Aussie mum drops 35kg with $1.50 meal-prepped dishes

A mum has shared how she dropped 35kg and four dress sizes after becoming an impressive ‘meal prep queen’ – and now she saves thousands a year on takeaways.

Emily Forbes began experimenting with meal prepping back in 2018 as a way of portion controlling, setting aside two hours each week to prepare meals such as burrito bowls, curries, pasta bakes, veggie lasagna and fried rice.

The 30-year-old Melbourne mum managed to go from 105kg and a size 16-18 to 70kg, now wearing a size 8-10.

“The weight issues were partly due to my high carb heavy diet and lack of exercise,” Emily said.

“But my biggest problem by far was portion control. When you serve dinner on a dinner plate you tend to pile it on.”

Emily said the motivation for wanting to lose weight came as she wanted to start a family and wanted to be healthy for her kids.

She began meal prepping and was so motivated on her weight loss journey that she says she “wasn't tempted by unhealthy takeaway food”.

“My meal prepping evolved from there. I took inspiration from recipes and changing the quantities and some ingredients that better lent themselves to reheating,” she said.

Emily’s meals only cost $1.50-$3 each and since she no longer splurges $50 a week on takeaways, she is saving around $2,600 a year.

After her meal prepping helped her not only lose weight, but to help her save time and money, Emily is sharing her story in the hopes that it might inspire others to give meal prepping a go.

“My tips for starting meal prep would be to make sure you have enough containers, and cook things that reheat well,” she said.

“For weight loss meal prepping start with things like frittatas and zucchini slices because they are high protein and low carb.

“You can also add different vegetables and cheeses to keep you interested by changing the flavour.

“It's only an hour or two out of your week and you'll have delicious healthy meals that you will feel so much better for eating.”

Reporting by Caters News

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