Eating healthy does take more time and planning than most Americans believe they have time for - but it is completely worthwhile exercise and the benefits to your body and how you feel will be paid back to you in in spades.
My job requires me to confront women everyday about the choices they are making in their lives. I really don't have to tell an educated woman in this country much about healthy eating. They know WHAT to do: Eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Choose whole-grain, avoid simple carbohydrates and over processed foods. Be physically active daily. Watch calories. Limit the unhealthy fats. Get enough calcium. Blah, blah, blah. They just have a hard time actually doing it.
We live in a world with a dizzying amount of scientific research pointing to foods and habits that make for good health. In an ideal universe, that's good news. If we exercise and eat right, we give our bodies essential nourishment and movement to work at their best.
Yet our world is far from ideal. There are responsibilities, deadlines, and food or lifestyle preferences that get in the way of healthy eating. Real life happens, and in the rush to satisfy daily hunger and desires, we may succumb to less-than-healthy choices.
It doesn't always have to be that way. No matter what our lives are like, there's always room for improvement.
Making an effort to eat healthy does not mean abandoning our lives. Find a few minutes to think about a small nutrition goal, how you think you can reach it, and what can prevent you from success. Then devise a plan.
Without this vital planning stage, all good intentions can be for naught. People need to spend just a little bit of effort planning ahead so that they just don't wait until the last minute until they're ravenously hungry and then make poor choices. You might think preparing for a healthy diet takes a lot more effort than it really does.
Demands of work, family, and community can keep people from preparing for healthy meals. This is true for workaholics, supermoms and dads, overachievers, frequent travelers, and a host of other people trying to beat the clock. Because of their lack of time, these folks often turn to quick-fix foods that are high in fat, sugar, sodium, or calories, and low in essential nutrients.
The solution isn't to find more time, but to work with the schedule you do have. The minutes spent perusing fast-food or vending machine options could be used toward time to visit the grocery store, where you can pick up prepared salads, sandwiches, and meats, pre-washed and cut fruits and vegetables, yogurt, string cheese, and whole grains.
There may be a bit more effort involved in shopping at the supermarket, but wasteful hours of worry about flab and low energy do tend to go away with healthy eating. With well-balanced meals, we usually feel more positive about ourselves and our surroundings.
Here are some more healthy tips for busy bees:
- Cook a bigger batch of food on the weekends, and refrigerate or freeze for weekday consumption.
- Try not to do anything else while eating. Mindless consumption prevents the enjoyment of food. When that happens, people tend to eat more and eat unhealthy alternatives.
- Put fresh or dried fruit where you can see it to remind yourself of your goal to eat healthy. Bananas, grapes, and apples make handy and nutritious snack items.
- If at a restaurant, turn down the supersize option, and choose baked and broiled instead of fried.
- Order the lunch portion at dinnertime, and hold off on fatty condiments.
- Keep handy snacks around, such as fruits, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, trail mix, carrot or celery sticks, wraps, and sandwiches.
And never ever give up. If you fall off the healthy wagon, just get right back on the next day.
Um. Wow.
