Eating Healthy Made Fast

Sometimes, it can seem like keeping up a diet of healthy eating requires hours in the kitchen, home cooking every meal. However, this is not the only way to eat right. Even those of us with schedules demanding quicker solutions can still eat healthy. Here are some tips for maintaining your diet without hours of food preparation.

1. You CAN do fast food!
The hype from that movie "Super Size Me" makes it seem like the drive-thru is forbidden territory for anyone trying to lose weight. This is absolutely NOT true! You just have to know how to make healthy choices on the fast food menu.

First of all, a hamburger or grilled chicken sandwich is a good bet, especially if it comes on a whole-wheat bun. (Carl's Jr grilled chicken sandwiches come on a delicious honey wheat bun). Just order your sandwich without higher fat things like mayonnaise, bacon, or cheese. A hamburger or grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato is still very tasty and fulfilling.

Then, just say NO to fries! Most restaurants offer healthier side choices, such as a garden salad, a baked potato, or fruit. A salad with a low-fat vinaigrette or Italian dressing is a great choice!

Top your meal off with a diet soda, or better yet, a bottle of water, and you have a complete meal that only took five minutes through a drive-thru, which on some busy days may be all the time you have!

2. Frozen Food
As people have become more and more health conscious, as well as busier, the frozen food industry has really grown in the way of healthy food. There are all kinds of delicious meals that you can get that only take a few minutes to heat, and are very low in calories and fat. Vons (Safeway) Supermarket has a great generic brand of healthy foods that come in family sizes called, "Eating Right" meals. My husband and I have tried the Chicken Fajitas, the Chicken Lettuce Wraps (which were yummy and super easy to prepare), and the Meat Lasagna. The Meat Lasagna has become our favorite.
For lunches, or even for a solo dinner, Lean Cuisines are great, as well as Healthy Choice meals. Healthy Choice meals tend to be bigger and thus more filling, but are often significantly higher in fat and calories than Lean Cuisine.
If you pair a frozen entrée with a large homemade salad, you have a filling meal that takes little time and doesn't add on the pounds.

3. Home Cook with Shortcuts
If you want to make a homemade meal, but just don't have time to make everything from scratch, there are all kinds of healthy shortcuts. Here are a couple of ideas for quick and easy meals for the whole family that take little preparation and cooking time;

Stir Fry-
Buy a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables and a pack of chicken breast tenders. The chicken breast tenders chop into small pieces quickly, and you can sauté it all together with a little bit of soy sauce and a small amount of olive oil. Serve it over some brown rice, which is now available in 10-minute "boil-in-a-bag" packages, and you have a complete meal.

Chicken Salad
Near the sandwich meat in the refrigerated deli section, you will find packages of cut-up grilled chicken. This makes for a great chicken salad! Buy a bag of pre-prepared salad mix and some low-fat dressing and you have a complete meal in seconds.

Chili and "Baked" Potatoes
Microwave a couple of whole potatoes until they are soft like baked potatoes. Cut them in half, and serve with canned chili poured over the top. Try low-fat chili such as Hormel Turkey Chili, or a vegetarian chili. Add some grated cheese, such as Kraft Low-Fat Cheddar made with 2% Milk, and you have comfort food that you will not even believe is low in calories.

With a bit of creativity, I am sure you can come up with lots of other ideas too. Just check the back of food packages to find things that are low in fat, but high in fiber!

4. Slow Cooker Meals
Just because roast beef or beef stew are the first things that come to mind when you think of crock pot cooking, it is good to remember that they are not the only meals you can make in a crock pot.
You can also try a homemade chili with ground turkey, beans, and vegetables, or a chicken dish with lots of fresh vegetables and low fat broth.
Slow Cookers are a great way for working people to have a delicious, homemade, healthy meal ready at the end of the day. You can prepare the ingredients the night before and pop it in the fridge. Plug it in and set-it on the lowest setting before you go to work, and you will be eating a delicious meal as soon as you come home.
Here is a link to a website with lots of low fat meal ideas for slow cookers:
http://busycooks.about.com/od/healthycrockpotrecipes/a/healthycrockpot.htm#

Finally, I just want to put in a little plug for Weight Watchers Online. A few years ago, I tried Weight Watchers for the first time by doing their online program. I don't have time to go to meetings, but I did want to try their POINTS program, so I signed up for it online. The website has tons of great recipes, as well as points guides for almost every major chain restaurant out there- helping you make wise decisions when eating out. The Weight Watchers Program helped me develop healthy eating habits that worked with my eating style and my busy lifestyle. I highly recommend it. Find it out more at www.weightwatchers.com.