Most people who don't hit their nutrition goals aren't making bad choices out of laziness. They're making bad choices because they're deciding what to eat when they're already hungry — which is the worst possible moment for a rational decision.
Meal prep fixes that problem at the root. You make all your food decisions for the week in a single one-hour session on Sunday. For the rest of the week, you open the fridge and eat. That's it.
Why it changes everything
When your meals are already prepared, three things disappear: decision fatigue (choosing what to eat drains mental energy), the risk of bad choices when you're hungry and tired, and the time wasted cooking every evening after work or training.
Meal prep isn't a constraint. It's the opposite. You don't spend more time cooking — you concentrate it into one block so the rest of the week runs on autopilot.
The 4-step process
Plan (10 min — Saturday evening)
Decide which meals you're prepping for the next 4–5 days. Pick 2–3 protein sources, 2 carb sources, 2–3 vegetables. You don't need endless variety — simplicity is a feature, not a bug. Write your shopping list.
Shop (20–30 min — Sunday morning)
List in hand, one trip. Buy in quantity: 1.5kg chicken, 1kg rice, 500g vegetables. A targeted shop takes half the time of an improvised one. Colruyt, Delhaize, or Lidl all work — pick the one nearest to you.
Cook in parallel (40–45 min)
Everything runs at the same time. Rice in the pot, chicken in the oven, vegetables on a roasting tray. You're not cooking one thing then the next — you're managing multiple cooking times simultaneously. While things cook, you portion or prep sides.
Portion and store (15 min)
Airtight containers out. Weigh and portion if you're tracking macros. Label with the day if needed. Fridge for the first 3 days, freezer for the rest.
The 60-minute sequence
Best foods to prep — available at any Belgian supermarket
- Chicken breasts or thighs — lasts 4 days in the fridge, oven at 200°C for 25 min, works in bowls, salads, wraps
- Rice (white or basmati) — 1kg cooked gives 5–6 portions, 18 min cooking, lasts 5 days
- Roasted vegetables — courgette, pepper, broccoli, sweet potato at 200°C for 25 min, minimal prep
- Hard-boiled eggs — 12 min, 6g protein each, perfect snack or meal addition
- Canned tuna or salmon — zero cooking, high protein, omega-3s
- Cottage cheese or quark (fromage blanc) — no prep needed, 10g protein per 100g, good for breakfast or snacks
Brussels-specific tip: Colruyt has the best price-to-quality ratio on chicken and fish. Lidl is strong on vegetables and eggs. For batch cooking quantities (1.5kg+ chicken), Colruyt's Boni Selection range is consistently the best value in Belgium.
What meal prep is not
It's not eating the same bland food every day. A batch of chicken, rice and roasted vegetables can become a bowl with soy sauce and sesame on Monday, a wrap with hummus on Tuesday, and a salad with feta on Wednesday. The base is the same. The meal isn't.
It's also not a commitment to perfection. If you prep 4 days out of 7 and the other 3 you improvise or eat out, that's still 4 days of consistent nutrition that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
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