Is your life busy right now? Having trouble staying committed to your healthy routines? My best advice for Smart Eating healthily while rushing around is on this blog.
Tips for Healthy Eating in a Busy World
Healthy habits are frequently the first to go when life gets hectic, with the understanding that we’ll get back on track when things settle down. In between our social, professional, and personal obligations, we frequently juggle a lot of balls. Nevertheless, it’s only natural for a few balls to drop because we’re simply mortals and not insane clowns who sleep all the time.
You are familiar with the procedure. There is a time trade-off when it comes down to it. We remain up far past our bedtime because we have a few work emails that “really should” get sent. Because the laundry basket is overflowing, we don’t work out. Now that we have one less chore to complete, we collapse onto the couch and quickly make takeaway calls.
Active Bees
Trade-offs can occasionally be an inherent part of working as a team, both at business and at home, and assisting our players—including ourselves—in being our best selves at any given time. However, a tipping point exists. Even though our bodies do their best to meet expectations, our superhuman efforts nevertheless have an effect. Examples of this include mindless eating, restless nights, excessive sitting, eating while on the go, and the negative impacts of chronic stress from attempting to manage it all.
I would be a horrible preacher if I went on and on about balancing. Here are some of my go-to methods for maintaining wellness rituals even as life gets busier, which I also share with my nutrition clients.
1. Select the “Better” Choice
Select the “better” option from the selection if you find yourself in a position where you are unable to control the menu on a regular basis. This can assist in excluding less healthful selections that accumulate over time. For example:
Choose the roast vegetable frittata at your neighbourhood cafe instead of the sweet caramel slice (unless you really feel like it, in which case, enjoy!).
Choose the wholegrain chicken-mayo salad sandwich at a bakery over the pies or sausage rolls.
Choose the protein-rich packaged nuts, jerky, cabinet fruit or nutty muesli bar at the petrol station instead of the bagged candies and chocolate bars.
This advice also aids in overcoming the mindset of “I’ll just start again on Monday,” which causes us to self-destruct our eating patterns when we believe that our current circumstances or way of acting aren’t “healthy” enough. Rather, let’s applaud ourselves for selecting the “better” option among the options and proceed.
2. Slow Cooker Team
Crock pots, often known as slow cookers, are a busy person’s ideal kitchen appliance. Simply prepare a small amount ahead of time, set it and forget it, and return home to a filling, hot meal. Dishes are frequently extremely flavorful since the ingredients have literally had hours to cook (think creamy chicken casserole or shredded pulled pork—drool).
You can cook in large quantities using crock pots, so to save time, make enough food for a few days at a time.
3. Reduce Food Preparation Time Using Appliances in the Kitchen
Food prep can be greatly reduced by keeping healthier ready-to-use items stocked in the kitchen or office. Having options on hand makes meals easier to prepare, requires fewer equipment for cooking, and reduces cleanup time. Try this:
Frozen fruit and vegetables: Use pre-cut frozen vegetables to cut down on chopping time. Blend into a smoothie to increase its nutritional value or add straight to your cooking curry.
Pasta sauce in a jar: Although making your own tomato sauce from scratch is a wonderful ritual, you can have a great bolognese in less than 15 minutes using canned sauce.
Sachets of quick oats: A high-fiber, quick-to-microwave breakfast. Keep in your desk or work cupboard for a quick two-minute meal for days when you had to rush to work and didn’t have time to eat.
Quick rice: Instant rice cooks in 5-7 minutes, while regular rice takes between 18–30 minutes to prepare. Add as a quick carbohydrate option for lunch or dinner!
Legumes in cans (such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas): A fantastic method to increase the amount of protein or fibre in a dish. Toss with salads, curries, casseroles, chillis, tray bakes, or soups; just drain, rinse, and add.
4. Make a meal plan if you can
Meal planning has many advantages, including being economical, time-efficient, and simplifying the process of eating healthily. When we follow a meal plan, we could be less prone to eat or shop on the spur of the moment, when we frequently make poorer-than-ideal nutritional decisions. Although planning takes time, the payoff is swift. Eliminating the burden of figuring out what to prepare every day can free up important mental space and act as a helpful weekly schedule.
Make as few or as many plans as necessary: Or perhaps you just want to schedule quick meals for workdays? or suggestions for the week’s meals? or all of the above, which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks? You are who you are. If you’ve never planned meals before, start small and work your way up to a whole week.
Do larger, more thoughtful stores: Purchase more, spend less. Make a grocery list that will last you at least a week, based on your meal plan. You’ll probably spend less cash, less time mindlessly browsing aisles, and fewer return trips between stores!
Maintain flexibility: No matter how much we prepare, plans occasionally fail. Add a menu item that highlights pantry or freezer items that can be quickly transformed into another dish. My favourite recipes are vegetarian curries made with frozen vegetables and canned goods like tomatoes, coconut milk, and lentils.
If you’re not good at meal planning, there are tonnes of fantastic meal kit home delivery services that will do the legwork for you by delivering goods and recipes straight to your door!
5. Contemplate One-Pan or Pot Meals
Try making a dinner in just one pan instead of utilising a dozen pots, dishes, and utensils! This simple supper method eliminates the need to decide which sides to prepare in addition to your main course because your one dish will serve as your source of grains, vegetables, and protein. The oven or stove does the majority of the work with quick prep, making cleanup a snap. Here are three instances:
Arrange the chicken thighs, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and sliced courgette on a baking tray. Top with pesto chicken bake. Toss with salt, store-bought pesto, oregano, and olive oil. Bake in the oven until the chicken is done. Serve with stirred through canned butter beans that have been rinsed and drained.
Arrange the kumara/sweet potato, red onion, cherry tomatoes, chopped capsicum, and courgette on a baking dish for the rainbow salmon bake. Toss with cajun seasoning and olive oil. When the kumara is almost done, remove from heat and place the salmon fillets in the oven to finish cooking.
Seasonal sausage bake: Place a pack of sausages, seasonal chopped vegetables and your preferred starchy carbohydrates (such potatoes or kumara) on a baking sheet. Add a drizzle of oil and your preferred seasoning. Bake the sausages and root vegetables until they are thoroughly done.
6. Cooking in Batch
Contemporary catchphrase, ageless method! We prepare meals in bigger quantities to store for later consumption, a practice known as batch cooking. In order to save time during the workweek, batch cooking is setting aside a block of time to cook, usually on the weekend. In summary, cook more food less frequently.
Prepare a variety of swappable pre-cooked ingredients: Try a coleslaw, salad, or colourful tray of roasted root vegetables (season it afterward to avoid it getting soggy). Alternatively, cook an entire chicken and divide it among your weekly meals (for example, have chicken breast-mayo sandwiches for lunch and serve the drummies with your root vegetable tray for supper).
Put in half the effort: Prepare your kitchen in advance to save time during the workweek. Make large batches of the dry bircher muesli mix, marinade fresh meat, and freeze portions, or chop raw vegetables ahead of time for stir-frying.
Completely prepare the dishes: Reduce the amount of food prep that you do over the week. When it’s time to eat, just warm up your prepared food.
You can reduce cooking time even more once you’ve figured out your batch cooking “flow” and complimentary recipes. You can do a lot of things in parallel, like cook your rice and simmer your curry at the same time, so they finish at the same time.
7. Make Your Freezer Your Best Friend
When it comes to saving time, frozen meals are a great option for times when you can’t cook. You may use them to freeze leftovers or to make a large amount of food. It’s essential to store freezer-bound meals correctly to extend their shelf life and reduce the amount of time they need to reheat later on. Remember to:
Ice-thawing duration and ease: Do you want to prepare a dish for the entire family or just one serving? To avoid headaches later on, make advance plans.
Food labelling and dating: Dishes can easily go into the depths of the freezer, never to be seen again—at least not by our stomachs. My go-to tools are permanent markers and masking tape.
Not every food freezes and thaws in the same way. The texture of soft fruits and vegetables (like berries), egg-based foods (like frittatas), starchy cooked pasta, and grains can all alter. Foods that are good to thaw include hard cheeses, canned products (move to containers), wholegrain loaves of bread (freeze in slices), and tinned fish (drain liquid or oil).
8. Skip the Snacks Before the Hanger
During a hectic day, maintaining a steady mood and energy level requires frequent snacking. We are more prone to choose easy but unhealthier options when we are hungry. Having healthy snacks on hand keeps our blood sugar levels more constant and helps prevent the dreaded 3 pm hunger. Try these for easy grab-and-go options:
A little handful of mixed nuts
Fruit or sliced vegetable sticks with a sauce
nut butter or seeds on wholegrain crackers
Hummus and a cooked egg
Tuna in a can
A yoghurt container (dairy or dairy-free)
A few pieces of dark chocolate (if, like me, you have a sweet tooth)
9. Include fruits and veggies whenever you can
Though we should strive for five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, many of us don’t meet this goal. It’s important to include produce whenever possible during the day. Easy methods to increase your quota include:
blending in some frozen fruit with your smoothie
consuming carrot sticks with cherry tomatoes as snacks
snacking on fruit in between meals
using tinned beans, lentils, or chickpeas in a traybake, soup, or curry
incorporating kale or spinach into homemade pesto or spaghetti sauce
10. Know When to Use Shortcuts
It’s common to assume that preparing meals in a labor-intensive manner is necessary for a healthy diet, but there are many small tips and tricks that can help simplify healthy eating. Think creatively; it can just be as easy as utilising less components, adopting prepared mixes, or experimenting with a new kitchen tool. Here are a few of my preferred shortcuts:
Obtain a rotisserie chicken from your nearby grocery store, cut off the skin, and utilise it for soups, salads, and sandwiches.
Pre-salayed salad combinations in bags: Spend less time chopping and washing. For a quick salad for lunch or as a side, add protein.
Pre-cut vegetables: Stir-fry mixes, carrot sticks, broccoli, and cauliflower can save time.
Kitchen tools include a pressure cooker to shorten cooking times, a hand blender for making fast smoothies, and a food processor for dicing, slicing, and chopping.
11. Give Up on Perfection
The most crucial thing to do is to let go of perfection. It’s simple to be harsh on ourselves when we’re busy and don’t eat “perfectly.” But eating healthily is about finding a balance and, when possible, choosing healthier options. Be gentle to yourself and acknowledge your little victories. Recall that each meal presents a fresh chance to provide your body with nutrition.
