Eating Healthy On A Busy Schedule
The other day I met someone who really wanted to start eating healthy, but there was something he said was standing in his way – his busy schedule. Here is how I helped him out.
Eating Healthy On The Go
He didn’t have time to eat breakfast, and he only had time for 2 meals a day. I talked to him for a while and gave him some tips on how he can work around his schedule and still make time to eat healthy foods. He was surprised how easy it was, and I was surprised how he didn’t’ know that before.
I didn’t realize there are a lot of people who just don’t’ know how to eat healthy with their busy schedules, this is what inspired me to write about it. These things are very simple to do and, believe me, even if you are the busiest person on this planet you can still follow this plan.
Breakfast
Make homemade oatmeal packs. Sometimes when you don’t have a chance to have breakfast, homemade oatmeal packs are perfect quick breakfast you can grab on the go. You can make up to 10 and stock up on them in your refrigerator. ( Always use regular old-fashioned oats, NOT instant oatmeal ). Just heat up some water with a little unsweetened almond milk, place your oatmeal pack in a to go cup, pour the hot water over it and, cover and let it stand while you’re getting ready.
Simply combine the following in plastic baggies:
- A cup of old-fashioned oats
- Organic raisins
- A scoop of protein powder
You can also get more creative and add dried apricots or any other kind of dried fruit ( make sure you buy the one without any sugar added ).
Lunch & Snacks
When going grocery shopping buy the following foods; these are things you will take with you for lunch as well as use for snacks:
- Whole Chicken
I’ve never told this to anyone, but I eat a whole chicken every day ( yes, by myself ). It is very easy to bake it, it’s a great source of protein and very inexpensive.
Chicken: inexpensive and lots of protein
I always buy in bulk and make one before I go to bed, so I have a whole fresh chicken ready for me the next day.
- Organic Eggs
Eggs are a great source of protein and it is also very easy to prepare them. I boil 12 or more at a time and keep them in my refrigerator. They are always ready when I am.
- Fresh Cut Lunch Meat
Don’t buy pre packaged lunch meat, fresh-cut lunch meat is much better choice, because it has non or less preservatives. It is perfect when you are on the go.
- Whey Isolate Protein Shake
You can buy any brand that doesn’t contain artificial sweeteners, just as long as it’s whey isolate protein shake. I love to make these for breakfast and I also add 2 whole eggs to it, this way you get some whole food in your shake as well. Whey Isolate is digested very easily by the body and is considered a better protein source then red meat.
- Spinach
If you don’t like the taste of spinach and you hate vegetables all together, no worries here. You won’t even notice spinach when you add it to your protein shake and throw a banana in there.
Seriously, try spinach shakes
This is a great way to get your daily vegetables without cooking them. Cooking kills all the nutrients in your veggies, so eat your spinach raw. You seriously have nothing to lose, you won’t taste the spinach in your shake but you will get all the nutrients of it.
- Almonds
You’ve probably heard this before, but almonds do have the most protein out of all the nuts. If you don’t like almonds, next up on your list can be walnuts. Nuts have healthy fats and they will give you that full feeling.
- Bananas
Buy them in bulk, they are a great source of carbohydrates on the go.
- Dried Apricots
Dried Apricots are low-glycemic and if you get the right kind they wont’ even contain any preservatives. This is also another great snack when you are running late.
- Apples
I always buy apples because as they are delicious and the I also agree with the saying “an apple a day will keep the doctor away “. I actually have 3 or 4 apples a day to keep that doctor away even further ;).
Dinner
Prepare your meals on your day off. I totally understand that on the day you are off, you might not want to be slaving by the stove playing Martha Stewart, so pick foods that are quick and easy to make. Place them in containers and freeze them. Before going to work, take the containers out of the freezer to unfreeze. Whey you get back home, it’s already waiting for you – just throw it onto the heating pan and you are good to go.
It’s All in The Planning
As you can see it is possible to eat healthy on a busy schedule, you just have to make time for your self and put a little thought in to it. When we eat healthy we actually have more energy to get more work done and even your boss might start wondering, what is your secret to all this new energy you suddenly developed.
Pictures courtesy of Alejandro Mallea, “TriAthleteFood” and Hector Alejandro.
20 Comments
Hello,
Are you recommending ORGANIC eggs because of nutrition or because of moral reasons?
I am recommending organic eggs because of several reasons. First they taste better, much better. If you eat them all the time you will be able to tell the difference between organic eggs an non organic eggs. Second, their nutritional value is fuller because the chickens were fed the food they are suppose to eat. When we buy eggs that were raised the conventional way, we are buying eggs from chickens that were raised in the dark spaces on hormones and antibiotics, which is going in their eggs. Most of these chickens get sick, and imagine you are eating eggs from them. Just think about it.
I know these things because I watch documentaries that were filmed undercover in chicken barns, and after I saw how those eggs were made I just could’t think that I can be eating this.
And then the third reason, is simply ethical. After you know the truth, it just makes more sense.
At least what makes a slight nutritional difference is diet – grass-fed ftw. I’m probably exaggerating (or the farmer I buy from is just a good brand), but the yolk seems to taste less bland and sweeter than the “multigrain” fed hens.
organic eggs don’t mean that you can’t feed your chicken with grains or that you have to feed your chicken any grass at all as far as I know.
Yes, it does taste different you are completely correct.
Everytime someone eats a RAW egg, a kitty dies from salmonelosis. If you think that eating organic eggs keeps you on the safe side, well you are just damn WRONG.
As for the the difference nutritional value… Let’s say it’s much smaller than the difference in the wallet. I just can’t stand the whole organic fad anymore. Nor the idiocity of the term, that is. Anorganic apples anyone?
It seems that when someone buys organic eggs, the imagine those athletic hens sprinting around in the fields hunting worm. So damn WRONG. In 99% of the cases “organic hens” have exactly the same living conditions as the “anorganic” ones. Except the food. And organic doesn’t mean better. Especially if we talk about grains. Organic grains are prone to development of molds and let’s say I wouldn’t be that sure they feed the hens with top notch stuff. So let’s suppose that pesticide residues make a black hole in your aura, there’s a far greater chance that the afla-, ocra- etc. toxins from the molds will give you liver cancer.
Give me a serving of anorganic eggs, would ya. Fully cooked plese.
Rant over.
I recommend you watch a documentary “Food Inc”, it will show you exactly how these conventional chickens are raised. Just a few years ago FDA had laws that prevented farmers from letting film crews film the condition of the animals. After they couldn’t fight it any more and many farmers started to come clean because they wanted people to know the truth, and these were some of the first documentaries made. After watching that documentary, I cannot ever go back to eating conventional eggs, I’d rather starve.
And I recommend to read some scientific research and stop believing just about anything you see on youtube and believe in broscience in general.
The Youtube only has the preview of the movie. It is a documentary called ” Food Inc “, which you have to rent.
Plus, as I already said, organic has nothing to do with the living conditions of the animals. Saddly. Even if it says free range it only means they are not in cages, it doesn’t necessarily mean they see the sun or eat a grass in their whole life. BTW, EU puts a ban on battery faming next year. One good thing.
It’s not only the pesticides you have to worry about with normal eggs, it’s also antibiotics and other medications Sometimes even the eggs themselves are injected with antibiotics:
http://www.miller-mccune.com/health/playing-chicken-with-antibiotic-resistance-3533/
Wow, I didn’t even know about that. I’m glad I’ve stopped eating conventional eggs a long time ago.
Well, USA are more or lesst the only place in the world where they do that and I guess they won’t do it much longer. Same goes with injecting beef with hormones to get more milk and antibiotics to make them grow faster. Yet you get to read the hormone bullshit in just any European health magazine. Go figure.
Actually they do that in Russia as well.
Well, I wanted to say western world. I prefer not to imagine what they do with their animals in China etc.
Just one more thing and I quit this useless discussion. I’ve been working (indirectly – sorry, too long to explain) for years in the field of agronomy and I can assure you that is a an extremely dirty business and the organic farming is just the pinnacle of the scum. If it were for me I would ban the idiotic label. I fidn it offensive on so many levels:
a) As a consumer.
They make this false generalising claims like organic food is automatically better, which is not (see grains above, but it is not exactly the only example). Plus fraud is extremelly common. Just recently they found out that the most popular Italian brand of organic food sells 1/3 of anorganic food. Produced in China. No joking. And it just hurts me when I see organic kiwis, persimmon or figs that cost the double than the regular ones. You practically don’t need chemistry to raise those in the first place!
b) As an environmentalist
It is difficult to find anything more delleterious for the environment than organic vineyards. They skip the common pesticides, but they use copper compounds. You know what copper is? A heavy metal. And while pesticides hava a cadence of a week or so, copper stays there forever and basically kills the soil in the long term. No way back. Ever wondered why coins are made of copper or contain a significant amount of it? It is antibacterial. And , yes of course, since local anorganic food is toxic we buy organic food that comes from the other side of the world. Especially supercrap magic food like acai, chia, goji and so on.
b) As a person who knows a thing or two about economy
Organic food costs me too much even if I don’t buy it. Besides the doubled price at the supermarket, organic farments receive an indecent amount of subventions. A regular cow receive more subvention money a day than a regular African poor earns a day. The organic one is therefore likely to receive a family/small village worth sum. You think organic farmers do it for the sake of the environment? Think again.
d) As a scientist
Don’t let me started…
So, just go on and enjoy the melodies. After all “the sole purpose of the sheep is to be trimmed”, as they say.
Band3, copper has been banned from organic farming in the EU since 2002.
I read that organic food costs 15% more to grow but the supermarkets charge 45% more because it is a premium product – it is the supermarkets who are ripping people off.
I am sceptical that organic vegetables have any better taste or nutritional value, but for me organic farming is better for the environment – intensive farming is destroying the land.
Organic animal husbandry (in the EU at least) has much better animal welfare standards, and that is enough for me to buy it. Organic farming also has stricter standards on what the animals can be fed. I would be worried about growth hormone contamination in the US, although thankfully this is banned in the EU.
Personally to me I can completely tell the difference between organic produce and non organic. I don’t eat breakfast at restaurants because I can taste the difference in eggs, they have a weird flavor to me. Same goes for veggies and most fruit. Organic apples are so different in taste, but I also tried non organic apples that tasted the same.
As far as meat and chicken goes, to me it’s organic all the way, the taste is in the pudding 🙂 or in this case it’s in the meat. Strangely I can also smell the difference between organic meat and the conventional, but I think I just have a very sensitive sense of smell.
Tatianna, what I mean is that organic vegetables don’t taste better because they are organically grown, they taste better because they are a premium product. It is perfectly possible to grow non-organic vegetables that taste good – it is down to growing methods and storage. It is the intensive growing and storage methods that make the vegetables taste so bland, not whether artificial fertilizers have been used. For example. non-organic tomatoes tend to be intensively grown under lights, often hydroponically, giving huge yields but horrible, bland fruit. The organic tomatoes are a premium product and ripened on the vine, and is is this that makes them taste better – you can do just the same thing with non-organic tomatoes and they taste fine. Some supermarket apples have been in cold storage for a year before they reach the shelves – no wonder they taste so bland.
I agree that organic eggs, milk and meat taste better.
The biggest difference I have noticed is between farmed salmon and wild salmon. Even organic farmed salmon tastes nothing like wild salmon.
Whoa, I’m back. Sorry,I just found this discussion too irritating and juicy to quit.
Copper is not only still in use, it is also the stapple. Just checked the local Agriculture and Forestry Institute guidelines for organic farmers for 2011 – yep still there. Can’t find the EU regulation, but I found this short recap from 2009 -> http://www.ecpa.eu/news-item/agriculture-today/pesticides-used-organic-farming
Agree on the welfare standards concerning cattle, as for the chicken, “free-range” regular chicken breeding more or less equals organic chicken breeding regarding living conditions. I read somewhere (a long time ago) about that problem. Basically you can’t keep more than 100 animals really free-range (that means outside), because they start to behave in a weird way or something like that. And 100 chicks is NOTHING.
I cant say anything about the hormones, since I never interested myself in the problematic nor tasted the “hormonised” meat, but I think it is more an ethical than a health issue. People obviously don’t realize that meat is stuffed with hormones anyway (natural or not) and that said hormones would have to be administred intrvenously to really do anything. Ingested growth hormones (of any kind) should not be a problem because a)their low concentration, b)they are basically digested just as any other protein.
As for organic beef being environmentaly friendly… Here’s a recap. It is a bit biased because the author is a vegan, but the basics are solid
http://www.youtube.com/watch? organic beefv=3Nrl8zAvTNU&feature=related
Basic logic tells you the same thing anyway. For me it is again more or less a matter of ethics.
+ As RussH said the quality of fruit and veggies has absolutely nothing to do with them being organic or anorganic. And I mean NOTHING. It has been proven countless times. And it is starting to get really boring. http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/organicreviewappendices.pdf
Quality and taste depend on:
a) The product being grown locally
The quality starts to deteriorate as soon as the plant is picked. Imagine what you get after weeks of transport and storage
b) The product being seasonal
Sorry, but greenhouse grown lettuce and tomato in winter always tastes like crap.
c) The cultivar/breed used
This is something that most people have an enormous problems to understand. A tomato is not simply a tomato. There are countles different varieties of tomato and the taste and overall chemical composition vary considerably among different varietis. So instead wasting your money on organic Empire apples just buy anorganic Fujis. http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-3-5.pdf