When people claim that healthy cooking is not an option, a lack of time is usually the excuse. Indeed, time is something we all wish we had more of, and all that dicing, slicing, sautéing and baking will take time that you may not have to spare. But if you hope to maintain the progress you’re making with the help of your medical weight loss program, then cooking your own healthy meals is not an option—it’s an absolute necessity.

Whether you have the time set aside or not, cooking healthy meals is one of the fundamental aspects of keeping you and your family healthy. Fortunately, there are many ways to save time in the kitchen without compromising the nutritional excellence of your meals. If you want to speed up your cooking process during your medical weight loss program, start by:

• Rearranging your kitchen. Searching for misplaced utensils and appliances can waste time before you even start cooking. Take a few minutes now to put everything in its right place. Keep like items together and as close to the place you’ll be using them as possible. Eliminate clutter and keep any rarely-used items in an out-of-the-way storage area.
• Planning ahead. Fumbling for the right recipe or rushing out to grab ingredients every time you make a meal will slow you down tremendously. Instead, plot out the whole week’s meals in advance and make one grocery run to get everything you need to get started. Ingredients you use consistently should be kept front and center in your fridge and cabinets to make them easily accessible. You can also make things quicker by stocking ready-to-use ingredients like frozen and canned vegetables.
• Making more. Your portion sizes may be smaller now that you are learning weight management skills, but that doesn’t mean the batches you cook have to be smaller as well. If you cook in big batches, you can save your leftovers in the fridge or freezer, giving you two or more meals for the time you spend cooking one. Bulk cooking appliances like crockpots and rice cookers can help you with this goal and can even be left to their own devices, allowing you to prepare a healthy meal at the click of a button as you head off to do something else.

Don’t let time stand between you and the healthy meals you need. If you need any help thinking of quick recipes that meet your nutritional needs, then talk with a medical weight loss specialist.