When you search for ways to eat healthier, the articles on the internet commonly recommended cooking your own meals. But if you don’t even have time to search your fridge for ingredients, cooking becomes a chore, and therefore another bothersome task to add to your to-do list.
The working culture has made us too busy to cook, and yet, the media makes us feel bad for not being healthier. The pandemic made the guilt-tripping worse because it turned out that what we eat defines how strong or weak our immune systems are. Eat fast food take-out every day, and our bodies would be more prone to disease. But what if those are the only meals you can eat because you don’t have time to cook?
It’s high time we stop expecting people to be superhumans all the time, multitasking every day like it’s nothing. In reality, many individuals would love to eat healthier but are just too busy to start. If this situation applies to you, you’re not hopeless at all. Below are the hacks to eating healthier when you don’t have time:
1. Reject Diet Fads
If you’ve been trying to lose weight for a while now, chances are you also fell for the diet fads popularized by the internet. There was the keto diet, intermittent fasting, paleo diet, and more. While those diets are safe, they’re not for everybody. A one-size-fits-all diet doesn’t exist.
Rejecting diet fads will help you better control your eating habits and improve your relationship with food. It will stop you from depriving yourself or from beating yourself up for not meeting your goals. Instead, you can focus on what you can eat rather than the foods you should avoid. That control can help you embrace more diverse food choices. Whether that’s a healthy take-out or a quick salad recipe, you’ll eat guilt-free.
2. Focus on Better Fast Food Choices
Fast food meals aren’t all unhealthy. Just avoid greasy and high-cholesterol picks like fatty cheeseburgers, French fries, onion rings, chicken strips, or nuggets. Instead, narrow your options to grilled skinless chicken (preferably breast), low-calorie sides and toppings, and low-fat to fat-free drinks (water, unsweetened tea, or low-fat milk). Mind your portion sizes and order the smallest sizes, but make sure that you will feel sated after eating.
3. Stock Up on Frozen Pre-cooked Meals
Popular online sources like eatsimplefoods.co.uk offer frozen pre-cooked meals for busy people who’d love to eat healthily. Just order your desired recipes from the website, wait for them to arrive at your doorstep, and heat them in the microwave or a pot of boiling water. No need to use the stove!
Frozen food is a good choice because they retain their vitamins and minerals. Their protein, fat, and carbohydrate contents also stay the same even with time. In fact, in some cases, frozen food can healthier than fresh food because the latter loses vitamins and minerals over time.
In addition, frozen food can make up for limited kitchen spaces. Since you pop them into the microwave, you won’t have to move around selecting cookware and cleaning them up afterward. You can prepare your lunch or dinner in minutes and go back to work in minutes as well.
4. Stay Hydrated
Drinking at least eight glasses of water every day can make a significant difference in your health. If you can’t commit to a healthier diet, at least stay hydrated at all times. Doing so will lead to more energy, better skin, and possibly weight loss.
5. Take Probiotics
Clearing your gut of toxins and other impurities can also improve your health dramatically. So instead of finishing your meals with a sugary dessert, take yogurt or any probiotic drink or supplement. As your body flushes out all the bad stuff it has deposited over the years, your immune system will improve, and you may also feel less bloated.
6. Don’t Skip Meals
Eating doesn’t make you fat. Bad food does. So the key to living healthier is eating enough throughout the day but making smart food choices. Skipping meals only drains out your energy, making you less alert and moody. Not to mention potentially lead you to an eating disorder.
All in all, eating healthier starts with a better relationship with food. By letting go of your attachment to junk food and welcoming whole foods into your diet, you’d naturally improve your lifestyle without trying hard. So be patient, and don’t force yourself to eat what you don’t like. Take baby steps, and in time, making healthy food choices will become second nature to you.
