Meal prepping doesn’t need to be a complex process. Nutrition coach and trainer Danyelle Anderson and Advanced sports dietician and spokesperson for the Dieticians Association of Australia, Simone Austin, share their top tips.

1. Go for frozen: Frozen vegetables are generally snap frozen, so they haven’t really had much time to lose their nutrients – it’s a lot better option than the fresh vegetables that have been sitting in your fridge for a long time,” says Austin.

2. Half can be better than whole: “If you’re meal prepping salad, dress it later; or add fats after the fact to preserve the quality and taste of the meal,” says Austin.

3. Family first: “If I have to cook every meal myself, then it’s a chore. But if one of the kids or my partner helps, it changes the whole scenario of the activity. It becomes much more fun, you don’t feel resentful and the meal’s going to taste better because there’s a bit more gratitude and a bit more love in there – you put in more effort,” says Austin

4. Seasonality counts: Buy in-season so food tastes better and is more enjoyable to come home to, suggests Austin.

5. Buy a slow cooker: “I’ll make double dinner or lunch in the slow cooker, so we can have the leftovers the next day,” says Austin.

6. Invest in ziplock: “I like to keep frozen carb and protein sources weighed out in ziplock bags in the freezer, as back up in case I can’t get to the shops,” says Anderson.

7. Dessert wise: Anderson turns her healthy carbs into prep-friendly desserts to add variety to her meals. “I make superfood paleo sweet potato brownies, chocolate cacao breakfast oat muffins and vegetable muffins to help reach my daily fibre and micronutrient intake,” she says. “One of my favourite things to have prepared is peeled frozen bananas in separate ziplock bags ready for a thick smoothie or ‘nice-cream’ at any time.”

Learn how to master your meal prep in the July 2017 edition of Women’s Health and Fitness magazine.