Eating healthy when you're busy

Planning and more planning and then plan some more. I am a full time working mom of 3 and I have to plan my meals. Everything I make takes 20 minutes or less and sometimes I prep things ahead of time on the weekends.

We are not involved in a lot of extra activities for a number of reasons and healthy dinners together is one of them. I am a better mom when I do not have too many demands in my schedule. I would encourage you to take a good look and decide what is truly important and what takes priority. It's difficult. but worth it!

We are busy too--sports and junk--and I use a lot of fresh pastas (I generally find them at Publix in the refrig section--takes 2 min to cook....amazing), frozen veggies, and pre-planned meals. When I know we are going to have a hectic week I try to cook my meats on Sundays. That way when I need ground turkey for spaghetti or tacos, or shredded chicken for whatever it's already cooked. On super busy days, I cook the pasta (2 min), steam veggies, grab a sauce or some low cal cheese and bam dinner is done. Then sometimes it's a sammie night. There's nothing wrong with a good sandwich and a salad for dinner. Now that the weather is getting warmer, it's the perfect dish and fits into my diet quite well. Hope that helps.

Sorry in advance, because you will not like what I am about to say.

You must take the time to prepare ahead of time. Period. McD's is not an option.

THat was THE hardest thing for me to learn. Honestly...........I got sick eating fast food once with McDs and once with Taco bell......so I stopped out of sheer blech power.

Here is what I did. I was on the road 8 plus hours a day, had a neck injury so had to go to PT 3x wk, had a family to take care of.

On Sunday I planned out the week. I grilled up pounds of chicken breast, shrimp, even hamburgers for the week. Then packed them up in a cooler along with my water, fruits, cut up veggies and dips.....I found that it was super yummy to snack on chunks of chic breast instead of fries...........and lost 36 lbs total.

I gained back 10 when I was bedridden and had a bunch of medical and emotional issues and could not exercise...........but I have lost a few again already and the difference was I was HERE and had support to tug me back!!

Good luck I KNOW you can do this!!!:flowerforyou:

My husband grills the meat (chicken, steak, pork chops, ribs, etc) on Sunday and tupperwares it up. When it's time to eat, I steam some veggies, make salad, and boil rice (the brown success rice cooks in less than 15 minutes. We started doing that last year because we has so much going on (3 boys playing basketball, all different teams, different nights, etc) and sit down meals are a must for us. Good luck, you can make it happen with a little planning!

I have found that we eat healthier when I plan a weekly menu ahead of time and stick to it. I am a full time working mother of a three year old and time is limited so as long as we have a plan it seems easier. I have also bought things like grapes, bleberries, pineapple and other fresh fruits and cut them up and put them in snack size bags. THis way when running out the door to go to swim class or something I can grab each of us one and it holds us over til dinner. I have also done that with pretzels.