It happened again…the alarm startled your peaceful sleep. You hit snooze one too many times to get yourself fully ready for the day and eat the balanced breakfast you had planned in your head. You grab coffee and a bar and head out the door. Your day is long and mentally draining. When you get home, the couch is calling for you to just chill…but supper is calling too (not to mention the hungry mouths you have to feed!!).
You want to be successful but you need help to get you there. Here are my key healthy eating tips for busy (and exhausted) moms:
Becoming Intentional With Health Choices
I get it. I’ve been there. It seems so much easier to just do what’s easy. But when you realize what’s easy is causing your exhaustion, pain, anxiety, and digestive problems, you have no other choice than to do what you know is right for your health. And what is right will take intentionality.
Being intentional means you’re not just trying, you’re doing. It means, when you’re faced with the decision to make supper or to swing by the drive-thru, you intentionally choose to make supper. And it means making supper with good, real-food ingredients. Ingredients that will bring health and healing.
Being intentional comes with work. You have to put the effort in beforehand to set yourself up for success.
But let me tell you, being intentional is worth it!!
Quick and Healthy Eating Tips
Below are my favorite quick and healthy eating tips for busy (and exhausted) moms.
Plan Ahead
Before you stop reading, let me tell you, I despise planning too! I try to wing everything and will do everything I can to not plan. But as the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Planning is a necessity.
If you’re busy, planning ahead, shopping and food prepping are extremely important for success. If it’s best for you, each week plan your meals, make a list and go to the grocery store one time. Do all prep work ahead of time if you know you will not have time later. For example: wash and chop all vegetables and store in baggies, bake potatoes, boil eggs, make meat patties, etc. If you want, you can also cook meats ahead so you can just pull them out and warm them.
If you have more time and don’t need to do all the prep work ahead of time, continue to have a tentative plan so you don’t get into a bind when it’s time to eat. What I do is go to the grocery store and have a loose plan for 3-4 days worth of meals. I then have all the ingredients to make the healthy, real-food meals when it’s time.
Searching and Saving Recipes
Maybe you’re a brilliant chef that knows recipes by heart and can whip up anything from scratch. Cool. For the rest of us, we need recipes. Becoming proficient in finding recipes you like and are still going to help you meet your goals takes time and practice.
I love using Pinterest for finding recipes. Go here to follow me on Pinterest. I have lot’s of saved recipes in different categories. When searching for healthy recipes, knowing the key words to use can be helpful. Some of my favorite key words are: clean, gluten free, dairy free, real food, and whole food.
Once you find a recipe you (and everyone else) like, you need to save it and make it easily accessible. There are several recipe organizer apps available. I have tried a few. They all have their benefits but my favorite and the one I have been using exclusively for about seven years, is Copy Me That.
It is a great app that helps me organize recipes, make meal plans and menus, and share recipes with friends or clients. There is a free version or a lifetime paid version (that’s totally worth it for me). You can find my profile here.
Stock Your Pantry (And Freezer) Well
I’m going to be honest, I’m not great at planning. Like I said earlier, I usually do have a tentative plan for meals but most of the time it’s a game time decision. But what I have done well is stock my pantry and freezer so I can create meals quickly.
I make sure we have several pounds of ground and steaks of beef and venison, whole and parts of chicken, sausage and some pork loins or roasts in the freezer. My herbs, spices and seasonings are stocked. I have sweet and regular potatoes on hand, and there is plenty of brown rice and gluten free pasta. Keeping my pantry and freezer well stocked allows me to make quick and healthy meals (as long as I’ve gone to the grocery store for produce!).
And that’s it! Those are my favorite quick and healthy eating tips for you busy and exhausted moms. I hope these tips help set you up for success in making your healthy eating decisions. I’d love to know if you have any other tips you rely on that help you. Comment below or send me a message!
