How I Meal Prep With ADHD Part 2
Steps 2-4
Here’s part 2 with steps 2-4! If you missed part 1 you can find that here where I discuss the benefits of setting this system up along with a detailed description of step 1. Let’s jump into step 2!
Shopping
Like I said in my thread, unfortunately there’s only so much I can do about going out in public.
BUT there are a plethora of ADHD taxes you can pay to help, such as grocery delivery or even grocery pick up. But for all the produce control freaks like me here’s 2 things you can do.
Have a dedicated shopping day
In our house it’s changed a few times but lately it has been Thursday afternoons.
I don’t think the actual day matters too much, we mainly chose Thursday so we don’t have to leave the house all weekend.
But I do know I will never have Sunday be my shopping day. At least around here that’s the store’s busy day and I like to avoid crowds as much as possible.
The added benefit of having a set shopping day is you can put a recurring calendar event or reminder in your phone so there’s less mental energy involved with actually remembering to go. After a few weeks it at least for myself, it started to feel more routine.
Plus with a set day for it it’s almost easier for me to mentally prepare to go. Versus if I look in the fridge on a random Tuesday and realize there’s no food then the demand avoidance kicks in hard and dragging myself to the store nearly empties my energy budget for the week.
Organize shopping list by section
This really helps eliminate going back and forth across the store because your list is all jumbled up.
It also really helps decrease the mental load of looking at the list and trying to make sure you get everything in the section you’re in before moving on.
And then probably having to go back anyway because you’re eyes skimmed over “bread” that was between “carrots” and “milk”.
More bonus points if your sections are ordered by how you usually go through the store.
For us we usually hit produce first, then meats, then the center isles before making our way to frozen and dairy. We move one direction. We hardly ever have to backtrack. And we hardly ever forget anything as long as it’s on the list.
This is something that my tool does and it’s also got a mobile friendly page so you never have to worry about forgetting your shopping list on the counter again. As long as you remember to take at least your phone.
Cooking
Cooking can be another mental (and sometimes physical) nightmare. Countless times I’ve slaved away for 7+ hours on meal prep, draining every ounce of mental effort I have making sure all the recipes turn out right and absolutely decimating my feet and back.
And I was totally sick of it.
Unfortunately again there’s only so much you can do about the actual cooking itself. But there are some things you can put in place to lighten the load, and I can vouch they make a huge difference. I only spend max around 3-4 hours prepping now and that’s on a long day. All of these I’ve found through trial and error FYI so you may have different ones or even more.
Know your limits
From experience I know I can’t make a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks every single week.
I mean I technically am physically capable, and I’ve done it before.
But it takes forever, is completely exhausting, and I usually need a day or two to recover afterwards. And I just don’t find that an effective use of my time.
Like I said earlier, I find it’s so much easier (on the mind and body) to make a lot of a few things rather than a little of many things.
Designate a prep day
This has similar benefits to having a specific shopping day. You can again set up recurring reminders (probably set for just after the shopping reminders).
And with a set day you can mentally prepare yourself for it.
Plus after you experiment a bit and get a feel for how you physically and mentally handle meal prep you can play around with picking days that best support you.
Maybe you feel best if you have a day off before prepping.
Maybe you’re more consistent when you have a day off after prepping.
Maybe you like prepping immediately after grocery shopping or you need to put them on different days.
I thought I was a different day gal but with my system in it’s simplest form I don’t mind prepping on the same day I shop. Depending on the recipe. I won’t start a slow cooker recipe at 1700 for example. But I may precut the veggies for it or something. Which leads me to…
Plan steps ahead of time
The complexity of this is determined by the complexity of your recipes. And the less recipes you have the easier this is.
For example let’s say the lunch/dinner option I have for the week is stir fry (don’t forget I always do breakfast chicken). My plan for prep day would look something like this:
Start breakfast chicken first so it has time to cool before freezing
preheat oven
line pan
oil and season chicken
start baking (and take out whenever it’s done to cool)
While that’s baking, chop veggies for stir fry
Make the sauce
Lay out all ingredients next to the stove in the order that I’ll use them
One of my favorite cooking hacks, helps prevent the mental scramble of trying to find what I need
Make stir fry on the stove (I don’t have the recipe next to me but you get it)
Transfer to freezing molds to cool
Move breakfast chicken to a bag once cooled and freeze
Move stir fry to freezer once cold as well
You can see how that would easily get more complicated the more recipes you have to deal with.
There is absolutely no shame in doing one recipe entirely before moving onto the next and so on. I just like to keep meal prep as short as possible.
The way I kinda structure my steps is I like to think of the recipes that will take the longest (either to cook or cool) and do those first.
If my lunch/dinner was slow cooker chili I would’ve started that in it’s entirety before even looking at breakfast chicken.
If the recipes seem about the same then I’ll try and cut all veggies/meats needed for all recipes to get it knocked out.
Then I’ll look at cooking methods. I usually start anything that needs the oven before I start anything on the stove. Because as long as I set a timer I can do other things while stuff is in the oven but stove stuff usually requires more attention.
Of course there are some ADHD taxes to make all this easier. Buying precut veggies and meat is a fantastic option which I use quite frequently. Cutting veggies is usually my longest step so I like anything that helps cut down on that time.
Storing
Here is where this system shines. In the past I’d only use the fridge to store my meal preps, which is totally fine if that works for you.
But my struggle came when I felt like I had to eat the preps I made for that day, so the demand avoidance kicked in along with the ick, and then like half of my preps would go bad because I couldn’t make myself eat them without gagging.
The pressure to eat something within the week of making it because that’s how long it lasts in the fridge is way too much for me. It took me quite a while to realize that was a problem of mine, but once I did I decided to start freezing everything.
Not that things don’t go bad in the freezer, they definitely do. But having the span of a month (more often like 3 or 4) to eat something drastically reduced the pressure for me and helped make eating actually enjoyable. Which is very important to me.
And by making things that can be frozen, whatever doesn’t get eaten week 1 can be options for following weeks. This is how I can meal prep one thing but eat different things throughout the week.
The other added benefit is if you decide you want to cook something fresh with all that energy you saved from simplifying meal prep, you absolutely can. No guilt for not eating what you already made because you can just eat it at a later date.
This happens in my house a lot.
We’ll prep for the week, but for whatever reason inspiration strikes and I want to try making a new recipe just for one night. Or we both get cravings for Lo Mein so we decide to go out. Again, no guilt for not eating what we prepped.
That really is the core of this system.
The point isn’t to lock you into a strict meal plan for the week. The point is to prep some food ahead of time so you always have something nutritious available when you need it.
I like to think of it as creating my own little grocery store frozen meal section but way cheaper.
I recognize that not everyone has access to a large freezer so space can be limited. But even keeping 3 or 4 meals on hand even if it’s just for a couple dinners can make a huge difference in reducing mental load.
Particularly on days where you have very low energy and taking that time to really rest will help recharge you faster.
Freezing in single serve molds is my favorite way to go now. But if you don’t have access to them they are absolutely not required.
When I first started taking full advantage of my freezer we full on just used Ziplock bags and those cheap plastic meal prep containers from Wal Mart. I think for a long time I also just used those really big silicone ice cube trays, also from Wal Mart. Those work really well for sauces and soups and stuff.
So how tf do you implement this?
For a brief recap, here’s my system:
I meal plan and make my list on Fridays
We shop the following Thursday
I make anywhere from 6-20 servings of one recipe for breakfasts and of one recipe for lunches and dinners
Numbers are based on math I did for how many servings my bf and I roughly need for 1-2 weeks
I freeze everything in single serve molds
I wanted to touch on implementation, because I know that trying to add in all of these steps at once is a lot.
I do not recommend entirely ditching what you do now right off the bat.
Instead start by making slow shifts.
Maybe once a week you start of with just practicing meal planning and getting a shopping list together.
After that feels good, then you can start by making a small amount of 1 thing to freeze. Something that you just keep on hand for low energy days.
Keep adding in small steps over the weeks and before you know it you’ll have a full inventory of freezer meals on hand, you only cook for sustenance 1 day a week, and you have so much extra mental capacity to do whatever you want with.
I will never lie to you guys and say setting up a system is a piece of cake. It’s not. It takes a lot of work. But unlike the work it takes to just embrace the suck and deal with things how they are, the work put into setting up a system is 100% an investment that pays back crazy amounts of energy in the long run.
In addition, this process won’t work for everyone.
I would not be surprised if I am one of the only people that every part of this system works for. And that’s ok.
My hope with sharing this system is that you guys can take parts and experiment with them to find what works for you. Maybe you take and change other parts or maybe you leave them out. Maybe you combine it with other things you’ve tried in the past. This is not “the ultimate meal prep system.” It’s just the one I like best right now.
In fact it even changes for me constantly.
Lately I’ve been enjoying cooking, so I put less emphasis on making sure I make all the servings on prep day or stick with my criteria for picking recipes.
The point of setting up a system like this isn’t to confine you to a box that you stay in forever.
The point is to provide a safety net that you can fall back on when you need to.
I feel good lately in cooking many days out of the week. Even trying long and complex recipes because I enjoy them. I also am really interesting in getting into gardening and processing a lot of stuff I grow myself. When I get into that this system is going to have to change to accommodate that.
I also know that I will hit another low energy period. They always happen because that’s life. And I know that when that happens I can come back to this system to make sure I have good nutritious food on hand without having to expend all the energy I have available during those times.
Because honestly, for myself I’ve found that one of the fastest ways out of low energy points is to rest. And that’s real hard to do if I have to expend all my energy making sure I’m fed.
But that’s all I have for this absolute novel. Thank you so much for reading and I sincerely hope it helps you guys ease some of the mental load around getting fed! Until next time!
-Savannah
