Here’s a guest post from blogger Vanessa Morley, who is a registered dietetic technician and contributes to Everyday Health and its healthy living, nutrition and calorie counter tools. Her three quick tips are perfectly aligned with the Wise Well Woman’s 12 Baby Steps coaching philosophy.
Eating healthy may be the last thing on your mind, while you are busy with work, keeping up with your family’s schedule, and making sure there’s dinner on the table every night, but there is hope to keeping healthy in your vocabulary. Here are 3 tips to help you make sure you and your family are staying healthy while living life on the go.
1. Planning is Key
Before the week starts, make sure you plan your meals accordingly; this includes breakfasts and lunches. Make sure to take into account how much time you’ll have each night to spend making dinner; if leftovers are a better fit for your family, make healthy meals in bulk on Sunday, so that your family can pick and choose what to heat up when they want a bite to eat. Planning also will encourage you to buy less at the grocery store, if you have a set list of things to buy, it will make it less tempting to buy a few bags of chips or boxes of cookies.
2. Small Changes Can Mean Big Impact
If your family isn’t one to eat healthy right now, your best bet is to make small but significant changes. This could include changing white bread to 100% whole wheat, drinking soda every day to only once in a while and switching some snack foods to fruits or vegetables and dip. These small changes can make a big impact on the health of your family while getting them prepared to make even more healthy changes in the future.
3. Always Be Prepared
If you know that you won’t be home until later in the evening and there’s a possibility you’ll stop for a snack, then prepare to pack a healthy snack instead. There are many healthy snacks that are travel-friendly including roasted nuts, popcorn, fruit, whole wheat crackers and cheese, vegetables and dip, hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter and many more! These healthy snacks can detour you away from driving through the drive-thru and making an unhealthy choice while keeping you on the right, healthy path!
All in all, making sure you make as many healthy decisions that you can throughout the day will help, even if it’s just switching the type of bread you use. Try not to overwhelm yourself with too many changes at once; soon eating healthy on the go will become a part of your everyday routine!
Stay Healthy!
Vanessa