How to Actually Eat Healthy When You're Busy as *#!?

Eating healthy with a busy lifestyle is hard - but it doesn't have to be!

We are all BUSY - and it can be hard to find the time to eat healthy food. Many scientists agree that eating more whole foods and eating less ultra-processed foods is the most simple way to describe a healthy diet. The biggest problem is that shopping for groceries, prepping ingredients and cooking healthy meals takes time and energy. This is such a big problem that Frito-Lay's Annual Snack Index outlines that Americans report having only 52 minutes per day to prepare and enjoy their meals. It's no wonder than so many of us are resorting to food delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats - or otherwise outsourcing our meals to take-out restaurants. Simply put - our brains love convenience - and nothing is more convenient than a hot meal delivered to your door.

Today - through the lens of behavior change science - we're going to go over 8 tips that you can start using today to eat healthy with a busy lifestyle. So if you're sick of McDonald's and frozen pizza - this video is for you. Let's put the odds in your favor so that you can find time in your busy schedule for more nutritious and healthy meals. None of my tips include anything about MEAL PREP - not because I have anything against it but because I don't like reheating meals a week late. We'll focus on meal planning - and using behavioral hacks to make healthy eating easier.

So here are 8 behavioral science tips to help you eat healthy, even when you're busy. We'll mainly focus on healthy dinners - but these tips apply to any meal!

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Eating Healthy With a Busy Lifestyle
2:50 - Whole Foods vs Convenience Foods
5:22 - The Effect of Being Busy
6:15 - Tasty + Fast + Easy
7:55 - Start with Healthy Food You Actually Like
8:51 - Find Staple Recipes for Weeknights
10:58 - Make a Menu and Keep It Visible
12:15 - The Semi-Prep
14:32 - Find Your Convenient Veggies
16:54 - Find Your Fast Proteins
17:54 - Have a Back Up Take-Out Plan
19:23 - Beware of the Snack
19:55 - Watch next!

*~*~*
✉️ Send me a Video Suggestion! ✉️

💬 Join me on Discord! 💬

👀 Check out our subreddit! 👀

⭐️ GET MY GUIDE! ⭐️
How to Change: A Guide to Breaking Bad Habits and Getting Motivated

🤓 MY RECOMMENDED BOOK LIST 🤓

💖 FOLLOW ME! 💖

[KianaDocherty]

Are there any tips that I missed? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks to Flexispot for sponsoring today's video!

[kathrynbregel]

I was shocked that you didnt mention the price factor in convenience foods! Some days Im tempted to order takeout but the sheer price of it motivates me to just suck it up and cook something (especially since I'm cooking for 7). I have never ordered Door Dash etc, and I can't even fathom how anyone could justify the inflated prices that come along with those services!! Cooking and meal planning isnt only healthier, but its MUCH cheaper too!!

[Liliththelizard]

Small pointer: meal prep meals don't need to be kept in the fridge for a whole week.
Let them cool down, and toss them into the freezer while they're fresh. Then you'll have homemade microwave/airfryer meals on hand.
I recommend soups/stews, rice and pasta dishes.
And if you enjoy baking in your free time, you can make bread rolls to go with your soup as well.
Just make sure not to freeze veggies that you plan on eating raw, like in salads, as they change textures when they're thawed.

[vintagemel]

One great thing about cooking is that you get faster at it with time and practice. Once you build a good rotation of staple meals, they get faster and easier each time you make them. Plus, you develop more efficient kitchen skills over time.

[charlottepvlogs]

Sheet pan meals and baked potatoes have been a game changer for me tbh I can just throw it in the oven and go on with my day while it’s cooking

[aishiteruuu]

I feel that this is one of the most overlooked topics. My family is full of busy overworked women who pride themselves on preparing something from scratch for their families on a busy weeknight. They get offended if I refuse to eat fried meatballs with fries and if I say that I try not to make those choices anymore. What is prioritized is taste and convenience and when I decline their offer I come off as rude and I get comments like "Are you on a diet?", "Well some of us are working hard", "The kids love it" etc. I struggle with the same things as them and I don't always make the best choices, but being scolded when I try to better myself is too much sometimes. I feel that I constantly battle myself and adding external pressure to defend my choices makes it even harder. If the subject of how to get better at eating healthy while being busy is discussed more often it can become a common goal for more people and better systems can be implemented. Thank you for opening such discussions! <3

[SandraSine]

living in Mediterranean, many say we have one of the best diets, I grew up on homemade food, but not only that, the food we eat was the food that was in season. in summer a lot of tomatoes, or in winter a lot of cabbage based meals.
and what I find interesting is that when Westerners are trying to make homemade foods it looks like something you would get in restaurant, a lot of different veggies, precisely chopped, garnish, dips, some form of met that is also marinated, etc.
a instagram meal, but traditional home cooking is more of a boiled cabbage with potato, stew with meat or just vegetable, fish, cooked cornmeal, green salads with just olive oil and vinegar, etc. a meal that medieval peasant would recognise as his own, things like broccoli through whole year, many spices, dips... are weary rare

[pandabugdiaries]

Finally someone who understands my love of frozen soggy broccoli

[peter.]

As a dietitian, my best advice is to find single ingredient foods that you can cook in bulk. Lentils, rice, potatoes, carrots, leeks, pasta, marinara...you can cook 4 days of food in one effort. Right now, I have 4 pounds of lentils cooked with carrots and onions. I also have about 30 potatoes boiled and in the fridge. Anytime I want to eat, I just pull out a potato and top it with the lentils. Done.

[denisruskin]

Started only eatig cooked foods after years on processed and junk food. It´s a game changer after a few weeks. Not only it starts tasting better, so you don´t even have the craving for junk food, you start feeling so much better. No inflamation or feeling without energy and such. Combined with sports I´ve never been happier with myself.

[reececrump]

For me my awnser is oats and beans. Oats in the morning can be peanubutter oats or yogurt and oats or even bacon egg and cheese oats. Beans with corn or rice throughout the day or protine pasta (made of beans) with herbs and olive oil.

[awildwilliamappeared]

Lots of experimenting and learning worked for me!
I have a pretty tiring work life im on my feet for 8-10 hours I walk alone at work 14, 000 steps every day.

What helped me was learning foods I really liked and the most low cost energy ways to make them and to do it in bulk for meal prepping!

A few sweet potatoes wash and poke holes in oven at 400 for an hour.
Wash a cup and half of white rice, season, in the rice cooker with small cuts of carrots in the steamer part of it.
And a protein to go along with it!

Can easily make 4-5 meals from an “hour” of cooking- i put that in quotations because really its only a solid 15 minutes of prepping and letting the oven and rice cooker do all the work!!

Sorry for the long comment, absolutely love your videos! You are truly such incredible work to help so many! You have helped me get into incredible shape from changing my diet last year! First time in my life I have a full set of abs and love my physical appearance!

[Sososoapy]

Honestly, the video you made regarding fast food and how it was basically “pre digested” definitely is something I rewatch when I’m feeling cravings for unhealthy/fast food.

Meal prepping is hard, it took me a solid 6 months to get in a grove of it, but your videos and advice has helped me so much over the years so I thank you 🥹

[hellyeah_ellajane]

My least favorite part of cooking is sautéing onions but almost every meal I make has onions. So to set myself up for success, I buy a bag of yellow onions from Costco, sauté about 15 onions all at once with garlic and butter until caramelized, then separate them into 8oz mason jars. I store these in the freezer and take them out periodically to thaw. These are perfect for big batches of chili, soup, stew, bolognese sauce, curry, as a base for stroganoff, etc.

You could also add mushrooms, bell peppers, celery, etc depending on what you already gravitate to as a base for hot meals. Hope this tip helps if you’re searching for ways to get on a better trajectory with home cooking!

[bsktballman]

Staying busy helps me lose weight. I eat when I’m bored.

[getaloadofthisguycam]

the pre-flavored tuna packets that have gone on the market the past few years were a life saver for my undergrad lunches, even if my friends made me promise to eat it outside before we studied together😅😂

[thecatherd]

Curries and stews have been an absolute savior for me. I pre-prepare my spice mixes so that I don't have to think too hard about the recipe or chase individual spices around the kitchen. Curries freeze REALLY well and can be batch cooked so easily, AND are a great way to pack in vegetables and other high fiber food like lentils. And with so many varities of curry out there it never gets boring. Love that stuff.

[ireniaks]

I've got adhd, so if there's no ready to eat food, I don't eat. So I've become the master of planning and prepping and getting as many meals as possible done in one go. Buy in bulk, check sales, prep, cook, freeze.

[katiejacs]

Just started the video so may be echoing what you say but I feel like time is the number one issue to eating healthy. People say it’s expensive but in the UK at least, fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes are really not that expensive at all. Preparing those things though, planning the meals to take advantage of bulk buying, it takes so much time! And people that are living off a lower income, if they’re working 2/3 jobs just do not have the hours in the day to make it work.

[thelandofcraziness]

I’m glad I don’t have this problem. My nearest fast food is a 20 minute drive, and food delivery services don’t come this far out. It’s faster and easier to cook than to drive to a place, order, and wait for your food. For my family, eating out is more of a planned event.