Most of us have experienced how difficult it is to combine healthy eating habits with a busy everyday life. Here you get five simple tricks that make it easier to stick to your habits even when family, exercise, and household chores require a lot of your time.
1. Buy healthy ingredients
Refill your pantry every time you shop with good foods that you already know can turn into a healthy meal when the time is short. Good and healthy ingredients to have at home are eggs, cottage cheese, quiver, crispbread, mackerel in tomato sauce, frozen berries and vegetables (spinach, wok vegetables, green peas for example), onions, frozen chicken/salmon / Quorn, oatmeal, rice, nuts, bananas, lentils, and crushed tomatoes.
2. Eat less varied
Well, you heard right … You don’t have to eat different breakfasts every day or cook new, exciting dinners every night, especially if you’re in an extra stressful period. Choose some dishes that you like and that are quick and easy for you to cook and allow them to rotate. It’s totally okay!
This saves time during both the shopping and the cooking. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to cook when you’re in the store after work and are hungry. In these situations, it may be good to have some simple and fast dishes as a note on your mobile, preferably along with a completed shopping list.
3. Make food boxes
Cooking a lot of food and having ready-made food boxes is really the best thing to do for those times when you are in a hurry and strapped for time. For example, set aside a couple of hours each Sunday to shop, cook, and prepare food boxes for the coming week, or fill the freezer with food boxes so you are well prepared for a possible week of chaos. Maybe a little boring there and then but it will save you time in the long run and most importantly help you eat healthier. However, turning upside down on the entire kitchen and cooking five different dishes is not necessary but rather investing in making many servings of one or two dishes.
4. Prepare as much as you can
It is easier to choose a healthier alternative to breakfast or snack if it is already ready-made in the fridge. For example, you can prepare:
- Boiled eggs
Draw a cross on the boiled eggs to keep them apart from the uncooked. To keep track of how many days they have been cooked, you can draw a new tick each day. Boiled eggs stay in the fridge for 5-7 days.
- Smoothie
Set the whole mixer cup with the lid on in the refrigerator and serve only when you get hungry. A good smoothie is also perfect to take on the go in a shaker, small thermos, or take away mug. In the fridge, the smoothie lasts 2-3 days.
- Chia pudding or overnight oats
Prepare several servings of chia pudding or why not overnight oats in individual small boxes or jars, then just prepare one serving at a time. These can be infinitely varied with different types of seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, and spices. If you are going to bring your pudding or porridge, you can top with frozen berries before leaving home and it will stay fresh longer.
5. Find healthy solutions when you are hungry
When you have a crisis, you are stressed, hungry, and short on time, there is a risk that you will choose something you really want to avoid, such as snacks. The following alternatives are healthy and provide good energy:
- Salad. You choose what you want in it and it goes at least as fast as going and buying a pizza.
- Finished soup from the fridge (preferably with as few additives as possible). Complement with a sandwich with cottage cheese or an egg.
- Omelet on leftovers from the fridge is an incredibly quick and easy lunch or dinner. Crack 2-3 eggs with a little milk, salt, and pepper, and fry on medium heat. Put remaining ham, potatoes, cheese, vegetables, or onions and bake completely. Quick, good, and easy.