In this day and age, everything moves with the clock. Amid all this hustle and bustle, one does not find enough time to fixate on eating or sleeping.

However, this routine and negligence are taking a huge toll on your health. ‘Eat healthy, sleep well, and exercise daily,’ this mantra is all over the mainstream media, health blogs, and magazines for a reason. But the conundrum is who has got the time to follow this mantra? After all, we are talking about an age where time is money; in fact, it is above money.

10 Ways To Eat Healthy

Despite all the justifications you give to yourself like time shortage etc., you need to realize that if you do not take care of what you are putting in your mouth (or how frequently you do so), you will eventually exhaust and lose in this race of life.

So, here are some ways to eat healthy without disturbing your tight schedule.

1. Plan it all

Planning does not imply chalking out a formal meal plan every week, or even writing it at all for that matter. You have to spend just five minutes looking over your calendar. Decide on which meals you will be eating the next week and where would you be eating them.

It is not difficult to manage, as you can do it while sitting in a cab, chatting with your colleagues, or checking the emails before going to bed.

In fact, you can incorporate your gadget into making your meal plan. The Note section of your smartphone is going to come quite handy. Just jot down what you plan to eat in the coming week. It will do you great help, as you will not have to put much thought into your eating plans for the entire week.

Planning also saves a lot in terms of grocery waste. You will also be able to keep track of what you are eating and how much you are eating. That is quite necessary if you intend to diet, do portion control, or even put on a few pounds.

2. Slow down

It is the simplest way to eat healthily. Your speed of eating determines how much you eat and also, how much pounds you are going to gain. Numerous studies can confirm this relation between your pace of eating and the quantity of your food intake.

According to the evidence, fast eaters have 155 percent more chances to be obese than the slow eaters. The connection between the two is that of hormones. Your hormones send a signal to your brain when you are hungry.

Your brain receives and comprehends these messages in 20 minutes. So, when you are eating fast, you will keep eating until your hormones signal to your brain that you are full. In this time, you will have eaten much more than you required.

Moreover, studies have shown that eating slowly can cut on the calories you take in at meals and thus, it helps you lose weight.

Several other studies have indicated that eating slowly entails through chewing, which is also a great source of weight maintenance. It improves your metabolism and digestion. Hence proved, you can make a lot of difference in your dietary style just by eating slow. You must have heard ‘haste is waste,’ so do not waste all your hard work on healthy eating only by hasty eating.

You may be in a hurry and think to gobble down a few bites and rush to read a few points for a meeting after the lunch break. But, it can become your daily routine and lead you to obesity.

3. Prepare

This is another routine change that you need to make. If you go to a dine-in for your meals, you must have noticed that your dinner bill alone consumes a large portion of your salary. Not only this but also it is not a good sign if you are trying to eat healthy.

If you think that eating outside is going to save you time, you are sadly mistaken. You cannot keep this routine for a long time, as it is expensive and unhealthy.

Want to fix your meals at home and that too in lesser time?

Take an hour or two and prepare food for the days ahead. Use your weekends to do little chores like making gravy and freezing it, or set aside the basic items you know will be required in cooking the meal you have planned already.

You can also precook some ingredients or even fix entire meals beforehand. Chopping all the produce on your weekend is also going to help you throughout the week. These simple and minor items are going to make a lot of difference. Not only that they will relieve you of the tension of having to choose which place to go or what to eat, but also they will give you a constructive thing to do.

Also, when you are on to make one thing and have turned the stove/oven on, why not get done all the oven-related item at the same time? Multitasking is not for work only, but you can also apply that in the kitchen and save a lot of time.

Even when you are cooking, you may have a lot of spare time with the handoff meal. In this time, you can do other chores like cutting the vegetables for the salad that you would be making for your lunch the next day.

If you do not like cooking, you can also outsource the job. You can heed those meal delivery services that will do all the cooking for you. Many companies out there create delicious meals suiting to your dietary needs. Most of these companies provide a frozen meal; however, many have started delivering fresh meals now.

Moreover, if you want to cook for yourself, but do not know how to, you can try a healthy meal-kit subscription. From that, you can also learn some new skills and get the ingredients for each particular recipe.

4. Choose whole-grain bread

This little change in your diet will make a drastic impact on your health. When you go shopping now, do not take the traditional refined-grain bread, rather put the whole grain bread in your cart.

Researchers consider refined grain as a source of many health issues while whole grains have been associated with a number of health benefits.

Many studies have shown that consuming whole grains can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Moreover, whole grains are a great source of Vitamin B, fiber, and minerals like iron, zinc, manganese, and magnesium. Also, you would not have to worry about taste or monotony, as whole-grain bread is available in different varieties and several taste better than the refined bread.

However, do not forget to read the label. Make sure that the bread is made of whole grains only rather than being a mixture of refined and whole grains. In fact, go for the bread that contains whole seeds for it will be pure and healthier.

Also, check out these 15 Simple Food Swaps for a Healthy Eating.

5. Always make a list before shopping

There are two ground rules when it comes to grocery shopping. First, always make your shopping list ahead, and second, never go to the store hungry. You are going to be a lot more impulsive if you have come unequipped in the store and hunger will only add to your impulses.

Once you have made a list, always stick to it even if you are dying to try that new cereal the ad of which you have been watching for weeks. Doing so will help you keep your promise of eating healthy and save a lot of bucks as well.

6. Shop online

It is preferable to do your grocery online. There is going to be a delivery charge involved, but you will save a lot of time and also there may be lesser chances of caving into your impulses.

In online grocery shopping, you will not have to spend time traveling to and from the store. Moreover, you will not have to interact with strangers. For some, this is going to be a great blessing. Another perk of online shopping is that most of the online stores remember your preferences and make sure that your required items do not run out.

However, if you do not like the idea of shopping online or have trust issues, you should keep the grocery list with you and avoid extra spending.

7. Eat Eggs in your breakfast

Eggs are a power factory, and they become even healthier when you eat them in the morning. As per the studies that compare several types of calorie-matched breakfasts, eggs come first.

Many studies indicate that eating eggs in the breakfast increase satiety. This breakfast allows people to consume lesser calories over the next 36 hours, which help a great deal with weight loss. Another study of healthy and fit young men shows that eggs increase satiety, which results in less hunger and relatively lower desire to eat, as compared to cereals or croissants containing breakfast.

Participants who ate eggs in breakfast consumed 270-470 fewer calories at lunch and dinner buffets, as compared to those who ate other items in breakfast. Therefore, a mere step of adding eggs in your breakfast can improve your health a lot. Also, fixing an
egg-containing breakfast will take lesser time and entail a lot of variety. It will save you from boredom, as you can have boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, and so on.

8. Choose water over beverages

Drinking enough water will tackle most of your worries. Several studies have proven that drinking water can help in weight maintenance, weight loss, and even contribute to the number of calories you burn every day.

Evidence also has it that drinking water before meals can give you satiety and even reduce the calorie intake in the next meal. In fact, drinking water instead of beverages can cut on your sugar and calorie intake.

Another study has shown that people who drink an adequate amount of water have reduced consumption of calories by 200 per day, as compared to individuals who drink other beverages.

9. Choose baked or roasted over grilling or frying

How you cook your food can have a drastic influence on your health. The common methods for preparing fish and meat are broiling, frying, and deep-frying, which is not good for health at all.

These cooking methods lead to the generation several potential toxic compounds like advanced glycation end products (AGEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heterocyclic amines (HCAs).

Studies have proven time and again that these compounds can cause cancer, heart and many other serious diseases. Therefore, you should go for healthier cooking methods like boiling, simmering, baking, slow- cooking, pressure cooking, poaching, and stewing.

According to several studies, these methods do not lead to the formation any of the afore-mentioned harmful compounds and thus make the food healthier. That does not mean that you cannot indulge in deep-fried fish or grilled chicken. You just should not eat them frequently.

10. Do not eat and work at the same time.

Multitasking is good, but not when it comes to eating. Set your work aside when it is lunchtime. Munching salad while giving a final touch to your presentation can be disastrous to your waistline. In fact, eating and working at a time takes longer than doing these tasks separately.

Moreover, when you are focusing on the lunch completely, you get to return to your desk afresh. That will enhance your productivity for the next hours. Better take your lunch outdoors and enjoy eating in fresh air.

Conclusion

Healthy eating may seem an uphill task, but it is not as difficult as you may think. It only involves a few minor changes in your lifestyle that may be too unimportant to notice even.