Tip The Art of the Batch Prep Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Diet & Fat LossEating Tip The Art of the Batch Prep Avoid decision fatigue improve diet adherence and reach your body comp goals Here' s how by Nate Miyaki March 3, 2018April 5, 2021 Tags Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips What sounds good on paper doesn't always work in everyday life. The longer I've been in this game, the more clearly I've come to understand a few fundamental principles that dramatically impact the execution of a diet: Discipline is a finite and exhaustible resource. Decision fatigue is a real thing. Convenience improves adherence and success rates. Automation makes everything easier. So we could talk about numbers and singular foods and so forth, but what's a higher-level food hack that shifts reliance on discipline and decision making over to convenience and automation? And what will give you a better shot at making your physique-focused plan easier to sustain? Answer Never Cook a Single Meal When you actually do have some time in your week, cook a bunch of physique-friendly foods for multiple meals at once. Store the leftovers. The rest of the week can be full of easy and convenient grab and go's, mixes and matches, etc. Who in today's world has time to cook multiple meals a day made from real, whole, natural, nutrient dense, high-satiety foods? You do. You just don't have time to do it every single day. But you can certainly sneak in an Iron Chef session twice a week – maybe once on the weekend while watching the ballgame and once during the week instead of watching TV. Efficiency is crucial for normal dudes with a real career and some kind of life outside of fitness. It's even more relevant to advanced lifters in the middle of aggressive fat loss phases, where satiety, motivation, impulse, and instinct are all often heading in different directions. Now this doesn't have to be just the ol' bodybuilding chicken and broccoli. A wide variety of foods can work in a physique-focused diet. Here Are Some Ideas Marinate and broil or bake a few pounds of meat. On a nice day, get out there and grill it. Hard-boil a carton of eggs for "instant" breakfasts that have a better protein-to-carb ratio than Fruity Pebbles. Grab a couple bags of potatoes, sweet potatoes, or other tubers and bake, boil, or roast them. Rice cookers are awesome. Get a big one and make a giant pot of rice. Meat and rice has been a foundational physique meal for decades. Pick a few of your favorite vegetables, throw them in a pan, and stir-fry together to bring out the flavors. You don't have to chew on raw celery sticks to get your veggie game on. Hell, throw some veggies and a whole dead animal in a Crock Pot and cook that sucker until it's as tender as a taint after a day with your not-so-friendly neighborhood dominatrix. You can still add spices, sauces, and extra ingredients to make these more exciting. The base ingredients (meat, veggies, starch) will be ready to go. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Diet & Fat Loss Berardi s Top 10 Tips Dr. Berardi shares his best training, diet, and planning tips for serious lifters and athletes. Bodybuilding, Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements John Berardi, PhD November 11 Eating Tip Stop Sabotaging Yourself on Weekends Three tips to help keep you from blowing your fat-loss diet every Saturday and Sunday. You know who you are! Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements, Protein, Tips Paul Carter December 31 Diet & Fat Loss Tip Fat Loss and Muscle Retention Do you have to lose some muscle to lose fat? Not really. Here are some calorie guidelines to get you started. Diet Strategy, Losing Fat, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips Paul Carter February 28 Eating Berardi s Kitchen - Part 2 A noted nutrition expert gives you a peek into his pantry. How does yours compare? Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements John Berardi, PhD June 15