Six Tips For Eating Healthy With A Busy Schedule

One of the biggest challenges of eating healthy is time. Whether you get home late from work, travel a lot, or have busy after school activities with the kids, it can be a challenge to choose and prepare healthy meals and snacks. Here are Six tips to help you in your journey to eat healthier with a busy schedule.

1-Plan your menu for the week. Before the beginning of the week, plan what you will have for each meal, and for snacks. Try to do your grocery shopping once a week, and plan your grocery list around your menu. This saves both time and money.

2-Meal prep. There are several ways to do this.

*You can chop up your produce, meats, shred cheese, etc so that when it comes time for dinner the prep work is done and all you have to do is assemble, and cook. You can also use this method to pre-portion smoothie ingredients for a quick meal on the go. A good time to do this is as soon as you get home from the grocery store.

*Pre cook and/or assemble all of your meals for the week, and store in fridge. Salads in a jar are a great lunch option. They'll be ready to grab n go!

*My personal favorite--when you prepare a meal, double the recipe and freeze the second half for future use. You can do this with homemade bread, pancakes, tortillas, muffins, etc and keep them in the freezer. Just pop them in the toaster, microwave, or oven! Your very own, healthier version of freezer meals. :-)

*Prepare breakfast and lunch the night before. Overnight oats is a great breakfast option!

3-Utilize the crockpot or Instant Pot so that dinner is ready when you get home.

4-Keep healthy snacks such as nuts, dried fruit, healthy pre-made bars, etc. in your car or purse for when you're on the go. This will keep you from getting too hungry before your next meal, and will keep you from choosing something less healthy when you're in a pinch.

5-When you are traveling, or eating out you can still make healthy choices. Choose grilled instead of fried, fruit or side salad instead of fries or chips, whole grain when available, oil and vinegar dressing, tomato based sauces instead of cream based, etc. It's about being mindful in our choices, and making substitutions with healthier options.

6-If you don't like to cook, consider pre-made, or pre-prepped delivery services such as Blue Apron, or Perfect Portions.

Choose one of these options and implement it until it becomes a habit, then choose another and do the same. Before long, you will have created healthy habits that lead to a healthy lifestyle!

If you would like a personalized plan to help you create healthy habits, and reach your goals, I would love to help!