By Anna Rios, Registered dietitian nutritionist
Staying healthy on a busy schedule can be a challenge for everyone. Professionals face too much work pressure and students face a lot of academic stress. As a registered dietitian and food blogger, I know how challenging it can be to eat healthy and work efficiently to meet deadlines. When I was a student at UC Davis, it was even more difficult because I had to juggle multiple responsibilities every day.
I was studying clinical nutrition at one of the top-rated universities in the world while trying to balance my personal life, a part-time job, an internship, and my sorority– I had to figure out an easy way to eat healthy meals. The advantage I had was that I was learning a lot about health and nutrition. Now, I’m giving you the secret sauce on how to stay healthy on a busy schedule along with quick and easy meals you can make or prep ahead of time!
Learn how to Prepare Meals (Meal Prep)
Take the initiative and prepare meals at home or in your dorm room. You don’t need to do it every day and you can start small. The goal is to prepare things ahead of time 2-3 times a week so that you are not cooking daily. So whenever you get free time during weekdays or on weekends, take an hour to batch cook or prep breakfasts or lunches ahead of time.
Meal Prepping
Hearing the words “meal planning” or “meal prepping” can sound intimidating but don’t let that scare you! All meal planning truly means is taking a few steps to make sure you have nutritious food for the coming week while also saving money, and time and avoiding food waste.
4 Easy Steps to Meal Plan
- Take Inventory
Clean your fridge and do an inventory to see which foods you’ve got. Add those foods to a list! Make this part of your weekly routine.
- Brainstorm for 10 minutes
What recipes can you make with the ingredients you have? What ingredients are missing? Check out my plant-based meal plan or your favorite social media accounts for inspiration and recipes that you’ve saved!
- Finalize your Grocery List
To help you successfully balance your meals, make a grocery list separating all the food groups: carbs, protein, and produce. Finalize your list and head to the grocery store!
- Wash and Organize
Do your best to wash your produce and organize the food as soon as you get home from the grocery store. Next up is meal prepping! Start with batch-cooking a large pot of beans for the week or roast lots of veggies. Check out my meal planning ebook to learn more.
Quick and Easy Meal Ideas
Staying healthy on a busy schedule can be challenging at first but once you get the hang of it, it feels like breathing! Here are some of my favorite quick and easy meals that you can make in batches for healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
Black Bean Avocado Salad: This protein-packed salad can be made ahead of time. Just grab a few tostadas or tortilla chips when you are ready to eat it.
Poblano Bean Salad: This soup is savory, comforting, and easy to make. It has authentic Mexican flavors as it is made with a salsa verde-style broth. Perfect for batch-cooking!
Lentil Kale Salad: Nourishing but incredibly satisfying and flavorful. The various textures and flavors from the lentils, vegetables, herbs, and lemon olive oil dressing make you feel like you’re on top of the world.
Healthy and Simple Shortcuts
Meal delivery services can be a great option. They offer meal kits for your dietary preferences to help you meet your health goals. This will save you some time and effort but it can get pricey. However, if you are just starting to cook, it can be a great way to try new recipes and learn how to cook with a variety of foods and spices.
When you are busy studying in college, you can spend hours at the library or coffee shops. It’s stressful when you have so much to learn and very little time to prep for exams. It can be hard to make time for grocery shopping and to cook your meals. To stay healthy on a busy schedule cooking homemade meals is a priority. There are other ways to make your life easy. For example, you can use an essay service to outsource some of your writing assignments. So without hesitating, go for the best essay examples online, contact an expert writer, and get your healthy lifestyle back on track.
Plan quick workouts
You don’t necessarily need to hit a gym or a fitness club to be healthy. If your schedule does not allow that, do quick workouts that take around 20 minutes per session. Before leaving for class or work in the morning or after you return, go for HIIT sessions. Go cycling or brisk walking whenever you get time. You can do this regularly too to travel to your college. On campus, you should always use the stairs and if there’s time between two classes, walk around in the corridors.
Use tech
Health-tracking apps can also help if you’re short on time. With vital stats on the go, you can set personalized targets in the apps. These reminders and target-based settings will motivate you to do your best to meet the goals. There are also many courses available in yoga, meditation, healthy meal preparation, relaxing and calming music, etc that you can use to your advantage.
Stay hydrated
This is something that does not take time at all. Aim to have at least 2 liters of water a day or more. Recommendations range depending on the person, their activity levels, and more. Some bottles come with measurements to keep track of your water intake and stay hydrated. Water is essential for staying active and feeling good overall so staying hydrated should be a priority.
Sleep hygiene
Turn off all electronics and sleep for a minimum of 7 hours. If you find it difficult to sleep, listen to some good relaxing music on YouTube that can help you to get optimum sleep.
& don’t forget to eat breakfast!
Stay Healthy on a Busy Schedule
Staying healthy on a busy schedule is possible with a little help and planning. Our lifestyle can make it difficult to take care of our health but with these new tips and ideas, I hope you can find a healthy balance. Remember to prep ahead of time, stay active, and outsource when you need help.
About the Author
Anna Rios is a Mexican-American registered dietitian based in Northern California.
Her passion is helping the Latine community after getting her degree in Clinical Nutrition from the University of California, Davis. Mexican and Latin-American food can be incredibly nutritious once we learn how to balance it. Her recipes are made with love to honor her Mexican heritage and to help prevent and control diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension.
