10 healthy eating hacks to make easy your best friend forever

These shortcuts to healthy eating are the simple diet hacks you need to bring better nutrition to the table with more ease and less frustration.

---

I see you juggling busy schedules, taking care of family members, cooking, cleaning, driving, and desperately hunting for a few minutes to yourself! Of course, you feel like – with all you have to do – there isn’t enough time to take care of you.

I’m the same. That’s why I embrace easy. I look for easy. I strive to satisfy instead of maximize, whenever that’s realistic.

There are plenty of times when good enough is good enough.

Make easy your BFF

When you make easy your best friend forever, healthy eating becomes smooth sailing. Less chaos. Less regret. More satisfaction.

And better health – whether that means more energy, blood sugar or blood pressure control, healthier cholesterol levels, or all of these and more! Pick at least one new thing from these 10 healthy eating hacks. Or even better, create your own and let us know what it is.

Easy diet hacks to prevent overeating

1. Treat yourself to your favorites in single servings

Instead of testing your mettle with a half-gallon of mint chocolate chip in the freezer, get into the routine of buying treat foods in single servings. Think ice cream sandwiches or a single brownie from the bakery.

And create your own single-serve packages for tempting foods you can’t buy that way. Measure crackers, chips, nuts, or cookies and store them in small baggies or containers to make grabbing the proper portion effortless.

2. Know your dish size

Smaller portions don’t look so skimpy on right-sized dishes. Serve lunch and dinner on 9-inch plates. Ladle hearty soups into 1-cup bowls, and enjoy desserts from 1/2-cup bowls.

3. Keep food off the counter

A cluttered kitchen can increase snacking, especially when cookies are part of the clutter.

Healthy eating habits for everyday

Hands down, a healthy habit beats willpower every time. What could be easier than doing the healthy thing without giving it much thought? Here are two habits worth cultivating.

4. Eat a fruit or vegetable or both every time you eat

If you eat produce with nearly every meal and snack, you’ll be among the few who meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption. Only about 1 in 10 people eat the recommended amounts.

You can see my nutritionist’s heart crying, can’t you?

Diets with more fruits and vegetables are linked to less chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, heart disease, stroke, and several types of cancer. Don’t wait until dinner to get your fill. If you do, the evening meal will last well into the night. And besides that, each time you eat fruits and vegetables, you treat your body to disease-fighting phytonutrients, so give your body steady doses by eating wholesome produce every time you eat.

In a rush? Check out 10 ways to get more vegetables the healthy, convenient way.

5. Have a protein-rich food with each meal

My definition of a meal includes produce and protein, so include at least one protein source with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Protein helps with appetite control and is critical for muscle re-building, which becomes even more important as we move into later decades.

Plus, eating enough protein while trimming calories can help you hold on to more muscle during weight loss. It’s a sad reality, but weight loss is not all fat loss. We tend to lose a good bit of precious muscle mass too.

What protein food should you eat?

Most of our foods, including vegetables, grains, and nuts, have at least a little protein, so variety will get you far. But still, it’s a good idea to include traditional protein foods like beef, fish, poultry, tofu, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, edamame beans, black beans, chickpeas, and lentils.

Want detailed info? Here’s the lowdown on protein from plants.

Easy diet hacks to simplify cooking

You’ll dial down the pressure at dinnertime when you have some of your food ready.

Here are 3 ways I do it.

6. Confidently rely on the best convenience foods

I always have canned and frozen vegetables at the ready. And my fridge is flush with ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook veggies that I grab from at supermarket each week.

What else?

Frozen fish fillets are magical because they’re so simple and fast to cook. And don’t forget about 90-second microwaveable whole grains and lentils. Convenience foods are not taboo. Check out which healthy convenience foods I recommend.

7. Prep ahead

Where do you have a bit of extra time to prep some vegetables or even a full recipe or two?

Lots of people meal prep on the weekends to save time during their busy weeks. I do that only now and then. My superpower is “doing anything to get the meal started” early in the day. Since I work at home most of the time, I chop carrots, strip kale, or defrost ground beef when I finish lunch.

I love walking into the kitchen to make dinner and seeing that I already started it.

Run through your day to uncover a few extra minutes to get a meal started. I call these little shreds of time our time confetti.

8. Plan leftovers

Life is so much easier when you do this!

• Can you grill chicken for two meals? Dice the chicken for tacos for the second meal.
• Can you roast two pans of vegetables instead of just one?
• Can you double up on farro, barley or brown rice? Serve it as a side for dinner tonight and use the rest for a grain-based salad or nourish bowl tomorrow.

Healthy eating hacks for when your plan falls apart

No matter how good you are at meal planning – or planning anything, really – plans don’t always work. So every plan needs a backup plan. Try these.

9. Create your personalized takeout menu

This one healthy eating hack has saved the day (and the diet) of plenty of clients over the years.

What do you do at dinnertime or lunchtime when you’re hungry and running behind schedule?

You could pull into the nearest drive-through or grab whatever food is closest. But if you’re making easy your BFF for your health, you’ll have pre-decided what to eat.

Do this today:

Create a list of at least 4 places to get a quick meal, and write down at least two healthy options from each place. Keep the list in your phone,  your fridge, or in your wallet. Next time your belly screams “feed me,” but you don’t have time to cook a meal, pull out your list and choose something on it. Easy-peasy.

10. Have a list of back-pocket recipes

Similarly, you’ll want a handful of recipes you can always count on to put a meal together lickety-split with staples you have on hand. Here are some of mine.

• Black beans and rice
• Baked fish fillets – super fast when your fillets are waiting for you in the freezer
• Mediterranean baked feta with roasted tomatoes and white beans
• Tuna melt
• Eggs, grits, and frozen vegetables

It’s okay if you don’t like anything on my list. Make your own list of back-pocket recipes and meals, so you always feel in control of your food choices.

What do you think? Can you make easy your best friend with these and other healthy eating hacks? The hardest thing about making easy your BFF is that it’s a skill that requires practice. But really and truly: good enough is good enough.