If your goal is to be as healthy and fit as you can be, then you likely already know that you need to eat nutritious foods to get you there. However, all too often, we try to reach our goals while still going out to eat or by grabbing convenience snacks, both of which can make our journey harder than it has to be. One way (and perhaps the best way) to make achieving our goals easier and increase our chances of success is to actually prepare our meals ourselves.

Certainly, creating a healthy meal takes some time out of your already busy day, but it is time well spent. In fact, this one action is as beneficial to reaching your goals as exercising, stretching, and other healthy activities. So, you need to change the way you look at it and consider meal preparation a priority if you want to lose weight and/or get in shape—don’t let it be an option.

When you prepare and eat your own meals, you have more control over what you eat, and what you don’t eat. You can load them up with healthy foods that you love and limit the amount of fat, processed carbs, and other not-so-good-for-you substances. How do you do this when you have a packed schedule?

When time is working against you, it may help to prepare a few meals on Sunday and freeze them for the week ahead. Or, you could also get the meals ready so that all you have to do is throw them in the oven or crock pot a day or two later.

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Don’t let failure be an option and plan and prepare your meals ahead of time.

What kind of healthy meals do you like to prepare for yourself or your family?