Starting a keto diet is no biggie. You can just load up on cheese, hard boiled eggs, cheese and nuts on a full week while skipping pasta, bread or rice– and that’s it. But being a restrictive diet (think: 60-75 percent fat, 15 to 30 percent protein and just 10 to as little as 5 percent of carbs), staying on track can be hard to many beginners in keto.

Add to that the onslaught of keto flu and scarcity of convenience food stops– and you have one plate full of holes to put your diet on a standstill. One thing to make ketosis work for your advantage all the time: meal planning. To get you started, here are keto meal prep ideas to help keep you to stay on track and achieve fast results.

1. Know what keto-friendly food works well for you. We all have distinctive tastes. One person may like eggs while another just can’t take them or may have certain allergies that prevent them from consuming such. Get a comprehensive checklist on your likes and dislikes as well as certain foods that pose health risks vis-a-vis keto food list and start from there.

2. Invest in effective kitchen tools. Keto empowers everyone to go back to their roots– home-cooking. With this, you will need the right kitchen tools to make preparations easy and efficient. Go for a large skillet, a good set of knives, slow cooker or instant pot, food processor or blender, and parchment paper. A microwave oven is also a good investment particularly when you’re into prepping a large batch of meals to satisfy weekly requirements. These kitchen tools can be found here.

3. Don’t forget– food containers. For in-house keto meals, go for glass containers proven to be microwave safe. These containers tend to keep harmful chemicals and free radicals at bay. For to-go meals, however, a vacuum-sealed plastic container, like, Lock&Lock are the perfect way to go. When choosing plastic food containers for storage look for these qualities– air and water tight, microwave-safe, freezer-safe, dishwasher-safe, BPA free, odor and leak proof, stain-resistant, and FDA approved.

4. You may also want to add these tools — vegetable and fruits cutter-spiralizer-dicer-etc in-one, cupcake corer, grilling tools, immersion blenders, and so on. These tools can come handy as the keto diet calls for a lot of blending, slicing, dicing, grilling, steaming, blending, etc. Cooking homemade meals doesn’t have to be rigorous with these items around.

5. Strive for precision when it comes to ketosis. Get your kitchen a scale and a weighing scale for yourself. Weighing food like coconut flour or almond flour is quite tortorous when there’s no scale around. A good weighing scale also comes handy to ensure you’re staying on the right path.

6. Stock on keto pantry staples. Your grocery list may vary week after week, but these common ingredients can work on many recipes– nuts and seeds, nut butters, sugar-free herbs and spices, salt and pepper, olive oil, coconut/almond flour, baking soda and baking powder, avocado oil, coco oil (or other high-fat oils), red wine vinegar, keto-friendly sweeteners, dark cocoa, butter, eggs, cheeses, cream cheese, mayonnaise, heavy cream, and unsweetened yogurt. Get yourself prepared.

Keto Weekly Meal Prep Ideas

Plot out a weekly meal plan that’s anchored on these three principles: breakfast should be filling and can help launch your day; grab-and-go lunches eaten cold or can be warmed in a microwave, and “slim” dinner, preferably can be prepared ahead of time with leftovers for breakfast. The idea here is to find ways that will make eating a strict-keto-diet efficient yet enjoyable to the taste buds. Do remember to include other people living with you when prepping a weekly meal plan. What’s heathy for you will definitely be healthy for them.

There are tons of keto specialists sharing their sage wisdom on how to keep your ketosis level on high. These keto gurus can help you outline a weekly meal plan that’s right for your body and for your budget as well. Check out our Keto Recipes database.

Keto Breakfast Meal Prep

If you’re not into serious weekly plans and want to do breakfast on a day-to-day basis then, you may want to go for no-recipe hassle-free breakfast meals. Think: vegetable smoothie, avocado toast with egg, unsweetened yogurt, salmon sashimi platter, microwave quiche, omelets, and keto-friendly waffles.

Invest in a slow cooker. You can simply program meals to cook overnight and voila! Ketosis-friendly breakfast that’s hot and ready once you wake up. There are so many sources of keto-friendly recipes intended for slow cookers too.

Cook breakfast intended for whole day consumption. Let’s say a huge batch of cheese and vegetable fritata to fire up your day, which can also be stored in an air-tight lunch box dunked on a brown paper bag as you rush for work and some more in the fridge for easy heating up once your home from a hard day’s toil.

Are you Allergic to Dairy Products? Read Guide to Dairy Free Keto Meal Plan

Keto Lunch Meal Prep

An insta-pot and food processor can come handy for lunch when cooking at home. Think of the time cut from hand-grating cauliflower rice to simply dunking it into a food processor. Programmable slow cookers and instant pot keto-friendly recipes also makes lunch pre easier– and less strenuous to your diet requirements.

Create an easy mix-and-match combo of various items on your pantry’s staples. Think: cheese, nuts, pre-cut veggies, hard-boiled eggs, and keto-friendly store-bought or homemade sauces. Seafood or veggie salads are so easy to whip up. Leftovers from breakfast or from dinner also makes great choices for daily lunch preparation.

For busy-bodies airtight containers are must-haves for lunches on-the-go. Try to create meals that don’t easily go rancid and can be eaten cold or not re-heated. Wraps, cupcakes, and the likes are great lunches on-the-go. Steer clear of leaks by investing also in small containers for sauces and dips.

Regardless of meal time, choose recipes that use only a few and similar ingredients. Aside from shorter shopping list and more savings, it also calls for faster cooking. Buy ingredients enough for a week’s consumption though, to ensure freshness and to prevent any health risk.

Related : Vegetarian Keto Meal Plan

Plan For Keto Success

These keto meal prep ideas will help to make you stay focused on your diet and eventually, maintain your ketosis level on high. It also allows savings on time, money and yes, sanity while going through a restrictive high-fat, low-carb diet like keto. When planned accordingly, there’s a huge chance of you sticking to your keto diet and create an efficient meal prep rhythm that works to your advantage. Read about our Keto Meal Plan For 30 Days.