The one thing you should start doing now!

What I’m about to talk about is a topic that comes up a lot during my one on one sessions.  So much that I thought I should write about it and share with all of you.  This is something that has always come naturally to me and I guess all of the jobs I’ve had have enhanced my abilities to be more efficient at it. 
 
What am I talking about?  I’m talking about planning!  I have talked about this before and either people think they are too busy to eat healthy or it's just not something they think about.  But if you start planning, you will see a difference in your day to day life may even feel like you have more time. 

I work with many women and they are all doing the same thing, putting everyone else before themselves.  So I’m going to give you some tips so that you can start putting yourself in that number 1 spot!  I for one would be lost without planning!
 
Here are a few tips to get you started: 

• Take time to prep: Take 1-2 hours one day a week to prep; wash, chop and store food.  Each weekend I take a couple of hours to prepare; I bake or make raw treats so we have healthy snacks. I plan what will be for dinner each night with what ingredients I have in the house.  I check my calendar to see when I’m going to have a late night and plan easy meals or take something I’ve already made and thaw it.   
  
• Use containers!  There are so many things you can put into containers.  Salads, Chia seed pudding, smoothies. Put food into grab and go containers so that all you need to do in the morning is grab a few containers to put into your lunch bag.  I even have stainless steel lunchboxes for my kids that we prep and fill the night before school. 
  
• Batch prepare – Make extra at dinner time and freeze for another meal.  This for me has been life changing!  Remember those late nights I have?  I will pull out something frozen so that I can quickly prepare in between clients.  You can freeze just about anything…soups, veggie burgers, chili, beans, even those healthy treats from above.  You can also make bigger salads like cabbage salad or chickpea salad and have extras for lunch. I love having leftovers for lunch, in fact if I don’t have leftovers in the refrigerator, I’m at a loss…so I usually plan to have something leftover.
• Bring your lunch to work – This goes hand in hand with the containers above.  You can get tripped up pretty easy at an office.  The birthday celebrations, candy at the reception desk, vending machines.  If you bring your lunch (and snacks) to work you can pretty much ensure that you won’t get those sweet cravings or eat something you really didn’t want to eat.   
• Carry snacks with you – Typically I recommend fruit or nuts because it’s portable, but some healthy bars (with few ingredients) can also do the trick to keep you satisfied and they stash easily in your purse so they can always be available.  

 
There are so many different things you can do to plan and by taking a small amount of time to think ahead, you are making a huge investment in you and your health.  With this one strategy, you can stop cravings, head off hunger and you won’t need to stop at fast food restaurants because you are prepared.   So start planning today and if you need to enlist a little one…they love to help!