When it comes to eating right many of us find that the number one hindrance to our success is the lack of time to prepare the proper meals and snacks for our dietary needs. It is often much more convenient to throw one thing in the crockpot for the family or resort to the fast food last resort rather than preparing the healthy and nutritious meal that we should be eating. If you’re like me when time runs out and stress enters the equation all healthy intentions fly out the window. Eating healthy with a busy schedule can be really tough!

Planning, prepping, and organization ahead of time is the real key to success on a low-carb eating plan or any eating plan for that matter. You have to work at eating right and there are a few things you can do that will reduce the temptation to hit the drive thru and keep you on course.

Once A Week Cooking

When it comes to eating healthy with a busy schedule, planning ahead is the key to staying on track. Cooking once a week or at least keeping prepared proteins on-hand at all times is a huge help.

With this method, you cook enough meals to last you a week on one day. This means that for every night of the week you have a low-carb friendly meal ready to go. If your entire family is eating right or eating healthier with you, this works for this situation as well. Eating right and incorporating healthier eating habits into the food for your entire family is a great way to set an example for your children to keep you motivated and remove temptation.

With once a week cooking you freeze the food that won’t be immediately consumed and thaw the food you will be eating each morning and cook the food when you arrive home after work or decide it is time for your evening meal. This is a process that works well no matter how many soccer games, dance practices, and band recitals you have on your calendar for the week. You can manage to stick to your low-carb lifestyle while having a great meal for your family each and every night of the week.

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Pre-Prep Produce

You should also make sure to have a nice supply of cleaned and cut fruits, vegetables, and salad ingredients in your refrigerator in order to make these dishes readily assessable for quick lunches or snacks. Having these foods readily available will help you resist the temptation to snack on prepackaged food that inevitably contains nasty ingredients we’re all trying to avoid while also helping to insure that you have a ready supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to help you stay on plan.

Grab & Go Options

You should also keep some conveniently packaged yogurt (I love Fage greek yogurt) on hand as a good quick and easy snack. Cheese sticks or cubes are another decent snacks for those who need something quick and easy to have on hand. Preparation and planning are essential to successfully meeting your health goals. By preparing as much of the food as possible ahead of time you will never even miss the convenience of pre-packaged meals and snacks that so many of us survive on when not eating right.

Work Out As You Go

Another time saver is to work your fitness opportunities into the course of your day. Rather than performing one lengthy workout each day, try to find methods of bringing a little fitness activity into the most mundane portions of your day (go stair climbing at lunch, park on the top level of the parking garage and walk down—then up when returning—the stairs), park far away from the door of the supermarket and see if your mall has a walking path that is clearly marked. You’ll be amazed at the hidden opportunities many of us have for exercising during our busy days. The trick is often in discovering the activities rather than the time.

Here are 5 Easy Toning Exercises You Can do Anywhere! That might help you squeeze in movement throughout your day.

When all is said and done, eating healthy with a busy schedule can be done and doesn’t have to be as time-consuming as you may think it is. Just put a little time and effort in before you find yourself starving in the middle of a workday packed with meetings and deadlines stacked on top of each other and you have to decide between the leftover co-worker’s birthday cake in the conference room and the vending machine.