Moncton — Hub City woman Katie Marshall, 34, has been bragging online and in person about preparing all her meals on weekends to take to work the following week.
“Saturday and Sunday are my meal prep days,” began a caption to a long post and entire Facebook photo album of shots of an orange-coloured slop in Tupperware containers. “Portion control is a lot easier if you get all your identical meals together for the week so you don’t have to think about them while you’re eating them or waste time enjoying food.”
Marshall said she’s not big on New Year’s resolutions; she sees meal prep as part of a healthy lifestyle.
“I’m trying to eat clean, but for me it’s not a diet or a fad or anything like that. It’s a way of life. You spend your free time preparing for your work week, then you spend your work week thinking about the weekend when you can prepare your food for the week after that. It’s a great way to kill time until retirement.”
Marshall’s co-workers claim her “lifestyle” is depressing to witness.
“She heats something up in the microwave, and looks around the break room, desperately hoping someone will ask her about it, but since nobody cares, she has to start blurting out info about the consistent calorie count in all her meals,” said Shelly Anderson. “No one invites her out to lunch anymore since she’ll just say she can’t — because then she’d have to eat one of her prepared meals on Saturday. She has no social life, hobbies, interests, or passions…it’s all just meal prep.”
Marshall’s social media connections are her main “friends,” but even they’re holding on by a thread.
“Meal prep people are the same idiots who post recipes online that force you to sift through 18 paragraphs of backstory before you get to the ingredients,” said Jamie Gleason, a Facebook friend of Marshall. “And that’s Katie in a nutshell. Why does she think other adults are interested in what she’s eating? It’s like she’s four years old and wants a gold star for finishing her veggies.”
At press time, Marshall was cutting up the leftover turkey from Christmas dinner to put in Tupperware containers for all of January.