It can be hard to maintain a healthy diet when life gets busy. Sometimes it seems almost impossible to find time to prepare healthy meals amongst the daily blur. With a bit of organisation and a few sneaky tricks, you can enjoy clean eating without sacrificing too much time.
Get Organised
Take a minute to get serious about planning your healthy eating, and it’ll pay off. Make a weekly plan so you can see what meals you’ll need and be realistic about what time you have. Remember that you’ll want to snack. Never go to the shops without a shopping list, so you don’t impulse buy sugary treats that will be too tempting once in the house.
Prepare and Freeze
Once you’ve got your week all scheduled out, you can plan your meals and make your shopping list from that. Choose meals that you know you’ll like and that will freeze well. Plan to have a cooking day and prepare them all at once. Think meals like spaghetti Bolognese, quiche, soups and casseroles. Then during the week you can simply reheat your dinner when you are tiredly staggering in the door from work.
Meal Plans
Another option to preparing all your meals at once is to sign up to a healthy meal plan service, such as fivepointfour, and let them do the hard work for you. Check if these services deliver to your area and get the diet tailor-made to your needs. This will remove the temptation for unhealthy snacks and take-away lunches or dinners, as a ready-made meal will be waiting for you at home.
Keep Salad on Hand
Preparing a salad is quick and easy if you keep fresh produce on hand. Suss out a good local market and make the time to pick up quality, fresh vegetables and fruit each week. Make sure you have the ingredients for a basic garden salad: carrots, cucumber, lettuce, tomato and celery. If you do, you’ll be able to throw a simple salad together for lunch or as a side for dinner. If creating a salad feels like too much work after a particularly long day, keep steam fresh vegetables stocked in your freezer, and you’ll just have to microwave a packet.
Fresh Juices
It may initially seem like a lot of effort to create fresh juices for yourself, but if you have fruit in the house already it really doesn’t take long to put a quick combination in the juicer. Fresh juices are an easy way to get your recommended two fruit a day intake and keep you healthy and feeling fantastic. A good recipe to start with simply includes apples, carrot, lemon and ginger. This easy juice is great for detoxing and an excellent start to a morning, especially after a big night out.
What do you think of these preparation hacks for maintaining a healthy, clean diet? Do you have any tips for quickly whipping up a healthy meal? Share in the comments below and keep scrolling for more suggestions from others looking to sustain a healthy and busy lifestyle.
