You want to eat better, but how do you find the time?
Healthy eating for busy women can be a challenge. Juggling career and family makes it even harder.
But maybe you are sick of not feeling great, or you just know that healthy eating would be better in the long run.
3 Tips on Eating Healthy for Busy Women
How can you improve your diet without adding too much to your stress levels? Try these suggestions to improve your eating habits:
1. Replace Your Junk Snacks with Healthy Snacks
One of the easiest ways to conquer temptation is to remove the object of temptation from being available. The next time you go to the store, don’t buy those fattening cookies. Buy something healthy instead.
For some people, the purist route to go is with fresh foods such as fruit. But if you are hankering for something chewy, more and more grocery stores are offering specialty health food bars that taste just as good as many cookies but offer more nutrition and less sugar.
2. Don’t Let Your Kids Dictate What You Eat
Back in the day, moms would cook one main meal and the family would sit together at the dining table and eat it together.
Today, this may or may not be happening in the home. Sometimes kids are coming home at odd hours due to after-school activities, or maybe you are the one with the evening classes. Either way, families don’t necessarily sit down to eat together anymore.
When they do, sometimes it’s the kids who decide what to eat. Or, maybe you are in a family where everyone eats something different.
Then the TV is on, and the smartphones come out.
Try to avoid the temptation to try to please your children by cooking mostly food that they want. You might try this one, positive old-fashioned habit: Cook one meal that everyone eats, and sit around the table eating without being distracted by televisions or electronic gadgets.
3. Identify Your Stress Triggers and Develop Better Coping Mechanisms
When you gobble up a gallon of ice cream without a second thought, the reason is likely emotional. You may be stressed out, or upset about something, and trying to swallow your pain in a spoonful of sugar.
The next time this happens, notice if anything, in particular, triggered the behavior. Then, in advance of the next time, come up with an alternative coping mechanism.
Does your boss drive you crazy? Maybe the next time you get that annoying email after hours, you could take a quick walk around the block instead of eating a cheesecake.
Are you worried about your future? Try journaling instead of scarfing down a bag of potato chips.
In the least, see if you can find some superfood replacements for your favorite stress foods.
Healthy Eating for Women Doesn’t Need to Be Hard
When all’s said and done, eating healthy is a choice. It can be a difficult choice, and it might take some effort, but it is worth it. As a woman, you can make a difference in your own life directly through improving your diet. Take some small steps, and reach for big goals. You can do it!