Fitting Healthy Meals into Your Busy Schedule

A common excuse I hear for people not sticking to healthy eating is lack of time. Since your health should be one of your top priorities (besides looking out for yourself, you can't take care of your family if you are in poor health!), it's important to find ways to eat nutritious meals.

Food can fuel your body in a  positive way—giving you energy and helping to fight off disease & inflammation, amongst other good things.  It can also make you feel sluggish, bloated, give you diabetes & clog up your arteries, amongst other very bad things.

Hopefully you're convinced now that you & your family should be eating healthy meals. But, you might be struggling with how to manage your busy schedule and find time to grocery shop, prepare and cook meals for one person, much less a family.

Here are a few ways to help:

1) Block off time at the beginning of the week—maybe Sunday evening—when you prepare ingredients & maybe even whole meals for the week.

• Chop vegetables & save in baggies/tupperware.
• Cook large portions of food that you can use over a few days.
• Grilled chicken is a great example of something you can cook in advance & use in multiple recipes (throw in salads & wraps; have as an entree with a side of veggies).
• I make a large serving bowl of quinoa with vegetables and eat it over the week (you can throw meat into it if you like). It couldn't be easier to make.

2) To save even more time, you can buy some things already chopped, mixed & cooked (I'm not talking about a pre-made foods or frozen dinners that have lots of preservatives! Stick to whole, healthy, unpreserved foods.) You'll pay extra for it, but it'll save you time, so you might decide it's worth it:

• Pre-cooked grilled chicken
• Pre-mixed greens (Trader Joe's has a great one called Cruciferous Crunch Collection. They also have some great prepared salads that aren't too expensive & last a couple of days in the frig.)
• Pre-chopped vegetables
• Cut-up fruit

3) Use a crock pot. Throw a bunch of ingredients in it in the morning; come home at night & your dinner is ready!

4) Shakeology—my favorite, easiest, healthiest meal. For those of you already drinking it, you've experienced its many benefits, but at the very least, it only takes about two minutes to prepare.

Use these ideas to help you do something great for yourself & your family—eat well! You deserve it!