“Health is a 4 letter word spelled W O R K”. This is one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite NDs, Dr Ben Lynch.

I do agree that eating “healthy” (whatever that means for your unique body) and maintaining a healthy lifestyle require work and dedication.

And at the beginning of your journey, when you don’t know exactly what to do and how to organise your life around a new way of eating and living, or maybe you even have to figure out the best diet and lifestyle for you, this can mean even more effort and challenge.

This is why these topics tend to come up rather often during my conversations with clients.

They often need to learn how to listen to their bodies, introduce relevant changes to their diets and lifestyles, keep track of the outcomes…and do all this while going on with their busy lives.

So I thought it’d be helpful to write about some of the tips I share with my clients and that are based on strategies I used or still use myself. Some of those are strategies I came up with when I was still working as an engineer, commuting for 2 to 3 hours each day and working hard to makes sense of and manage some of my health complains.

I hope these tips help you as well!

Let’s dive in by addressing the most common challenges and objections.

TIP 1 - PLANNING

Planning your weekly meals, even though it might take some time at first, can really help once you get used to doing it.

There is no need to plan the exact menu. Having a basic meal plan for your week helps you plan your shopping in terms of items and quantities. This will in turn help reduce your food waste and the risk of resorting to last minute fast food delivery.

TIP 2 - ORGANIC VEGGIE DELIVERY

If you are in an area where this type of service is available, I highly recommend having your veggies delivered at home weekly directly from an organic farm! This has been a great improvement for my family.

I so understand this objection! And often during the work I do with my clients we are working towards significantly increasing the amount of veggies in their diet.

So what to do?

In my experience, cleaning the veggies is what actually takes the most time and work and it is the biggest hurdle when feeling worn out and tired at the end of a workday. So...

TIP 3 - PRE-PREPARATION

What really worked for me is to do some preparation in the weekend (or at any time that works for you during the week!).

Here what you can do, depending on your needs and storage availability:

• Clean/peel/wash/chop the veggies and store them in the fridge for a few days or even for the week. Some examples of veggies I pre-prepare like this are Brussels sprouts, pumpkin/squashes, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, but also some green leaves (though those can be stored for a shorter time).

• Some of those can also be frozen. E.g. keep some chopped pumpkin/squash in the freezer and add it to soups at the moment of cooking.

• Others need to be pre-cooked before freezing. You can quickly blanch Brussels sprouts and green beans, for example, and then freeze them. I also like having some boiled and chopped red beets in my freezer (or fridge as they can be stored for several days after boiling).

• Clean some carrots, onions and celery, mince them and freeze them in single portions – you can use them for soups or sauces when needed.

• Clean some cauliflower, dry it up, place it in a food processor and pulse until you obtain a texture that resembles rice. You can store the “cauliflower rice” in the freezer.

TIP 4 - FOOD STORAGE Having ingredients on hand that can be quickly “assembled” into a balanced meal can really come in handy. Here some ideas:

• Prepare and freeze some bone broth (or buy some high quality bone broth and keep it on hand). You can use it for soups or even drink it as is.

• Hard-boil a few eggs, so you have them ready in your fridge as a protein source that requires no further preparation.

• Have some canned fish such as mackerel or sardines (preferably in glass). You can use them as protein sources in quick meals.

• Pressure-cook batches of legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas,...) and freeze them or store them under vacuum. So they are (almost) ready to use when needed.

• Keep some frozen wild-caught fish (e.g. wild salmon/ sea bass fillets, anchovies…). At the moment of preparing your meal, all you have to do is place them in the oven with some seasoning.

• Keep some frozen fruit: e.g. I always have some berries and avocado to add to my salads or prepare quick desserts or smoothies with.

• Have some fermented veggies in your fridge, e.g. sauerkrauts, kimchi, or other lacto-fermented veggies. You can add them to your salads as great sources of probiotics and colour.

• If you eat cereals or pseudocereals such as quinoa, buckwheat or millet, you can prepare some and store it in the fridge for 2 or 3 days. You can then use it as a source of carbs in your lunch (e.g. as a base for salads) or in the morning to prepare a breakfast bowl.

TIP 5 - BATCH COOKING

Batch cooking to the rescue in these situations.

In the past I used to always have some ready meals on hand to take to the office with me. Nowadays, working from home, I also like to have some for days in which I am particularly busy, tired…or lazy!

How to do that?

Prepare large amounts of meals that can be frozen, or at least stored in the fridge for a few days, then freeze/store them in single portions. Make sure to include good sources of proteins, fibres (read veggies) and good fats, so you have a one-dish meal ready to go!

Examples can be:

• Rich stews/curries and meatloaves, making sure to include also all the veggies you need. I often use (a variety of) cabbages in these preparations.

• Meatballs that also contain carrots, celery, onion…

• Vegetable (blended) soups. I love blended soups of squash and celeriac (with bone broth). No need for recipes here: use root veggies, leafy greens, onions, garlic, herbs and spices – and add bone broth or vegetable stock. If you go for a vegetarian/vegan option, make sure to include some proteins too, for example some lentils, chickpeas or pumpkin seeds.

Batch cooking is not the only thing you can do.

TIP 6 - LEFTOVER MEALS

Don’t be afraid to cook larger amounts of food for dinner and use the leftovers for the following lunch (or even for breakfast!)

TIP 7 - QUICK SNACKS

If you can digest them, have a small stock of nuts and nut/seed butters. You can combine them with some fruits, a piece of dark chocolate, or to veggies (carrots, celery, fennel…) for a nice snack!

The recommendation above might work for that too. But getting quick “dessert” ideas together is not that difficult when you know what to do.

TIP 8 - HAVE A SUPPLY OF INGREDIENTS FOR DESSERTS

I recommend having on storage some of the ingredients already listed (nuts, nut butters, frozen fruit,…) and others such as cacao, dark chocolate, raw honey, chia seeds, ghee, dairy-free milk,… They can very easily turn into a great dessert.

Here some quick and easy ideas to satisfy your sweet tooth when energy and time run low:

• Stew an apple with cinnamon, ghee and a handful of nuts (note: stewed apples are great for gut healing!)

• Blend (frozen) avocado with some cacao and a tiny amount of honey until you obtain a nice mousse

• Blend some frozen berries with (any) nut butter and a touch of honey

• Slice an apple and spread some nut butter or peanut butter on it

• Prepare a chia pudding with chia, dairy-free milk and some fruits. You can store the pudding for a couple of days in the fridge and add fresh/frozen fruit on the moment

• Or simply, enjoy a piece of dark chocolate (70%+).

And finally…

TIP 9 - USE YOUR TOOLS

Some tools can help! Make use of them!

• A pressure cooker/ an electric pressure cooker can greatly reduce time and work needed for some preparation (and in some case make food easier to digest as well, as in the case of legumes)

Idea: I use it for stews, bone broth, steaming veggies…

• Sometimes simply roasting food in the oven can reduce preparation time.

Idea: roast a larger amount of root veggies and keep some for the following day!

• Do you have space for a freezer at home? Go for it, if you haven’t one already!

I hope these suggestions are helpful for you! As usual, I’d love to know. So please, let me know in the comments below or send me an email!

Are you ready to go for it and would like to receive 1:1 support from me?

Get in touch for a free 20-minute functional nutrition and lifestyle consultation and let’s find out how I can further support your healing journey.