Nutrition on the go:
fitting healthy eating into a busy schedule
As a Fitness Instructor Battersea area, many of my clients have busy schedules, and frankly the idea of fitting nutrition into the mix is often viewed as inconvenient and impossible to maintain. Here are a few things you can do, based on a few common pain points:
Nutrition on a Busy Schedule
Time savers to help you fit nutritious eating into a jam-packed diary.
- The Sunday Ritual: a batch cook can set you up for the week ahead, giving you portions of healthy and nutritious food. If you find this ritual difficult to follow, start with a single meal (i.e. lunches). Spend a Sunday making your lunch for the week, and forget about the rest. After two weeks of completing this task, measure how much time you have saved. Then move on to breakfast and lunch, and so on…
- The breakfast ritual: if you can make the time in the morning, prepare your meals for your entire day. If you don’t have time in the morning, try preparing your next day’s meals the night before. The point is to prepare the next three meals in advance, as this will save you time and help keep you organised.
- Pre-cook protein: this is a really straightforward way to prepare the most time-consuming part of a meal. Whether its pre-cooking large batches of chicken breasts to boiling six eggs at once, you can save heaps of time through this one small step.
- Pre-chopping veg: like pre-cooking protein, this is a fast and easy way to save time in meal preparation, as well as making sure you always have snacks when you get hungry. Top tip: storing carrot sticks in water will help them last longer and avoid them drying out.
- Liquid Nutrition: if you are really pressed for time, shakes can be a really quick and easy way to get your nutrient fix on the fly. Click here for a guide on how to create your own super shakes.
Eating out on a regular basis
If you go out to restaurants due to work, lifestyle choices, or simply because you’re not keen on cooking, here are a few things you can do to help yourself out.
- Choose ‘custom meals’: the advantage of websites is that you can almost always find out what a restaurant is serving before you arrive. Research in advance where you are going, and pick out the dishes in advance that present the healthiest choices.
- Use the ‘5 Habits’: Refer to ‘Meal Eating Strategies’ from Precision Nutrition, as these will help you to avoid overeating and to digest your food more efficiently.
Frequent Flyers and Travelers
Eating away from home always represents it’s own set of complications. Here are a few things you can do to help stay on track, regardless of location.
- Strategic locations: look at your hotel location in terms of amenities close by. Is there a grocery shop? Is there a butcher? Try and stay in a place where the amenities support your lifestyle choices, as opposed to discouraging them.
- Kitchenettes: while it is true that many of us (myself included) go away to avoid cooking, if you don’t mind making things when you are away this is a very easy way to sample the local fare on your own terms.
- Use the 5 Habits: as above…
- Lean greens: this company makes powdered vegetables, giving you the option of taking vegetables with you wherever you go. For more information, click here.
I choose holidays based on how good the food is, so by no means am I saying that you should go somewhere and not sample the local cuisine. By following these strategies you can enjoy sampling the local goods while at the same time not going so far off the rails that your routines are lost forever when you return home.
Hope this helps you to slot healthy nutrition into your busy calendar.
To learn more about healthy eating habits to achieve your fitness goals, contact James Staring, a leading personal trainer in Clapham, London.
ABOUT JAMES STARING
James Staring is a personal trainer based in Clapham, London. His methods have featured in publications such as Your Fitness, Hello, Healthy, Daily Mail, Closer, and many more. After giving up smoking and entering the fitness industry in 2009, James has focused on his passion to help others transform their health and fitness. However, James is convinced that most people struggle so much more than they need to in an effort to improve their fitness. Through his company, Fit to Last, which he runs with his partner, Ali Page – James has helped hundreds of men and women make small adjustments in their daily habits to transform their fitness and to love how they look and feel.