Eat Healthy : 3 Easy Steps to Save Time and Money

Although having a general grasp of nutrition is essential, most often this basic knowledge is not enough to eat healthy on a daily basis. Without adequate planning, food choices will be made based on what’s readily available when you’re hungry, to the detriment of quality. Options when you are away from home often contain more sugar, saturated fats, and salt, and less fibre, vitamins, and minerals. In addition, if you feel tired before you eat, whether at home or at a restaurant, you will tend to steer away from healthy choices.

Here are four benefits of adequate meal planning to encourage you to take charge:

Pros of being organized:

– Money savings: Two $10 lunches at restaurants per week amount to over $1000 a year, enough to buy a round-trip plane ticket to Europe! Try this little exercise: calculate how much you’ve spent in fast food over the past month, and think of where you could have invested that money!

– Saving time: By cooking larger servings and freezing leftovers, you will cut down on preparation time and dishwashing on weekday evenings, which are already short enough as it is, right?

– Avoiding food waste: Considering the efforts we make to save on food costs, we should strive to avoid wasting that $4 kale at the bottom of the fridge. On average, Quebec households waste $771[i] a year in this manner! Plan ahead for the week to avoid buying too much food, and make sure to first use the ingredients whose expiry date is closer.

– Reducing stress: Planning ahead for the week also fixes the issue of wondering what you’ll make for dinner, and leave you with more energy to spend your evening as you wish.

3 Golden Steps:

1) Planning for groceries: Schedule the date and time on which you’ll go shop for groceries.

2) Planning for meals: How many servings will you need for meals and snacks over the entire week? What ingredients do you already have at home? What are the special offers this week? Choose your recipes accordingly, and make a grocery shopping list based on the different sections at the supermarket. Also, make sure you have enough containers to store all your food!

3) Planning for meal preparation: When do you plan to prepare the bulk of your meals for the week? How long will it take you? Planning these details is now a priority.

So, what are you waiting for? Over time, you will find the method that best suits your lifestyle. If you need assistance, a weekly follow-up with a Zero Diet nutritionist might help you master the art of planning.

Alyssa Fontaine, nutritionist for Zero Diet

The Zero Diet brand is first and foremost the conviction that healthy eating is a primary factor to attaining a healthy weight and a balanced lifestyle. Thus, we offer nutrition counselling with nutritionists who are members of the OPDQ with our Zero Diet nutrition program in our centers and in companies. We have also developed a healthy frozen food product line that fulfills rigorous nutritional criteria as well as two healthy Zero Diet cookbooks.

[i] “Gaspillage Alimentaire : Non Merci!” Équiterre. Équiterre, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2017.

Eat Healthy : 3 Easy Steps to Save Time and Money is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
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