3 Tips for Making Time to Eat Well

For many people, it can be hard to juggle busy schedules and also eat the way they want to. Having nutritious meals can involve a fair amount of planning and preparation, which can be tricky to fit in, especially if you don’t even have much time for the meal itself on some days.

If this is something you struggle with, here are a few tips that may help, as well as some suggestions of things to avoid.

1: Prep ahead of time

One of the most helpful things is preparing your meal or parts of it in advance.

For example, if you skip breakfast because you feel like you don’t have time, see if you can set some of it up the night before. Even something as simple as pouring cereal into a bowl and then covering it can be the nudge you need to go ahead and eat in the morning. I know some people also like overnight oatmeal, although I haven’t tried that.

Likewise, if you know tomorrow will be busy, consider putting together something for the next day’s lunch ahead of time, so you can simply grab it when you’re heading out.

Or, if you’re someone who has more time in the morning, you could get some things ready in advance for dinner, or start something in a slow cooker, so that the evening meal will be easier.

Prepping isn’t only for meals, either. If you like snacks, it can be helpful to have something set aside, like fruit slices, crackers and peanut butter, or veggies and hummus (or other snack of your choice). That way, it will be available when you’re hungry, and you can avoid getting hangry or raiding a snack machine.

2: Let someone else do the prep

When you have the time, energy, and interest to make everything from scratch, that’s a great thing to do. But it’s also not something that works for everyone.

I know all too well how time-consuming it can be to prepare vegetables, for example. Most of us don’t have the knife skills of a professional chef, and it can take a while to wash, peel, slice, and/or dice everything. You may not want to do it, or you may simply not have the time.

That’s why pre-cut vegetables can be a great choice. They may cost a little more, but they can be well worth it.

Likewise, buying frozen and pre-cut veggies or other foods can save a lot of time and effort. This may also encourage you to eat a wider variety of foods than if you had to chop everything yourself.

You can also explore pre-made meal options, although it’s worth looking at not only the cost but the nutrient value of these, plus seeing how good they taste. But I know places like Trader Joe’s have a lot of good frozen and prepared meal options, or you might have some good take-out options near you, and even doing that once a week can be helpful.

3: Cook in bulk

Another approach is to make larger batches that you can freeze and then simply thaw when you’re ready. This does depend on your freezer space and how many people are in your household, but it’s worth considering.

If you’re a single-person household like me, just about any recipe you make is probably going to be more than you’ll eat all at once. This is great for things like soups and stews that freeze well, but it’s a little trickier with things like salads.

Even so, you could have leftovers the next day, or, for things that don’t do well in large batches, try reducing the recipe so you get an amount that you can easily work with.

A few things to avoid

When you have a busy schedule, it can be tempting to multitask or cut corners. That’s often not a good idea with food, though, so here are a few things to avoid:

• Eating while driving: This is a bad combination because it increases the chances of being in an accident. I suggest steering clear of it.

• Eating while working: You probably won’t get into an accident with this, but it also means you won’t be eating mindfully. You may not even be paying as much attention to work as you should, and you could make more mistakes.

• Skipping meals: If you feel pressed for time, you may be tempted to skip a meal. The problem is that this could lead you to getting overly hungry and irritable, which could lead to poor responses and bad behavior at inopportune moments. It’s best to take a few minutes to eat.

• Using eating as stress relief: Stress eating is something many people struggle with, but if you’re feeling stressed, I suggest another kind of break first – a short walk, listening to a good song, watching a short funny video, doing some stretching – and then checking in to see if you’re hungry. You may well find that you’re not as interested in food as you thought you were after you’re a bit more relaxed.

Planning and prepping

It does take some effort to plan and prep to eat the kinds of meals you want, but it’s often worth it. You can prioritize time to do that in less busy moments, and you may even find you like cooking so much you want to do more of it.

Either way, when you’re not trying to cram meals or meal prep in while you’re doing something else, you’ll have a more relaxed experience and be able to appreciate what you’re eating. In my mind, that’s as much a part of healthy eating as the nutritional content of your food.