In this post I want to share my top tips for staying on a healthy real food / Paleo lifestyle despite being super busy. It’s a common problem I believe, the average american works more hours than ever before. How on earth are you supposed to get time for cooking, exercising and so on? And every single Paleo guru out there is recommending more sleep as well. How do you fit that in to your busy schedule? As a father of 3 kids and having a job that demands long hours most of the time, I have been on the crazy-busy bandwagon for many years now and this is common for so many people today. You have to drop off the kids in daycare or school, you are then stuck in traffic and late for you meeting, then you work an ungodly amount of hours. Should you be able to leave work at normal time, you are caught in rush hour traffic, and in the evenings, it is time to hit the emails and finish the work you couldn’t get done during the day. With such a schedule, no wonder that many people rely on quick options: Microwaveable meals, fast food, take out from the local burger joint and so on. However, it is possible to make it work, so let me share some of my tips.
1) Don’t eat out. This may sound counter-intuitive because it’s called fast food for a reason, right? Restaurants and fast food joints have become extremely efficient at serving the food fast and get you out the door again in a hurry. However, if you add up the total time such a lunch takes, it’s actually not that quick. You need to get to and from the restaurant as well, and if you go out with colleagues, time is spend on small talk as well. If you bring your homemade lunch, you save the travel time and you can do the small talk in the break room instead. Or you can finish the lunch in 20 minutes, tops. The added advantage is that you don’t get tempted to divert from a healthy diet, and you know exactly how your food is prepared, so no risk of evil vegetable oils, wheat and the like sneaking into your meal.
2) Pack salads for a week. In the weekend I usually mix up a big box of salad that can last me some days. Use a container with a tightly fit lid, chop up leafy greens, cucumber, bell pepper, radishes and other non-starchy vegetables as you like, add some cherry tomatoes and mix it all up. In the morning before you are off to work, you just grab the box from the fridge and put some of the salad in your lunch box. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, half an avocado, and serve with part of last night’s dinner for protein. If you prefer, you can also pack 5 salads in 5 ziplock bags instead of the big box. I used to do this but I am cutting down on plastic usage.
3) Bulk cooking – this is a big one. Very often it takes only little extra effort to cook a larger portion where you have leftovers for easy lunch and dinner options. For instance, if we grill a chicken for dinner, we will typically do 2 or 3 chickens instead of one, and freeze the leftovers, or use leftovers for lunches. Or burgers: Use a large griddle and make 8 burger patties instead of 4 – that makes 4 easy lunches. Or make a giant stir-fry with lots of vegetables and some meat – pack the leftovers portion-sized and freeze for easy dinners.
4) Drink bulletproof coffee or tea. This tip is not for everyone, since it depends on how much fat you prefer in your diet, but if you are on the lower carb / ketogenic side, this is great. For me, it is a big timesaver. I program the coffee machine as the last thing before bedtime so the coffee is ready when I get up. Add it to the blender with 2 tbsp of grass-fed butter and a bit of MCT oil, blend for 20 seconds. This will typically keep me full until sometime after noon. I usually add cinnamon, vanilla, turmeric or something else for flavor and added health benefits. If you prefer, you can use bulletproof coffee to skip lunch instead – just eat your regular breakfast and bring the butter and oil in a shaker, maybe with some protein powder if you like. Brew the coffee at lunchtime, add to the shaker and share vigorously and that should keep you full until dinner. Being fat-adapted rocks, no need for snacking!
5) Always keep fermented foods in your fridge since that gives you easy options in case you don’t have salads or a veggie side dish from last night. Some sauerkraut or kimchi is a good side dish with many things and e.g. coconut yoghurt makes a good quick dessert with some berries. We also do have frozen veggies in the freezer as a last resort backup but use it rarely.
6) Keep homemade bone broth in suitable sized containers in your freezer. It’s a quick lunch or dinner option – just chop up some veggies and e.g. chicken breast to add to the broth, then boil on medium heat until the veggies are tender.
7) Learn to use the crockpot – it is really easy to make tasty meals this way, and you can even save money by using the cheaper cuts of meat because it will get very tender. Take e.g. a beef pot roast, some spices (bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, parsley are all good options), chop up carrots, sweet potatoes and similar vegetables in cubes and add the whole thing with some bone broth to the crockpot and let it cook on low the whole day. A super delicious and very healthy meal is ready the moment you come home!
8) Use the weekends wisely. This is also a big one – I always do some cooking project in the weekends. This is typically when I make coconut yoghurt, start fermentation of vegetables and do some bulk cooking to have easy food options during the week. Too busy in the weekends? Sorry, but unless you have a job where you work in the weekend, I don’t believe you. You can cut some TV time out (TV will rot your brain anyway J), or some other wasted time and spend that on prep work instead.
9) If you are exercising, there are also ways to optimize that and save time that you can then spend on preparing your food. The year before I went Paleo I spent 6 to 12 hours on exercise alone during a normal week – 3 sessions in the gym and a whole lot of running (without losing weight!). Instead, exercise smarter: Quicker strength sessions with high intensity and cut down on the long distance running (sprints instead). If you do full body workouts with squats, pushups, planks etc you can do an excellent workout at home and save the drive to the gym. I’ll probably make a separate post on exercise another time.
10) Buy big and plan ahead. What I mean by this is that when you go shopping, make sure you buy enough food for several days. Otherwise you will easily find that you will be running to the grocery store every 2-3 days, thus wasting time. So make a plan for what to eat during a week and get the shopping done in one go. For meat, it is cheaper to buy in bulk and the added advantage is that it’s readily available in the freezer and you don’t need to buy it every week.
Hope these tips helps and let us know what you think!
1) Don’t eat out. This may sound counter-intuitive because it’s called fast food for a reason, right? Restaurants and fast food joints have become extremely efficient at serving the food fast and get you out the door again in a hurry. However, if you add up the total time such a lunch takes, it’s actually not that quick. You need to get to and from the restaurant as well, and if you go out with colleagues, time is spend on small talk as well. If you bring your homemade lunch, you save the travel time and you can do the small talk in the break room instead. Or you can finish the lunch in 20 minutes, tops. The added advantage is that you don’t get tempted to divert from a healthy diet, and you know exactly how your food is prepared, so no risk of evil vegetable oils, wheat and the like sneaking into your meal.
2) Pack salads for a week. In the weekend I usually mix up a big box of salad that can last me some days. Use a container with a tightly fit lid, chop up leafy greens, cucumber, bell pepper, radishes and other non-starchy vegetables as you like, add some cherry tomatoes and mix it all up. In the morning before you are off to work, you just grab the box from the fridge and put some of the salad in your lunch box. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, half an avocado, and serve with part of last night’s dinner for protein. If you prefer, you can also pack 5 salads in 5 ziplock bags instead of the big box. I used to do this but I am cutting down on plastic usage.
3) Bulk cooking – this is a big one. Very often it takes only little extra effort to cook a larger portion where you have leftovers for easy lunch and dinner options. For instance, if we grill a chicken for dinner, we will typically do 2 or 3 chickens instead of one, and freeze the leftovers, or use leftovers for lunches. Or burgers: Use a large griddle and make 8 burger patties instead of 4 – that makes 4 easy lunches. Or make a giant stir-fry with lots of vegetables and some meat – pack the leftovers portion-sized and freeze for easy dinners.
4) Drink bulletproof coffee or tea. This tip is not for everyone, since it depends on how much fat you prefer in your diet, but if you are on the lower carb / ketogenic side, this is great. For me, it is a big timesaver. I program the coffee machine as the last thing before bedtime so the coffee is ready when I get up. Add it to the blender with 2 tbsp of grass-fed butter and a bit of MCT oil, blend for 20 seconds. This will typically keep me full until sometime after noon. I usually add cinnamon, vanilla, turmeric or something else for flavor and added health benefits. If you prefer, you can use bulletproof coffee to skip lunch instead – just eat your regular breakfast and bring the butter and oil in a shaker, maybe with some protein powder if you like. Brew the coffee at lunchtime, add to the shaker and share vigorously and that should keep you full until dinner. Being fat-adapted rocks, no need for snacking!
5) Always keep fermented foods in your fridge since that gives you easy options in case you don’t have salads or a veggie side dish from last night. Some sauerkraut or kimchi is a good side dish with many things and e.g. coconut yoghurt makes a good quick dessert with some berries. We also do have frozen veggies in the freezer as a last resort backup but use it rarely.
6) Keep homemade bone broth in suitable sized containers in your freezer. It’s a quick lunch or dinner option – just chop up some veggies and e.g. chicken breast to add to the broth, then boil on medium heat until the veggies are tender.
7) Learn to use the crockpot – it is really easy to make tasty meals this way, and you can even save money by using the cheaper cuts of meat because it will get very tender. Take e.g. a beef pot roast, some spices (bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, parsley are all good options), chop up carrots, sweet potatoes and similar vegetables in cubes and add the whole thing with some bone broth to the crockpot and let it cook on low the whole day. A super delicious and very healthy meal is ready the moment you come home!
8) Use the weekends wisely. This is also a big one – I always do some cooking project in the weekends. This is typically when I make coconut yoghurt, start fermentation of vegetables and do some bulk cooking to have easy food options during the week. Too busy in the weekends? Sorry, but unless you have a job where you work in the weekend, I don’t believe you. You can cut some TV time out (TV will rot your brain anyway J), or some other wasted time and spend that on prep work instead.
9) If you are exercising, there are also ways to optimize that and save time that you can then spend on preparing your food. The year before I went Paleo I spent 6 to 12 hours on exercise alone during a normal week – 3 sessions in the gym and a whole lot of running (without losing weight!). Instead, exercise smarter: Quicker strength sessions with high intensity and cut down on the long distance running (sprints instead). If you do full body workouts with squats, pushups, planks etc you can do an excellent workout at home and save the drive to the gym. I’ll probably make a separate post on exercise another time.
10) Buy big and plan ahead. What I mean by this is that when you go shopping, make sure you buy enough food for several days. Otherwise you will easily find that you will be running to the grocery store every 2-3 days, thus wasting time. So make a plan for what to eat during a week and get the shopping done in one go. For meat, it is cheaper to buy in bulk and the added advantage is that it’s readily available in the freezer and you don’t need to buy it every week.
Hope these tips helps and let us know what you think!
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