Living healthy is time consuming

Have you ever noticed how living a healthier lifestyle is more time consuming? Since it takes more time to eat healthy, I like to plan out my weekly meals to save myself time during the week when things can get hectic. Every weekend I plan on the weekly meals that my husband and I will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I make my grocery list around our weekly menu so that I only have to go shopping once. I have learned from experience to double, triple check the fridge and cupboards to make sure that I have enough of what I need. It is the worst feeling to be halfway through making dinner and to come up short on an ingredient. Good thing FM is close!

Sunday afternoon I prep as much as I can. I make individual jello snacks, make individual servings of crackers, make smoothies to freeze, thaw meat, etc. It takes about an hour to prep everything, but saves me time during the work week. I have invested in a lot of tupper ware containers that can be used for our individual lunch portions and snacks.

Every night I pack lunches for both myself and husband to take to work. While I am cooking dinner I finish putting together lunches for the next day. If I already know that I am going to be busy at night, I will pack the lunches in the morning so that I don't have to worry about putting them together whenever I do get home. Being healthy has also turned me into a multi tasker!

I shop at Costco for all of my main food items: ground turkey, chicken breast, nonfat milk, turkey bacon, low sodium bacon, Tillamook cheese, Weight Watchers creamy cheese, fresh fruit, Fage yogurt, and protein bars/powder. I always freeze the meat so that it will last us for a month or more. Other items I will pick up on my weekly trip to FM.

To save myself even more time I also lay out all of my workout and work clothing for the entire week. When I am putting away laundry on Sunday I get all of my outfits lined up for the next 5 days. This saves me a headache in the morning when I am barely awake. At night I make sure that my duffle bag has my work outfit in it, my shoes, makeup, and curling iron/hair straightner.

It took me a couple of weeks to get into this routine, but it in the end it really works. I know that it is much easier to open a bag of chips when you are hungry at home, but having a healthy snack that is pre made in an individual portion is much more satisfying.

In the end, even though being healthy takes more time, it is worth it. I know that I feel better knowing that I know exactly what the nutritional content of my meals are and that I my husband and I are saving $ by not eating out all of the time. Using Sunday evening as my "prep" time for both meals and my outfits has taken stress out of my week. Now when I get home from work I can take my dogs for a walk, finish dinner and just relax.

--Tasha