1. Time can be invested
Being time-poor is the most common reason people find healthy eating difficult. So what can you do? You can invest your time.
We all have the same amount of time. However, we all have different obligations, priorities, and commitments to juggle within that time. So, be realistic with what you can invest.
Investing time is about using some free time in your week, whenever you can find it (you might need to be creative), thinking about your meals in advance, and planning for your busy week. See it as an investment that pays you time dividends later.
2. Meal planning
Planning your meals is critical to helping you meet your nutritional needs and consistently eat well.
It is simply thinking about what you will eat in advance and making a plan.
This plan then allows you to purchase the food you need, stock your kitchen, and ensure you’ve got food available when you need it.
This meal plan needs to serve you. So think about your week ahead and plan meals and snacks around your commitments and events so that finding something to eat is easy! This is where you invest your time.
3. Prioritise food prep
Important things are prioritised, and what’s important changes throughout the week. And that’s okay. So make accommodations for that.
Prioritise meals when you can. Book them in. Pop them in your calendar or diary.
For when you can’t prioritise it, find solutions: If you can prioritise time to cook dinner on one night of the week, can you cook double so that you’ve got something handy on the busy night?
Can you plan a takeaway or convenience meal that you feel ticks your nutritional boxes for a busy night?
4. Embrace leftovers
Leftovers are a key part of eating well without excessive amounts of effort!
Cook once, eat twice! If you can build this concept into your meal plan you’ll give yourself a break from having to cook or prepare food at every meal and still have something yummy to eat!
Leftover dinners can be lunch the next day! Or dinner the next evening. Or leftover ingredients are easy additions to another meal. Skies the limit!
5. Bulk cooking
Another time investment is cooking up batches of meals with 4, 6 or 8 serves, popping them into containers and storing them in the fridge or freezer for easy meals in the week ahead.
You might spend an hour on the weekend cooking these meals, but when lunch time rolls around on a day with back-to-back work meetings, all you have to do is pop your container of food in the microwave. Time dividend!
If you need help with meal planning our mobile app can help!
