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Explore: Tools and Tips for Time-crunched Healthy Eating

Wellness

Each March, the U.S. celebratesNational Nutrition Month — a relatively quiet event lacking costumes or cards, or even a dedicated tree. Nonetheless, March is an excellent time to take a moment and make a conscious choice to eat healthier. Consider it your New Year’s resolution redo.

 

The world is getting busier, and our lives are moving faster than ever before. Sometimes finding healthy food options to fit both your budget and your schedule seems nearly impossible. This month we’re offering up a few easy options to eat healthier no matter how much time you have for pre-planning, shopping, or meal prep.

 

I Have a Little Time

Buying fresh ingredients and cooking at home is hands-down, the most cost-effective and healthiest way to feed yourself and your family. However, this option will require a little more time and effort to maintain. If you want to plan and cook fresh meals each day and need a little help squeezing it into an already busy schedule here are a few ways to get some help:

  • Online recipe and meal planning tools: There are a lot of great apps available now to help you save healthy recipes into a virtual cookbook and plan your weekly menu. Most even help you create a shopping list to make it more efficient when it’s time to buy groceries. The app may cost you a little up-front and take a few hours to source and save 15 to 30 healthy recipes. But this option could save you time in the long-run and give you a good set of healthy food options for the rest of the year. And, you can continue to grow your recipe list, making the app even more of a time-saver. Check out apps like Recipe Keeper and Paprika Recipe Manager in the app store to get started.
  • Grocery shopping and delivery services: If you’ve mastered meal planning and can’t seem to find time to shop for groceries, check your local grocery store to see if they can give you a hand. Many stores, including Wal-Mart and Target, offer shopping services and/or curbside delivery. Some grocery stores even offer home delivery services– bringing fresh groceries right to your kitchen. This option will cost a little more to cover the delivery fee but could save you hours each week in aisle surfing and checkout time. Pair this with an online meal planning app, and you could easily save 3-4 hours each week.
  • Meal prepping: One of the best ways to ensure you have a week’s worth of healthy meals at the ready is to dedicate a day or evening to meal prepping. By pooling the chopping, cooking, storing, and cleaning into one day, you save time during a busy week to simply reheat and eat. And, you’ll also have less clean-up on the busy workdays.

I’m Pretty Busy

If your life is pretty busy, and eating healthy is a top priority, having someone else do the meal planning and prep may be a great option. With so many meal delivery services available than ever before you can choose from gourmet to comfort food and have all of the ingredients and instructions delivered right to your front door. Some services even take care of the prep work by chopping and portioning the ingredients. Even better, some go so far as to create individual servings that only require heating. Here are a few options to consider, in order by time-saving. Just remember, the more you outsource the planning and prep work, the more you’ll likely spend.

  • Blue Apron: This service delivers healthy recipes and ingredients to your front door but may require a little more prep time to sort, measure, and chop ingredients because they aren’t grouped by recipe. Blue Apron also likes to introduce new flavors, so be prepared to spend a little time Googling if you can’t identify some of the items in the box.
  • Hello Fresh: This service offers individual to family-friendly portion sizes with 30 minute or less cook time options and unique options for keto, low carb and paleo. Weekly box delivery includes pre-measured and sometimes pre-chopped ingredients packaged by recipe. Being able to store and locate all ingredients quickly can make meal prep a breeze.
  • Freshly: This service offers chef-cooked diners in individual serving packages—think healthy, fresh TV dinners. Freshly gives you an option to eat reasonably healthy with a 2 minute or less cook time. Just know you’ll pay a little extra for that convenience.

I’m In a Rush

We all have those days, weeks, and even months when shopping and cooking isn’t an option. You need food on the go. No worries, we’ve got you covered with a few speedy healthy food options.

  • Go Grilled & Green: Most fast-food restaurants are getting on the healthy-eating bandwagon by offering grilled, lean meat options, and healthy meal swaps. When you pull up to the drive-through, look for non-breaded chicken options and swap the fries for a salad. And stay away from super-sized and soda options.
  • Delivery with a Twist: Home delivery has upped its game with the help of services like Door Dash and Uber Eats. Move over pizza delivery. Now, many sit-down restaurants with healthy food options can be delivered right to your front door in under an hour. Just remember to look for the lighter meal options when you review the menu.

No matter how much or little time you have for meal prep, you now have an arsenal of options to find healthier ways to feed yourself and your family. And, you don’t have to pick just one. Mix it up a bit by cooking at home a few meals, using boxed meals some nights, and ordering in when you’re in a big crunch. 

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