How to Eat Healthy On-the-Go
Eating well while keeping up with your day-to-day flurry of responsibilities
You're trying to get ahead in the long run by investing in an education that you hope will boost your career. But it's tough to keep everything straight when you have to read assigned texts, participate in online discussions, write papers, and study for exams. As if that weren't enough, the demands on your time from kids and a spouse, and your job (if you only have one!) don't diminish just because you're in school.
With all these demands on your time, one thing that often falls by the wayside is healthy eating. When time gets short, it can be a lot more convenient to grab something quickly than to take the time to prepare something that might be a bit higher in quality. Unfortunately, the more convenient a meal is, the less likely it usually is to be very good for you. But it's possible to eat healthily even when you're on the go, so here are a few tips how you might handle all these responsibilities without sacrificing good health.
1. Prepare meals in advance.
While weekdays may be tightly scheduled from the time you get up to the time you go to bed, perhaps there is time on the weekends when you can get into the kitchen and prepare several meals at once so that they will be easy to reheat and serve when time is scarce. Or if your weekends are your most challenging time, then perhaps one or two evenings during the week can work for doing the weekly cooking.
It may seem more complex to coordinate more than one meal at a time, but you'll soon find that doing a lot of things in the kitchen in a row is a surprisingly efficient approach. Once you're done cooking, simply package up all of your meals and store them in the refrigerator and freezer to pull out and use throughout the week.
2. When you do fast food, pick up something different from usual.
For busy people, sometimes the drive-thru is unavoidable. But just because you're resigned to get take out doesn't mean you have to get super sized. Nearly all fast food places have introduced healthier options for their more discerning customers. And sub shops in particular often have meal options that are better for you than places that specialize in burgers and other fried foods.
If you know there's no realistic way you're going to stop getting meals from these sorts of places, at least familiarize yourself with some of these options so that when you're in a hurry you'll know what to order. After all, fast food doesn't have to mean fat food!
3. The Internet is your friend.
If you're on this site, you're clearly already good at finding great resources online. Still, it bears repeating that whether you want to find recipes that are quick and easy to prepare, research alternatives to candy bars that are tasty yet healthy, see how many calories are in your favorite restaurant foods, or just generally get information, there's no better place to find it than on the web. As an added bonus, you can meet other people who are in the same boat that you are, and share tips or just commiserate!
4. Focus on healthy snacks.
People, especially busy people, often get a significant number of their daily calories from empty snacking.
Even if you can't get a good grip on your meals, if you just trade those fat filled chips and pastries for for vegetables, nuts, and the like, you may see a significant difference in how you look and feel. In fact, cutting your calories from snacking by 100 calories each day could lose you a pound per month. (This is based on one pound of fat equalling 3,500 calories.) If you have the organizational space to keep a food diary, you may be surprised to see how much snacking you really do.
5. Exercise!
It's a dreaded word to some, but no list would be complete without mentioning exercise. While it may seem like a strange suggestion if one of your problems is not having enough time, getting enough physical activity can be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Research shows that those who do even a little bit of regular exercise have noticeably higher energy levels than those who never get out of their chairs. And that energy can make a big difference when the rest of your day is loaded with things you have to accomplish. Moreover, exercise can be combined with another item on your to do list, like spending time with your family if you take a karate class with your kid, a dancing class with your spouse, or something similar.
So keep these tips in mind the next time you're on the go. After all, as a student, you're investing in your own future, so you may as well do what you can to make that future be as long and healthy as possible!
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