The biggest obstacles to healthy eating most of my clients and patients report are time pressures and inconvenience. After all, who wants to cook meals every day? I sure don’t (that’s right, and I don’t!).
But your busy lifestyle doesn’t have to sabotage your healthy eating habits. Whether your eating plan is geared toward weight loss, or a therapeutic diet for a medical condition, just a little planning can go a long way.
Instead of cooking dinner every night, try batch cooking. Cook two or three different meals in large portions on, say, Sunday, so you’ll have meals and leftovers for lunch and dinner the next three days. Then batch cook again on Thursday so you’ll have enough meals for the following days. If you have more than three days’ worth of leftovers, freeze the rest. Most foods can be frozen for up to two months.
While you’re batch cooking your lunches and dinners, don’t forget breakfast! Hard boil some eggs so you can have them ready and waiting for you in the fridge. Also cook up a batch of breakfast sausage so you have some variety. And remember that breakfast food need not be just eggs or sausage or bacon. Have some leftover cold poached salmon over a bed of greens and avocado slices, or sardines or baby mackerel with some mustard, chopped onion and cucumbers, or that leftover lamb chop from dinner last night. Try a handful of nuts and seeds with a piece of fruit when you’re in a hurry. Think outside the breakfast cereal box!
If you’re extremely busy, or balk at the idea of cooking at all, you can consider a meal delivery service. Better still, if you have the resources, hire a personal chef. However, if you eat out most of the time for convenience, as long as you’re choosing good quality restaurants and not fast food, you can still make healthy choices.
Keep in mind restaurant meals are often served on platters, much bigger than our standard home dinnerware. If this is the case at your local favorite, decide that you will only eat about two-thirds of your meal and doggie bag the rest for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. Want to eat it all? Order another entrée to go and you’ve got leftovers for the next day. Easy fix!
With a little bit of planning, maintaining your healthy eating habits can be nearly effortless, not to mention delicious.
To your health!
Leyla Muedin, MS, RD, CDN
