Healthy Eating Hacks for Busy Women
Out the door by 7, working through your lunch break, running errands after school, and then hustle to get your kids to practice. Sounds like a pretty typical day for a teacher. With everything you have to fit into a day, how in the world are you supposed to fit in time to plan and prepare healthy meals?
Want easy, healthy breakfast ideas? Check out my 10 Healthy Breakfast Ideas.
If you are like me, healthy eating is something you know you need to do but it is hard to find a way to fit it in. Or maybe you have tried to eat healthy but you can’t stick with it because it is too complicated or you have eliminated every single food that brings you joy (only to end up eating unlimited amounts of it once the weekend rolls around).
After a lot of trial and error, I have finally found a way to make healthy eating stick long term. I am not perfect with what I eat but overall I eat healthy. The biggest thing that had to change for me was changing my mindset. I changed my thinking about healthy eating. I went from thinking that eating healthy was boring and was a punishment to thinking that eating healthy is a privilege. Plus, once I learned how much better I feel when I ate healthy, I had no patience for eating foods that make me feel terrible.
Learn more about finding joy in living a healthy life here!
3 tips for eating healthy long term
- Make a plan. You have to have a healthy eating plan. If you are just winging it, you will wind up skipping breakfast, having two pieces of candy for lunch, and stealing a chicken nugget off of your kid’s plate at dinner only to find yourself binge eating every single piece of junk food you can get your hands on at 9:00pm. This takes some trial and error to find out what foods you should eat more of and which ones you should limit. It also requires you to be realistic with the amount of time you have in a day to devote to meal planning and meal prep. Want more meal planning inspiration? Sign up for my email list and I will send you my FREE meal planning guide! Get it here.
- Be sure your meal plan is realistic. Maybe someday when my kids are out of the house and I am retired, I will turn into a Martha Stewart and make beautiful, elaborate meals. But for this busy season of life, I need my meals to be fast and easy. I will not spend more than 30 minutes preparing a meal. If someone shares a recipe with me and it contains 14 ingredients, I will absolutely not make it. I also have two kids who are really picky eaters. As much as I would like to say they will eat the delicious salmon salad I like to eat a couple of times a month, that is a big fat lie. I am okay with my family and I sometimes eating different meals.
- Make sure you are eating enough and that you are not over restricting what you eat. Cutting out entire food groups, eating 1,200 calories a day, skipping meals. Not only do these habits make you miserable, they also end up backfiring. The more you tell yourself you can’t have something, the more you want it. I know first hand. I tried giving up sugar for an entire year and it only made me want it more. Read about it here. Instead of focusing on all the things you should be eliminating, try shifting your attention to what you need to add to your diet. If you are eating a ton of vegetables and at least 100 grams of protein a day, you are not going to have much room for junk in your diet.
With a little planning and effort, you can completely change your eating habits. It won’t be easy but I promise it is worth it.
Links:
Join my Healthy, Happy Teachers Facebook Group
Get Wellness Inspiration sent straight to your inbox- sign up for my weekly newsletter
Clean Beauty from Beautycounter
