Eating healthfully on a HECTIC SCHEDULE
How to combine a sensible diet with a busy family life
Who has time to eat right? With the demands of a career in which a 40-hour week is considered a slow week, along with the activities of the kids, which vary from doctor’s appointments to music lessons, from soccer practice to homework, it seems like the easiest approach might be to live in a fast-food drive-thru.
Janelle Williamson, who is a certified diabetes educator at Conway Regional Health System and a licensed dietitian, said healthy eating is possible, even with a hectic lifestyle. It just takes planning ahead.
“If not, we get too hungry,” Williamson said, “and we don’t make healthy choices with either the types of food that we pick, or we eat too much food. We go for whatever is close instead of that healthy snack or that healthy meal prepared ahead of time.”
Making use of the free time we do have is key in the planning and preparation of healthy meals. Williamson said taking time during the weekend to shop, cook and store food is critical to the success of maintaining a healthy diet. Shopping for the right food is the first step. “Obviously, reading labels is a great thing,” Williamson said, “but one of the things I would emphasize is shopping the perimeter of the store.”
Unlike the middle aisles, the outer area is where fresh produce, meats and other healthy foods are found.
“Those are going to be more of our healthy choices,” Williamson said, “our fresh fruits and vegetables, milk and meats. More of the processed and prepackaged foods are going to be in the middle of the store. I always go back to nature as much as I can, using fewer ingredients in our foods.”
Williamson said the more single-ingredient foods we consume, the better. Fresh options are the best options, and they can be easy to tote when the family is on the move.
Some prepackaged foods, such as granola bars, can be a good choice, but Williamson advises shoppers to stick to the bars that have a higher content of fiber and protein. Other convenient options include yogurt and single-serving cottage cheese, as well as any type of fresh fruit.
Having the right container to carry lunch or snacks is important as well. Small plastic bags and/or plastic containers that allow portion control is “one of the most important things,” Williamson said.
“When taking leftovers for lunch, go ahead and put [them] into your smaller containers so you can eliminate a step,” Williamson said. “That way, you already have them divided into smaller portion sizes.”
Using small plates and containers is a good way to help control how much food is eaten at once.
“We usually fill up our plates,” Williamson said. “When we put all that food on our plate, we eat all of that food. Starting with a small plate can trick our mind into seeing a full plate of food, but having it be that small portion size.”