Are you a commuter, an athlete, a working parent, a world traveller, a single guy or girl, a working couple, an exhausted parent, a student or an astronaut? Well, if you are one of these, then congratulations! Not only is this book for you, but I’ve laid out some meal plans, too, just to help you with your busy lives. Trust me, if you’re anything like me, you’ll need all the nutritional help you can get! So here are my top tips and meal plans for your busy lives.
When it comes to health, many busy people often wait until a problem arises before addressing it. However, through various lifestyle and dietary choices, we have the ability to work to prevent these issues in the first place. Adopting a lifestyle – even when we are super busy – that is effectively a preventative measure against disease gives us much more control over our health and our longevity. Instead of relying on modern medicines to intervene when we become ill, why shouldn’t we take full responsibility for our body and mind through the actions, decisions and food we make every day?
By altering our diet, exercise regime, sleeping habits and stress levels for the better, we can encourage our body to bypass ill health.
These are my simple guidelines that everyone can easily adopt in order to live a life that promotes optimum health, both physical and mental, even when you are SUPER busy!
1. Embrace cooking as a necessary activity that enables your body to get all the nutrients that it needs. Choose real foods, and by that I mean fresh, organic when possible, wholesome foods that are not pumped full of chemicals and toxins. Find time every day to prepare your own meals even if they’re quick, and be sure to get creative in order to keep yourself inspired. Food is one of the best preventative medicines we can administer ourselves and a healthy diet will aid a healthy body and mind.
2. Be sure to move each and every day. This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours in the gym. You can choose to go for a walk in the morning, afternoon or evening – even just for 10 minutes – or cycle to work, to the store or to another mode of transport. Just make sure you are moving and stretching throughout your day. Not only will moving keep you physically healthy but it will also assist in combatting stress, reducing anxiety and improving your sleep.
3. Try to ensure that all your interactions with others are meaningful, respectful and positive. Work to strengthen your existing relationships and to form new connections with like-minded people who will bring happiness into your life. If you are aware that you have toxic relationships with certain people (I call them ‘energy vampires’), then either talk it out and remedy the situation, or distance yourself from these people entirely. It is natural to seek the validation of others, however, it is not something that we really need in order to be happy. You will find that those who truly love you will bring you joy and not negativity. Evaluate your relationships and make it a priority to deepen your positive connections while eradicating the negative.
4. Be consciously grateful for the amazing aspects of your life and be sure to show it! Tell the people you care about that you care about them, have respect for your career, your home and your family, and affirm these facts in your mind. I find it helpful to list five things that I am grateful for each day as I wake and right before I fall asleep. These can be huge things, such as being alive, or relatively small things, such as being grateful for a delicious meal during the day. Showing thanks for the things you appreciate helps to reiterate how your life is on track, even when it doesn’t feel like it.
5. I’ve picked my favourite fastest recipes for those weeks that you are insanely busy. Because at these times we often choose foods carelessly; they’re last on the list of priorities and we tend to “grab & go” foods that our body is not happy about. So use these meal plans for the weeks when you have a lot on your plate but you know you just want and most certainly need to feel great.
