How To Eat Healthy When You’re Lazy
I’m not exactly a lazy person. I’m actually a bit of a work-a-holic and get bored quite easily.
However, when it comes to things like meal prepping and forward planning with food, that’s where my laziness kicks in.
I know I need to eat healthy, I know I feel good when I eat healthy and I actually like eating healthy – I just wish I had a personal chef to prepare it all for me. But I don’t. So I had to work out how to eat healthy when you’re lazy.
Thankfully, I’m clearly not the only lazy person out there and convenience demands have meant that general supermarkets help cater to my laziness. Thank you very much.
So here’s my ‘how to’ for how you too can eat healthy… the lazy way.
Packet Mix Veggies and Salad Are Amazing
Packet mix salad has saved my butt on so many occasions.
My husband can’t work out why I’d buy things like slaw in a packet when I can just chop it all up myself, but that’s his domain, not mine.
I just don’t add the dressing they provide (because it’s usually packed it sugar and nasties) and make my own. Or don’t use a dressing at all.
The veggies are awesome too for stir fry’s.
They’re all chopped up and ready to go! Just add some meat, your stir fry sauce and you’re good to go.
I’ve even seen that you can buy zoodles (zucchini noodles) already done up ready to go too. So, so simple.
Freezer Meals Aren’t What They Used To Be
The good ol’ freezer meal or TV dinner had a bad wrap for a while, and with good cause.
But now chef’s like Pete Evans are getting in on the whole freezer meal industry and their meals are actually pretty darn good.
Yes, they will set you back more money than if you were to cook the meal yourself, but at the end of the day, you’re paying for the convenience.
And at least you’re not as tempted to head to your nearest drive thru for a burger.
You can also buy great frozen veggies that are often times higher in nutritional value than the ‘fresh’ produce as they are snap frozen and don’t lose their nutritional value over time.
Cook In Excess
While I suck at the whole ‘meal prep’ for the week kind of deal, what I can do well is cook enough food to feed a small army.
Because I don’t (thankfully) have a small army, this means that I can freeze these meals for nights when I’m feeling super lazy or when I don’t have the time to cook anything.
Or more than likely, when I forget to take any meat out of the freezer to thaw out.
Roasts are a Lazy Woman’s Best Friend
Do you know how ridiculously easy it is to cook a roast? Seriously. Prep time is like 20 min including veggies and then you don’t actually have to do anything for the next few hours.
Ah-may-zing.
I freaking love roast veggies so when I do make a roast (which is actually at least once or twice a week) I cook heaps of roast veggies so we can use them for leftovers or dinner the next night too.
Find a meat you like to cook (beef is probably the hardest, pork and lamb are super easy, chicken can dry out quickly too) and work out how to roast it properly. YouTube and Pinterest will have you covered.
Don’t get all fancy, just your basic, in the oven roast.
You don’t even need to do the veggies part if you don’t want, grab a premix salad from the supermarket or frozen veggies to steam and you’re good to go!
Put It In a Smoothie
The smoothie craze has been amazing.
I love my smoothies, especially for breakfast because they make me feel like I’ve kicked off the day in the right way.
The trick to keeping them super healthy is to add more veggies than fruit, so I normally add a heap of baby spinach, kale and broccoli stems.
Then an apple or some berries, coconut water and I’m good to go.
Having a good blender helps a lot. I have a Vitamix which I love dearly, but I know is a bit pricey (but soooo worth it). I’ve also used much smaller blenders and they have worked fine too.
I also make my smoothies in excess and drink it throughout the day which helps me keep my fluids up and again, makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
Keep Things Simple
Pinterest and Instagram have made our lives more complicated, I swear. (Actually, I love Pinterest and Instagram, but still).
Instead of having a simple meal, we feel the need to create these elaborate degustations worthy of enough likes and shares to validate our healthy eating. But it doesn’t have to be like that.
Healthy eating can be so simple if you let it. Meat and veggies. Protein and salad. Whatever works for you, but keep it simple.
A piece of steak or chicken on the barbeque takes 10 minutes to cook – max. You don’t need to have a whole heap of different veggies every single night. Just mix them up every now and then.
We tend to go for something green and something orange. So broccoli and carrots. Or green beans and pumpkin.
Some nights we only have one vegetable and just have a lot of it (broccolini cooked in butter and garlic – yum!!!).
The simpler your meals are, the more likely you are to cook them and they are still incredibly enjoyable.
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be a big mission. It doesn’t need to be super complicated. And you don’t have to be (or need) a chef. Make it easy for yourself and you’re more likely to succeed.
