How do you find time to cook and eat healthy? I find it hard

Anything that is a priority is gonna happen. If you have time to be on the computer, use that time to cook instead. Got time to watch tv? Cook instead. Get up a half hour earlier to pack lunches/dinners etc.

Planning - I spent yesterday afternoon making lunch for the week, and lasgne that could, in theory, feed us for two evenings. The freezer is your friend!

It's quicker to chuck a stirfry in the wok than it is to ping something in the micro. You don't ha e to ear fancy meals, just keep it simple if you don't have time Xx

I commute an hour each way so am often out of the house for 11 hours a day!!!

It is hard going BUT it can be done.

At the weekends I try to prepare as much as possible in advance (I make a batch of healthy turkey curry / turkey mince chilli / mini meatballs) so I can just heat them up and make the veg / salad during the week. So I usually have 3 meals already sorted.

I try not to to cook anything that take longer than 45 minute to make so this leaves me time to work out in the evenings too.

Make time.

If you really want to get it done you'll do it. If not you'll make an excuse.

Keep your meals as simple as possible and plan your meals and grocery lists ahead of time. Also cook in larger batches - leftovers are your friend!

Yes, Cooking and freezing meal really works! We do it with soups in our house all the time. We have a TON of tupperware, then we split it up into servings, so it can be pulled out and reheated.
Also, In our house we always have one or two lean cuisines in the freezer, for quick-grab meals.

I use my slow cooker and my pressure cooker a lot. I usually use my crock pot 3-4x's a week and my pressure cooker 1-2x's. I am out of the house ar 630a and dont usually get home till 6ish, then we have home work, baths and have to be in bed by 8. My weekend are jammed packed so I dont have a lot of time to cook ahead. Once a month I will go to Sams and make a day for cutting up veggies, and meat and sticking it in the freezer. This time of year the crock pot is great, but during the summer I get tired of it.
1st make a menu, and stick to it as close as possible. If I am running late and the hubby happens to be home he can start dinner. (for my menu I go as far to write the cookbook and the page number so that way there is no wasted time looking for the recipe)
I take my meat out of the freezer in the morning and put it in the sink full of ice (some people will disagree with me on this but my meat is always still cold when I get home, because of the ice)
I start dinner as soon as we walk in the door, the kiddos do thier homework at the bar. I hardly ever cook anything that takes longer than 30 min, if I do I put it in the pressure cooker and it can usually be done in 30 or less.
I do use the steam in the bag veggies. I have tons of cookbooks that are all meals in under 30 min (Holly Clegg's are my fav) and thats about it. If I can find the time to cook just about anybody can.
o yea I forgot to mention, I dont turn on the tv till after dinner is done (I have a dvr so I dont miss anything) and when I am cleaning up dinner I pack lunch, fix my breakfast (usually overnight oatmeal in the fridge) and depending on what is on the menu the next day I am filling up the crock pot for the next day (in the morning I take it out of the fridge and set on the counter for an hour or so before I turn it on)
One more little tip, the smaller you cut your meat the faster it cooks, so think stir fry, baked, grilled thin meats)

I spend some time on the weekend planning meals for the week. Take 20-30 minutes, go through your recipes to pick what you think you'd like for the week and then build your grocery shopping list around that.

Also do as much prep as you can ahead of time. For instance, if I know I'll be putting a beef stew in the crock pot the next day, I'll get all the veggies and meat cut up the night before and all I have to do is dump it all in and turn the crock pot on. Lasagnas and other casseroles can also be put together the night before so all you have to do is pop them in the oven and you can go about doing your thing.

Hubby's not a big fan of leftovers so if I know I'm making something like a big batch of soup or a big casserole, I can count on that for lunches instead of sandwiches or salads.

It really does make a huge difference. If you know what's for dinner, there's a lot less temptation to say "eh, screw it, let's just order a pizza".

marinate the proteins (chicken, fish, meat) all in one day and store them in seperate tupperwares.
have plenty of frozen veggies on hand
frozen brown rice steam bags

on the day you want to eat it. take out a serving of protein. add it to a skillet it will take about 10 min to cook.
cook veggies and or rice in microwave and you have a dinner or lunch in less than 10 minutes.

With such busy and active schedules, how do you make the time to cook healthy & eat healthy? My husband & i fall into the trap of eating out alot. Can someone give me some tips on finding the time to cook & eat healthy? Some tips on preparing some things ahead of time and such as that? I need to do something here, we are eating out to much.

Whats wrong with eating out? I eat out once per day 6-7 days per week and lose weight. You just need to make better choices when you eat out. Calories are calories.

That exactly what I have been doing for the past 3 weeks. I have one day for shopping and another day for preparing the food in containers that are pre weighed and measured in the refrigerator and cabinets. The night before, I pack my breakfas,lunch in my lunch box that is not too big and when I get to work, I pace the meat and cold stuff in the frig. When it comes to lunch I go to a builidng with a kitchen and it takes me 30 min to cook, eat and clean my pan. You can you do that when you go out, by standing in line, waiting for your food and sitting down to eat? I have so much time now during my lunch now. Dinner, I add what I may eat on my diary just incase and again, 30 mim or less. Hope this helps.

My fiance and I cook lunches every sunday (when I'm in New York, I'm currently away on business so not so much lately). We make a big amount and then divide it up. It generally takes about 3 hours for the more complex meals to cook/divide/clean up. Breakfast we both have our usual breakfast and since I take less time to get ready I make them. She has a toasted honey wheat english muffin very lightly buttered with 2 slices of turkey and 1 slice of pepperjack cheese, microwaved on high for 15 seconds to melt the cheese a bit. I have a protein shake with 2 scoops of protein, 1 banana, and one spoonful of peanut butter.

Dinners vary, but we often pick something up, the trick there for us is to eat something very light and healthy (we'll often split one entree). Dinner is my smallest meal, and for my fiance is about the same as her breakfast. We have a few places that we generally go to.

What I'm getting at here is that we have a very organized routine. For me at least, a set schedule is the most important thing to eating right. I'm away on business right now, and my routine is all messed up, so I'm stuck on the treadmill for 1-2 hours a day to work it off.

Try to find a routine that works for you and stick with it.

It's not as difficult as it sounds or as people make it to be. Before doing groceries on Thursdays, I sit down with my husband and we plan out our menus for the next 7 days. We buy our veggies and protein and once home, I cube/slice my protein, put them in tupperwares and in the freezer. In the morning I take them out so they're defrost by the time I get home. If I forget, I have my little helpers, like pea soup (takes no time to make and is healthy ! ). I always make enough food to put in lunches the next day. Once a week, we go to Subway to get out of our routine (usually the night we do groceries!). Hope that helps.

Ultimately, I just have to make the time because I see it as a priority. I work 8-6, head home, cook dinner, eat dinner, clean up from dinner, cook my breakfast and lunch for the next day, go workout, back home to shower and hopefully be to bed before midnight to start it all over again the next day.

I run most of my grocery errands on my lunch break at work. Then I have Fridays as a rest day from workouts, so I can catch up on non-grocery errands that night. Saturday's are my weekly trip to the market for fruits, veggies and bulk goods. And any household chores I can fit in. (plus any leftover errands that didn't make it in on Friday). Sunday is my day with the hubby. I do my weekly long run early, we have a standing lunch date at a local cafe, any errands he needs to run (he does plays and is at the theater every night). Then the rest of the day Sunday is for relaxing together and watching our DVRd shows.

And when comparing cooking dinner at home to eating out, unless you're talking about just grabbing fast food through a drive through, it's faster to cook at home. Most meals I make for myself or for the hubby and I are about an hour from starting cooking to finishing eating. Anything longer than that means stovetop simmering or oven cooking, which means downtown watching shows with the hubby anyway. Getting ready, driving somewhere, ordering, eating, paying, and driving home usually take longer than anything I make at home, so it doesn't seem to be a "convenience" to me in the time aspect of things.