Healthy Eating On a Busy Schedule

If yours is an “on the go” lifestyle, perhaps you’ve skipped the occasional meal or felt that you didn’t have time to eat. If your goal is to change your physique, increase your energy level, and maintain health, missing meals is not a good idea. To keep your metabolism running in high gear, eating 4-6 times per day is a must.

In this article, you will find some helpful tips on staying well nourished, metabolically efficient, and energized throughout the day. Begin incorporating the idea of cooking in bulk, preparing your food ahead of time, and having healthy snacks handy when you are “on the go”.

Cooking in Bulk

Cooking large quantities of food once or twice a week saves time and makes meal preparation easy.

1. Cook large amounts of lean animal protein to refrigerate or freeze. Use zip-lock freezer bags for storage.

2. Hard boil your eggs ahead of time and refrigerate them. This is a quick way to get your protein in.

3. Cut your veggies up, rinse and store in a crisper. When you’re ready for a salad, it is right there, ready to eat.

4. Use canned legumes (kidney beans, black beans, corn). Rinse and re-heat in the microwave vs. preparing them from scratch.

5. When using a cookbook like the "Lean for Life Cookbook", make enough for two, four, or even six meals. Many of these meals can be frozen and used later.

6. When preparing your food, begin cooking the items that take the most amount of time first and finish with the easiest items, last. (i.e.: I bake a large salmon filet in the oven for 40 minutes, set the rice cooker at 20 minutes next, and finish off with cutting up my veggies for either a salad or to be nuked).

Freezer Tips

Your freezer is your best friend when it comes to food preparation, convenience, time saving, money saving and great tasting meals.

1. Prepare fresh food for freezing as soon as possible after buying it.

2. Allow cooked foods to cool to room temperature before freezing.

3. To increase the longevity of your frozen foods, use zip-lock freezer bags and make sure you have taken all the air out.

4. Learn to recognize “freezer burn”. Some foods change color or fade, gray and white spots appear on food or the edges get dry, and vegetables will become limp when cooked.

5. Never re-freeze food that has been completely thawed. If food has been previously frozen, cook it before freezing it.

6. Undercook food slightly if you are planning to freeze them. Over-cooking can occur during re-heating.

Healthy Snacks “On the Go”

If you are traveling on business or are simply on the road a lot, buy the following items: a vinyl food bag, a refreezable ice bag, and some plastic containers & cutlery.

These are some easy items to add to your “feed bag”.

1. Cans of water-packed tuna, turkey, or chicken.

2. Bran muffins or rice cakes in sealed sandwich bags.

3. Healthy bars: Cliff Bars, Boulder Bars, or “The Perfect Food” bar.

4. Any meal you may have prepared and frozen in a plastic container. All that you need to do is find a microwave.

5. Packets of instant oatmeal.

6. Canned protein shakes.

7. Cut up veggies and whole fruit.

8. Hard-boiled eggs.

9. Corn tortillas wrapped around chicken tenders with salsa.

10. Low-fat cheese, individually wrapped.

Even though many of us chose to live a busy lifestyle, eating regularly is also a choice. When I hear people say, “I don’t have time to eat”, I hear them saying that they are not choosing to make the time to eat. Food is one of the highest forms of self-care! Make the choice to care for yourself!