too busy to eat healthy!

Posted by on June 1, 2012 in Health & Fitness, Life, Parenting | 6 comments

I hear from a lot of my mom-friends (and non-mom friends!) that they are WAY too busy to eat healthy.  I am gonna go ahead and call you out if this is your excuse for eating a bunch of bad and/or processed food! I thought I would share my arsenal of food tools that I ALWAYS have on hand to help make healthy eating easy and quick. I have an 8 month old and work 40+ hours a week…I need easy and quick or it’s NOT going to happen.

Alright, so this is what you are seeing here (starting with the earliest in the day):

1. Liquid Egg Whites – every morning I eat 1 egg and 3/4 cup of scrambled egg whites with a slice of gluten-free or Ezekiel bread with 1 TB of PB – and fruit if I worked out that morning! I keep liquid egg whites on hand because I think it is easier to do that than to crack 6 eggs and separate the whites…that’s just me. Again, trying to keep it quick and easy and this works for me!

2. Shakes/Bars. I am in love with Shakeology – I have been drinking it for 3+ years now and I find it helps me control my calories! I typically drink Shakeology for meal #2 or #3 for the day – I blend it with unsweetened almond milk and PB2 (powdered PB that is ~50 cals for 2 TBS…all the protein/taste and none of the fat of regular PB!). If I lifted weights that day I also throw in a 1/2 cup of quick oats to beef it up a bit! I also love to keep KIND Bars on hand – they are one of the only bars out there that aren’t filled with a ton of JUNK and chemicals…read the labels, folks!

3. Low-Carb or Ezekiel Wraps – Love these for meal #3 or #4 for the day! A wrap with hummus or goat cheese, a little bit of chicken or turkey, spinach, and cherry tomatoes is the PERFECT small meal/large snack for midday. It takes about 2 minutes to make it.

4. Apples + PB2 – I LOVE to have an apple and peanut butter for a my last snack before dinner, but peanut butter seriously packs on the fat and calories! A lot of people say “PB is a great source of protein” when in fact, peanut butter is considered a fat, not a protein! (but yes, it does have a protein!) So I have started doing an apple and PB2 with a small piece of cheese instead – so instead of being a snack loaded with 16+ g of fat, now I have a 200 calorie snack with 10+ g of protein and less than 8g of fat…perfect! Easy, easy, easy!!!

So there ya have it…a few tips that hopefully help you figure out how you can make healthy, easy, FAST choices for quick meals throughout your day!!

 

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12805830 Amanda Holder

    Good tips! I really like Larabars. Max 6 ingredients. So tasty (if you stick to the fruit flavors).

  • http://www.angeliyuson.com/ Angeli Yuson

    Great article. I use liquid egg whites too and its so handy! I completely agree, everyone has time to be healthy! 

  • http://snappycasualblog.com/ kelsey williams

    I feel dumb asking this question, but how does powdered PB work??

  • leahcase

    not a dumb question AT ALL!!! They press the peanuts to remove the oil/fat which results in the powder substance. The ingredients are just peanuts, salt and sugar…so no crazy ingredients. The company that makes it also bottles the oil which I love (instead of just wasting it). So the end result of the powdered PB is all of the flavor and protein of PB without the fat…woooo!

  • http://snappycasualblog.com/ kelsey williams

    So you just sprinkle the PB onto an apple? It doesn’t work for a sandwich, I’m assuming? The only ingredient in Krema peanut butter is peanuts (no added salt or sugar), so I’m hoping to try that soon. Although, I’m not sure of the fat/oil content.

  • leahcase

    I actually mix it with a little bit of water to eat it with an apple (the put the ratios on the jar!) – the consistency is a little bit strange, but I like that I am keeping my calories and fat lower for a snack, especially when I need a snack a night! There is only 1g of sugar, so it’s not TOO bad, although it would be nice if it wasn’t there. For regular peanut butter we buy the all natural where the only ingredient is “peanuts”, but PB2 is an awesome alternative when  you are trying to reduce fat. 

    It looks like Krema is a natural PB which would mean it is full fat (16-20g/serving) – which is totally fine (I eat regular PB all the time, haha!), just have to watch the fat intake.