Eating Healthy on the Go and Finding Balance

I used to make the excuse that I was “too busy” to cook and “too busy” to eat healthy. I thought you had to have all of your meals made at home and eating out was not acceptable. This incorrect notion then made me feel as if I would never be healthy because I was constantly running from place to place and did not necessarily have time to cook every night. Around the time I became really curious about nutrition and ways to eat healthier, I began following many registered dietitians on Instagram. They were always posting these beautiful meals full of colors and foods I thought must have taken hours to prepare. The more I became invested in changing the way I ate, the more I saw about meal prepping. Meal prepping is typically preparing a couple to several days worth of meals at one allotted time to keep for use throughout the week. Soon I began researching easy meal prep recipes to keep me from eating out as much when I did not have time to cook. Preparing your meals beforehand does take some preparation and thought. I use my day off work to meal prep and allot 1-2 hours from start to finish (unless its a crockpot meal) to prepare my meals for the next several days. I have began making grocery lists of items that I need to complete my meal prep for the week if I am using specific recipes to ensure I have everything.

My groceries for meal prepping, snacks, and quick lunches and dinners from my most recent grocery store trip. All of these groceries for an entire week's worth of food was less than $50 which would be about as much as 4-5 meals eaten out.  

Once I have my plan set, I begin cooking and when the cooking process is completed, I separate the food into serving sizes and place in Tubberware container for easy storage and re-heating. One of the most recent things I have come to love are crockpot meals. My mother used the crockpot quite a bit when I was younger and I thought it was the most bizarre contraption but the older I get, the more I love utilizing it. Using the crockpot can save time and allow you to keep going with your busy life while dinner is cooking. A few of my absolute favorite meal prep crockpot dishes include:

• Barbecue Pineapple Chicken
• Low-Carb Turkey Lasagna
• Quinoa Turkey Chili
• Taco Chicken

Meal prep does not have to be the same boring dish every time. I love getting creative with the recipes that I use. My discovery of meal prepping was not the defining point of my path to nutrition but it has helped me feel better about myself, more organized, and less stressed about finding time on really busy days to worry about cooking lunch or dinner.

Here are some pictures of my treasured crockpot and the delicious turkey lasagna I made for meal prep recently.

While meal prepping is my ideal way of keeping myself eating a healthy and balanced diet on a tight schedule, sometimes eating out is inevitable. I do not want to turn down time spent with friends and family over an "unhealthy" meal.  I used to fear eating out. The calories, fat, carbohydrates, and unknown methods of preparation would prevent me from enjoying time with friends and family because I did not understand that eating out every once in a while does not make you unhealthy. That is balance. Learning when your body is truly full and not pushing to the point of feeling sick are two key points to living a balanced lifestyle, one that is much more important than being healthy all the time. Before I began the journey of eating healthier foods instead of chicken fingers and fries all the time I never had energy, I felt bad about myself, and I loved chocolate and sweets more than anything and would indulge to the point of sickness. Now that I do not hate vegetables and actually enjoy eating a healthier, real food diet, I still love chocolate and all things sweet, but I allow myself to enjoy in moderation to keep myself feeling my very best. As someone who is constantly busy, I want to fuel myself to make the most of everyday and meal prepping and finding a balance between macaroni and cheese and cake and avocado toast and tuna has made all the difference.

Happy Eating,

Brittany Kutz