrient-lacking food.
spirali bolognese and a burnt Italian fried chicken

I no longer stress about what to eat for lunch. Many would agree with me on this, that deciding on where or what to eat is the most stressful thing during the day, maybe aside from a nagging and super demanding boss which isn’t my case. There might be so many places around my work area that offer a variety of food, from that unlimited K-bbq just right across the street to the karinderya when it’s petsa de peligro (these are the days when paychecks are about to arrive but you don’t have enough money left to survive for the remaining days). But then you ran out of options. Bringing meals to work allowed me to stress about other things, like maybe, what shade of lipstick to wear when there’s meeting with the boss.
I am making my own food, so now am I officially an adult? I am living with my parents for obvious reasons, and my mom has always been the one making our meals at home (well, I takeover during the Christmas holidays or when I feel like it, so). If I were your typical bachelorette then maybe it won’t be like that. And it’s almost as if prepping my meals has become one of my achieved requirements to adulthood.
Chicken galbi and rice

Because, why not? Cooking is so much fun, but then so is gardening or knitting, depending on one’s interest. The warmth of the being in front of the stove, the sound of the sizzling frying pan and the aroma wafting through the air are super therapeutic, kinda like finding comfort. Also, the thrill of discovering new flavors, the art of measuring ingredients by chance and the mastery of the recipe of an elaborate meal are just as exciting as writing a story about two people meeting in a wrong place at the wrong time but they know for a fact they’re just too good to be apart and so they make a way to be together! Now I really do sound like a writer… kinda.

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