You want your elderly parent to eat better when you’re not around to help with meals but aren’t sure how to encourage healthier eating when you’re not there. For him, it seems much easier to run to the local drive-through for dinner or pull a frozen pizza out of the freezer, but with a little meal prepping from his senior home care provider, he can enjoy healthier meals just as easily.
How Meal-Prepping Promotes Healthier Eating
The dangers of “fast food” solutions to meals are that they are often overly processed, high in unhealthy fats, and loaded with sodium. These factors can be detrimental to your loved one’s health. If he has health issues such as heart disease or diabetes, the food choices he makes are even more important.
By planning and making meals and snacks that are easy to eat and enjoy, your loved one will have more control over what he fuels his body with and can choose foods that will help his body get the nutrients it needs for its daily intake. Meal prepping can allow him to customize his weekly diet to best tackle whatever health issue he may have, whether he needs to reduce sodium intake or increase lean proteins.
Five Tips for Meal Prepping
Meal prepping can mean a lot of things to many people, but for this article, the focus will be on creating most of your loved one’s meals on one day to last throughout the week so that he’ll have healthy options all week. The benefit of meal prepping in this way is that if your elderly loved one needs assistance, a family member or senior home care provider can step in and assist him on this day with meal prepping. He doesn’t have to do it all alone.
The first step is to consider storage. Before your loved one makes anything, he should review how much freezer and fridge space he has, as well as storage containers. He might need to empty some areas a bit before he begins preparing his weekly meals so that once the task is complete, he’ll be able to store them all properly so that he doesn’t risk any foodborne bacteria developing.
The second step is shopping properly. Your loved one might need the assistance of his senior home care provider to write up a complete shopping list. The meal(s) should be determined before they head to the grocery store, so they know how much to get for each item.
When it comes to meal prep, your loved one has several options. He can create one large batch of something (like a casserole or stew) and then put it into individual serving containers for the week. Or he can create individual meals that freeze well and enjoy them during the week. A lot depends on how much variety he wants for the coming week.
Storing meals safely is an important step of meal prepping. Each serving should be properly labeled with name, date, and heating instructions and then stored safely in the fridge or freezer. His senior home care provider can help him with sealing them properly and storing them safely.
Enjoy! The best part of meal prepping is enjoying the rewards. With meals ready to go in his fridge or freezer, your loved one will find it easier to make these meals than going to a fast-food restaurant or throwing a frozen pizza in the oven.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Home Care Services in Sandy Springs GA, please get in touch with the caring staff at Senior Solutions Home Care. (404) 266-8773
Senior Solutions Home Care is a Trusted Home Care Agency serving Atlanta, Palmetto, Alpharetta, Chattahoochee Hills, Milton, College Park, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Hapeville, Johns Creek, and all of Fulton County.
Over the years, we have expanded, providing service in all 95 counties throughout Tennessee, and we now have a growing presence in Georgia.
Senior Solutions is recognized as a top 5% independent agency and a three-time Inc. 5000 honoree in 2018, 2019, and 2020. These types of awards matter to us because they show growth in our goal of eventually touching a million lives. We’re excited to continue that growth and to touch even more families with our commitment to quality care!
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