A Busy Woman’s Guide to Making Healthy Meals
For years, I told myself that I was too busy to plan meals, too, especially after having children and trying to balance work and home chores. How many times did I zip through a fast food restaurant at my lunch hour because I didn’t take the time to pack a nutritious lunch? I shudder to think!
Whether you’re working 12-hour nursing shifts or stopping in every day to check on an elderly parent, working two jobs to put yourself through school, taking care of young children, or doing farm chores – the truth of the matter is we’re ALL busy. But our health is far too important to let busyness get in the way of eating healthy! So I finally found a way to keep up healthy eating habits despite my busy lifestyle and I’m sharing all of my best tips with you today.
Don’t have time to read it right now? Pin it for later.
Planning Ahead
Start by setting aside a dedicated time for meal planning, maybe Sunday evenings after the kids have gone to bed? Or Monday morning before anyone else is awake? Even with a packed schedule, allocating just a few minutes each week to determine what you’re going to eat for each meal can make a world of difference.
Browse Pinterest or ask friends for their favorite recipes that are quick and easy to prepare, and create an index that you can reference back to each week during your meal planning. Then, create a shopping list to ensure you have all the necessary ingredients on hand. If you don’t mind leftovers, making extra food for dinner is a great way to prep for a quick lunch the next day.
By knowing exactly what you’re eating for each meal, you'll be less likely to resort to unhealthy fast food options when hunger strikes.
Choosing Fast and Nutritious Meals
Now that you’ve taken the time to prepare and plan ahead, let’s talk about the actual food choices - here are some of the best ways to save time and set yourself up for success when shopping and preparing your meals:
Simplify meal prep by purchasing pre-cut vegetables from your local grocery store. This takes the chopping and slicing off your to-do list, making it easier to incorporate vegetables into your meals.
Take advantage of the weekends to prepare your week's meals in advance and store them in the freezer. This not only saves you time during the week but also ensures you have balanced, home-cooked options ready in a fraction of the time.
Revamp your pantry by replacing sugary cookies and chips with healthy alternatives like nuts and other high-protein snacks, which will sustain energy and keep you full longer.
Arrange fresh fruits and vegetables at the front of your fridge. That way, when you open the door to choose a snack, these options are the first things you'll see, making it more likely that you'll choose them.
Setting Boundaries With Yourself
Arguably the most important part in learning to eat healthy despite a busy schedule is self-discipline. I can offer all the tips in the world to help you save time and plan for success but ultimately it all comes down to you making a decision to follow through.
Begin each week, maybe even each day, by recommitting to yourself that you will make time to honor your health goals and boundaries, and do everything you can to to prepare for the time when you inevitably feel tempted to abandon your plan and splurge on an unhealthy snack.
One helpful tip when it comes to establishing healthy eating boundaries is to let your coworkers and friends know that you’re trying to make healthier eating choices. By communicating that with your friends and family, they can help keep you accountable and reduce temptations (like asking you to go out for lunch everyday at the office.) Establishing regular meal times and sticking to them is also a great way to stick to your boundaries. By having specific meal times, perhaps even setting them in your calendar, you can practice more mindful eating and fuel your body before you get “hangry.”
Eating Healthy When Dining Out
Making healthy meal choices doesn’t mean you can never go out to eat. The goal is simply to limit the number of times you make an unhealthy food decision that you’ll later regret because of your busy schedule. That being said, there are a few tips and tricks to making healthy eating choices when going out to eat, like opting for dishes with plenty of vegetables and lean proteins, and requesting dressings and sauces on the side. For a full guide on eating healthy while dining out, check out this blog post.
In case this is the first time we’re connecting, I’m Jill, an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and leader inspiring other women to live out their God given purpose by helping them overcome physical, mental, and financial hardships. If you liked this blog post and want more where that came from, here are a few ways we can work together:
Improve your health and lose weight with Zallevo products, the purely sourced supplements that helped me finally experience my own health transformation.
Pursue a work from home income opportunity surrounded by other servant leaders. I’ll coach you on how to grow a wildly successful 1099 business sharing health & wellness products that actually work.
Learn how to overcome food addiction, improve your health, energy, and confidence, and master your mindset through one of my self paced courses.
