5 Steps To Help Manage Diet For Busy Lifestyles

Posted by at 10:14 02/12/11

The Dilemma

While many people have an approximate idea these days about how to eat in a healthy way, they come unstuck when trying to fit a healthy eating programme around an already hectic lifestyle. A mixture of long working days, long journeys to work, friends, family, and pastimes (other than going to the gym!) can result in too little time to prepare and manage a healthy eating plan. Instead, all too frequently, we can end up gorging on fast food and snacks to refuel our bodies, ignoring the consequences to our bodies. This is not good, either from a perspective of trying to feed our bodies what is required to support our physical objectives, or from a health standpoint, with the eating of poor quality food being linked to higher rates of weight gain and disease. So what can we do to combat this lack of time?

Step 1

Prepare Food in Advance Once a Week – Preparation is the key to making sure you do not end up making bad food choices. It has been shown that when people who are hungry are far more likely to eat junk foods, or even to buy these when in a supermarket. This is probably something most people can relate to themselves. To help prevent this from occurring it is suggested that maybe one day a week you should prepare foods for the week. It takes under an hour to cook a dozen chicken fillets and then to put them in the refrigerator to eat when expedient later in the week. Once in the fridge you can warm it up in a couple of minutes. The same strategy can be useful for virtually all foods – prepare them in advance and then refrigerate them and eat as required during the week when you have little time to cook.

Step 2

Eating Healthy Fast Food – Sometimes, we will have to eat what is available on the high street. Given this, there are nutritious, healthy choices we can make versus poor choices. First, in most places, we will have access to a grocery store. Not everyone will be able follow the typical bodybuilder regime and select a couple of packs of turkey, or cold cuts of ham or salmon, and then eat these on the go, maybe with some cereal bar, nuts or (healthy) peanut butter. This is okay for bodybuilders with high food discipline but most people will blanch at this eating pattern.

For those people we would recommend buying some fruit or some nuts (high in protein), maybe with some cottage cheese or milk for extra protein. It is up to to the individual to select what they like to eat, but modern supermarkets can cater for virtually all tastes and diets, and start to check the back of food for nutrition information. If it is high in protein, that is the most important nutrient you are looking for. And you should look for items low in saturated fat as well.

Where grocery stores are not practical we can still make healthier choices than a bucket of the best at KFC. The Subway sandwich chain offers a range of low fat sandwiches and you can ask for double portions of meat on these as well. Just avoid the cheese and mayonnaise. Even burger chains offer a healthy selection now, and if you are in a restaurant such as Nando’s any combination of meat with vegetables will usually be very good. Ask for starchy carbohydrates like chips to be replaced with vegetables where possible – most restaurants will be happy to oblige in this regard.

Step 3

Drink Freely – Often people mistake thirst for hunger and eat when instead what they should be doing is drinking (and not alcohol or sugary drinks!). Instead drink water with abandon, along with coffee or diet soda (which both contain caffeine which has a thermogenic, appetite suppressing effect). This is easily managed no matter how busy you may be, so there is not much else that needs to be said on this matter.

Step 4

Adopt the use of Meal Replacement Products – The use of meal replacements such as EAS Myoplex or Progen by Reflex have been used for a considerable period of time by athletes in the know and widely adopted in the States by the general public. Meal replacement drinks make for a tasty, nutritious milkshake with a full quota of vital minerals and vitamins, along with high levels of muscle building proteins, moderate carbohydrates for energy, and a low level of fat. All you need to make them is some milk and a shaker bottle, or even a glass.

Simply add water or skimmed milk to the powder and stir or blend and voila! You have a delicious milkshake which is great for your body and which can be made in under a minute! As well as meal replacement products, you could also implement protein bars into your diet, which are even more convenient, offering high levels of protein and can be eaten straight out of the wrapper like a chocolate bar.

It is usually wise to stick with the meal replacement shakes as they tend to be slightly more nutritious but for times when you literally don’t have time to blend a drink even, the protein bars make for an excellent back up choice. If you are going out for the night then protein bars make for a great, lightweight, nutritious snack. The combination of meal replacement products and protein bars means no-one has any excuse any longer not to be able to eat in a healthy manner, and if your memory of these shakes and bars is based upon what was available ten years ago, we can assure you you are in for a treat now. Anyone who has tried a Detour or Lean Body Gold bar can attest to the incredible taste – like a Snickers bar in fact!

The other great advantage of meal replacement products and protein bars is they can be used to supplement your diet so that even though you would ideally like to eat 5 or 6 times a day you only have time to eat 3 times a day in fact. The bars or meal replacements can then be used to top up your body with important muscle building proteins and avoid leaving your body in a catabolic (muscle wasting) state.

Step 5

Manage Your Time Better – If you still have trouble eating properly after all the above then it is assuredly the case that your main problem is poor organisation skills in general.

We would recommend planning the week in advance so you are never left in a situation where you are going to be eating junk food, or worse still, starving while you wait to eat your next meal. Have to catch a flight on Friday? Then, either prepare some food in advance, set off early and eat well in advance, or take some protein bars with you and eat them on the plane while everyone else is left with airline food and congratulate yourself for your forward thinking.

Got a long drive of uncertain length? Always carry a couple of protein bars in the glove compartment in case of emergencies instead of the usual sweets!

There is really no situation we can think of where proper planning cannot resolve any problem. We hope after reading this you can implement these changes so you can get out and enjoy life instead of worrying about the negative consequences of what you eat, or worse, give up on a healthy lifestyle altogether.

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