6 Tips on Eating Healthy When Busy

My mantra as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach is to advocate quality over quantity. Let’s think of simple swaps and get things into perspective- for example baked potato with herbs and spices or French fries with cheese or mayo –I’d choose the first and white rice over brown rice- I’ll choose the latter. Simple reason is picking low calorie high nutrient dense foods makes all the difference to your health quotient. It’s a sure shot to achieving a healthy lifestyle.  This mantra is not weight centric, its optimum health centric.

Beyond the country you live, the cuisine you eat at home every day, or the place you work, we all can choose and pick right foods and experience its profound effect on our health. Processed foods are very calorie dense and nutrient depleted. So, for example a tablespoon of oil which is 100% saturated fat is about 100 calories as 3 bowls of blueberries and so should we not choose the berries and skip the oil based dressing over a salad especially when the goal is to lose weight. So that careful choices makes all the difference.

I am here to share with you some of my healthy and easy tips how you can eat healthy on a busy fast paced work and home life.

Healthy lifestyle is all about enriching your diet with Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) nutrition. Start being mindful of what you serve on your plate. Here are my 6 basic tips to make your plate worthy of each bite you feed your cells with-

  • Decluttering – many times we accumulate so many bric a brac foods like baked chips, healthy cookies which aren’t healthy after all due to their hidden sugar, salt or other harmful ingredients. Avoid unnecessary eating, it’s important to clean your pantry before your next grocery shopping. This also helps in getting rid of unwanted junk and creates space for wholesome options in your cupboard. Our kitchen needs clean sweep too once every few months.
  • Shopping Go with a planned time and a pre-written list that will save you from impromptu and impulsive buying. This also ensures you a clean, whole food planned meals for yourself and your family. 70% of the time, stick to the periphery of the supermarket and the rest 30% can be non-perishable edibles including whole grains, beans, lentils, herbs and spices. If your plate is filled with whole foods that looks colorful and diverse to the eyes then it the right plate for you.
  • Batch cooking following a balanced diet is not difficult. It may seem so in the beginning but with consistent effort and proper planning it’s easier than you may think it is.  And if you are someone who is always in a rush and find that lack of time drives you to shortcuts of packaged foods or take away meals then do batch cooking weekly, specially cook grains like millets, rice, quinoa and your favorites like lentils and store them well in air tight glass containers for later use. Not most ideal, but eating veggies should be prioritized, and if this helps then why not! Store cut up veggies nicely in an air tight sealed containers so you can assemble a curry or a salad in no time. Pre planning meal is equally helpful because it saves time and energy during the buys week.

Never go grocery shopping when hungry!

  • Make your own Rainbow As a Plant Based Nutrition consultant, I realize the importance of eating a balanced diet. Every day I aim to eat a big bowl of salad at least once which is made with a variety of seasonal veggies. The more colors you add, more nutrient dense your meal gets. I know with busy work schedules, we can easily skip the salad chopping and dressing prep. We mostly end up making a one pot meal to get over with elaborate meal hassle when running time tight. But biting into a whole carrot or cucumber if you don’t have the time is easy, right? Adding some leafy greens such as spinach or arugula to your one pot meals like rice dish, pastas, stews and curries is an easy way to incorporate some fiber into your diet. Goal is to keep your fiber intake high every day. This will enable you with a sustainable weight loss.
  • Snacking snacks can make or break your nutrition game. They are sneaky, aren’t they? Keep fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, and dry fruits displayed beautifully on your kitchen counter so when you are hungry and craving for a snack, your eyes will spot them instantly and that will give you a que to pick a healthy option. If in doubt and when you are unsure where these calories are mounting in your diet, start maintaining a food Journal. Most times writing and recording your snacks helps tracking them effectively.
  • Hydration Lastly, hydration it is! Sometimes eating is not even the need of the hour, water is! So living a healthy lifestyle also includes drinking healthy and water is the best. Make this your go to drink. So when next time you feel hungry, drink a glass of water first. Hydration is the key to good health. It helps flush the toxins out of our body, keeps good supply of oxygen to the blood and much more. I make a big jug of flavored water few times a week in order to get some variety into my water – cucumber and mint, sliced lemon, watermelon rinds, berries. And the whole family enjoys it all day.

How about trying to inculcate one of the above healthy tips in your life and let me know if it was useful in saving some of your precious time?