Emery Collins never had time to cook during the week—and she paid for it with tired lunches and last-minute takeout. “My energy dipped by 2 p.m., and dinner was either eggs again or something I regretted ordering,” she admits.
The turning point came after she started tracking how food made her feel. The pattern was clear: heavy carbs during the week left her feeling sluggish, bloated, and unfocused. That’s when she committed to trying a low-carb lifestyle—but it had to fit her reality.
“I needed something that wouldn’t take hours on Sundays or fall apart by Wednesday,” Emery says. So she began experimenting with batch-cooking meals that emphasized protein, healthy fats, and fiber-rich vegetables, all while skipping the starchy fillers that left her drained.
Instead of prepping seven full meals in advance, she created building blocks: roasted chicken, sautéed spinach, hard-boiled eggs, chopped peppers, almond flour flatbreads. “I didn’t cook whole meals,” she explains. “I just made sure I had all the components.”
Her weekdays became a simple mix-and-match routine. Mornings meant Greek yogurt with seeds or eggs with avocado. Lunches rotated between lettuce wraps or grain-free bowls, while dinners could be tossed together in under ten minutes using her prepped staples.
But the biggest benefit? She stopped thinking about food constantly. “I didn’t have to decide anything on busy days—I just ate well and moved on.”
Now, Emery shares her approach with friends who don’t think they can “do low-carb.” Her answer is always the same: “Don’t do everything. Do what works, and repeat it.”
