EATING HEALTHY
WITH A BUSY LIFESTYLE

How to eat healthy with a busy schedule. It’s the ultimate question in this, modern, digital, and supposedly, less stressful world we live in.

That was the promises of the 80s and 90s. We were heading to a world where we could have meetings from our homes, robots and computers were going to make everything faster, more efficient and we would all have more time for ourselves.

Didn’t really pan out that way did it?

Obesity and dietary related disease are on the rise. There are lifestyle magazines on every shelf suggesting your physique is there to define you. And more than ever it has become a priority for many to ‘get in shape’.

Yet, despite the heightened desire to make changes, responsibilities and commitments both at work and home seem to be more demanding now than in the days before all this modern technology.

The technology that was going to free us all!

Fueling your body for a busy schedule

The basics:

There is a difference between working hard and working smart.

Trying to cram a perfect approach into an already busy life is never going to work.

However, just because you can’t do everything, doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.

The ideal start is to do the things that will have the biggest impact first.

Think of it logically. If you have 6 things you could be looking to change, but 3 of them will have 80% of the overall impact, if you give all your attention to those 3 things, you’ll get much further forward than giving all 6 elements 50-60% of your best.

Put your effort where the results are.

Let’s break it down.

Where should you put your focus to make the biggest difference?

  1. Get your head in the right place.

Be very clear what it is you want to achieve.

If you don’t know where you want to go, no amount of drive is going to get you there.

If you need guidance on where to start, head to the most appropriate of these articles for advice:

The latter two may be focused on skipping workouts, but the mental connection to putting things off is the same.

  1. Get your sleep patterns right

If your body isn’t being allowed to recover, rebuild and repair, it cannot function correctly.

If you are not functioning optimally, no fitness or nutrition strategy is going to have the desired effect.

This is not just a case of getting 7-8hrs per night, but rather, being consistent in the timings and patterns. Plus, quality is generally more important than quality. Half the sleep in a dark, quiet room, with no blue light (phone or TV screens, digital clock screens etc) will be more beneficial than sleeping in daylight, in front of the TV or being periodically woken.

  1. Get enough water

Too many of your body’s functions rely on water to consider this anything other than crucial to your dietary approach.

No matter how busy you are, you have time to drink some water.

The difficultly, often, is when you are busy, you forget to drink.

If you feel this is an area you fall short, have a read at this:

Water – the importance of hydration

The important takeaway here is, if you are short on your intake here, ignore more nuanced elements or specific dietary approaches until you have this right. It’s more important.

There is nothing in any of these elements that requires you to spent vast amounts of time to get right. Rather you simply have to commit to doing them and check, every day, that you are.

Does the process end there?

Obviously not.

The point is not that these will give you the results you are looking for. Rather, without these elements in place, your results from all other approaches will be limited, so make these your first priority.

Getting these elements correct may not give you the amazing results you are likely craving.

What they will deliver, though, is more energy and focus in general.

You’ll be more efficient in your day to day activities, which may free up more time to spend on the other elements of a healthy nutritious lifestyle.

They’ll also allow for a better functioning body, which will allow for greater results from the rest of your efforts.

Once you have these elements in place, then what?

Easy ways to eat healthy

The route that is generally accepted the ideal route to ensuring you stay on point when it comes to your nutrition, is to prep.

For most this means one or two days per week, batch cooking your meals and a lot of Tupperware.

However, even though this does make life simpler, it is also likely to mean giving up 3 or 4hrs once, or possibly twice, per week to do the prep work.

And even if you have the time to do that, you still have to work out what you are going to prep, have the utensils and skillset to do so, not to mention the need to go shopping for the ingredients.

As mentioned before though, trying to do everything perfectly can cause an all or nothing approach.

A better solution would be to look at your circumstances an apply the approach that works best for you based on your current and unique circumstances.

In order to help you do that, I’ve outlined a series of options that you can pick and choose from to best suit your current situation.

Option 1

You have time for prep. You want to get the best results possible. But you need a road-map.

Download Dynamic Cleanse & Sustenance

Click to Get It Now – Completely Free

Free Nutrition Guide - Click to Download

In order to ensure anyone with enthusiasm to get the fastest and most long-lasting results possible, I created a free e-book for anyone to download.

Tips:

Use Online Shopping

Yes, it costs delivery fees. You must arrange to be home for collection. And often you have to put up with substitutes, you may not get the best quality food (unless you do multiple shops from different sources). However, it prevents impulse buying, the costs save you fuel and time (which could be more valuably placed elsewhere) and you can review and ensure you don’t miss anything for your plan.

Use the Facebook Community

The community is there for you to make the most of. There are hundreds of people there already (at time of writing around 500). And when there are multiple people contributing, it works well. But then it goes quiet for months as people download, but do not take part. It is a fantastic way to share recipes and cooking ideas as well as supporting each other through the withdrawal phases. So, share and contribute and it will help you in the long-run.

Use the game element

It’s very easy to get stuck in your ways and that can get boring and make you feel like there are no options. The book is set up to be played as a game of chance. Meaning you can randomise your meals. That may force you to make things that you would never have thought of (and similarly things you may never make again) but you’d be amazed at the gems you can get out of it.

Use it in conjunction with the online course (below)

The next Option is an online nutritional course. And putting the information from these two sources together could make for a potent route to success.

Option 2

You want a simple route to success with your hand held, step by step, from beginning to end. Including cooking instructions, meal prep videos and the like.

Nate Miyaki's Online Courses

Nate is one of the world’s top coaches when it comes to health and nutrition. Just check out his abs and you’ll understand that he knows what he’s doing.

But, looks aren’t everything and just copying a pro is rarely a good approach.

The reason I’m such an advocate of Nate’s work is, he doesn’t ever tell you that there is only one approach. He’ll break down the science and thought processes behind what he’s doing and show you how he came to his conclusions. But that leaves you open to your own interpretation.

What is great about his online course is, he follows an approach that is everything we have discussed her so far. That is, it is based around prioritising your choices and adding in more and more layers until you have a solid approach that is working the best it can for you.

Where it differs from reading a book or downloading a programme is, it is set up as a formal course.

You have modules and lessons, mostly in the form of videos. So, you can sit back and relax to take in the information at the end of a busy day.

The course allows you to learn what you need to learn, set up for your specific approach and then, at the end, Nate takes you into the kitchen and literally cooks the food in front of you, so you can follow along.

You can go at your own pace, but just like any educational course, by the time you get to the end of it, you will have completed everything, the knowledge will be there forever and if you do forget anything, you can simply go back and watch the videos in the relevant module.

However, unlike most educational courses, by the end of it, your entire nutrition approach will be in place for successful long-term results.

Tips:

No time to watch the videos in full? Play the videos in the early sessions as audio when driving or at the gym. You should pick up enough information to allow you to proceed. If you feel you need the video (to see the notes Nate is referring to) you can always go back and look at those specific sections.

Go deep, when you can. Scroll below the videos. There is a TON of content down there in PDF form, links to blogs and journals with further reading on the science behind Nate’s advice.

Use in conjunction with the ‘Dynamic Cleanse & Sustenance’ book. Develop a bigger variety of meal ideas (and share these on the Facebook page to encourage discussion and get others involved in the conversation and journey).

Option 3:

You don’t have time for any level of prep and need someone to simply supply you with the meals you need to succeed.

10% Discount on UK wide Meal Prep Order

There is clearly a demand for this. There are tons of meal prep companies appearing in cities across the world.

It creates complete convenience. You can order anything from covering your lunch meals, your evening meals to every meal you need for the week.

The difficulty is finding a good company or provider.

Having now spoken directly to over 15 companies in the UK, many fall down in many areas. Either the quality of meals are poor; their ordering method is clunky; the nutritional value is not as good as they are claiming; and/or in most cases they are more focused on profit margin and appearing cheap than true healthy meals.

After almost 2 years of talks to get to find the best option, we are now happy to endorse Halliday’s Healthy Meals and fully recommend utilizing them for your needs wherever you are in the UK.

The problem is expectation

As with most areas in health, fitness and well-being, the issue is one of cost versus value.

Most people have a pre-conceived notion that a meal prep service will be extremely expensive.

To try and deal with this, the companies try to create meals that are extremely cheap. That means mark-ups are poor, the quality of the food involved is not necessarily great and even then, profit margins are low. So, ultimately the service is going to suffer.

Higher costs don’t guarantee higher quality. But it does improve the chances dramatically.

You have to understand that this is a significant time saver, if done correctly. So what is your time worth?

Many people spend 3-6hrs per week just prepping meals.

If you were to be given an additional 3-6hrs per week, what could you do with them?

If you now have more time with your family or to work on your business, what would that be worth?

If the answer is, more than the difference in cost between your current food spend and this, then you are better off.

And remember, don’t treat this as an additional spend. You would have eaten food anyway. So it’s not the cost of the meals, but the difference in cost.

And these meals are still comparable to the cost of a ready meal and a lot cheaper than a take-away, yet they will add so much more value to your life through improved health and energy.

With the Halliday’s Option, you are not committing to a long-term sign up. You can just place one single order. And if you use our code DCS10off at the checkout, you will receive 10% off your first order too. And the meals are spectacularly good quality.

Tips:

Put the time in to finding the right company. Time spent getting it right in the beginning will save time and frustration later.

Take the time to consider the benefit versus cost. How much time will you save? Could you spend that time cooking yourself (or if you can’t cook, taking lessons or practicing)? If you simply need the knowledge and guidance on how to make your meals, use Nate’s course (above). If, however, the saving of time is a good investment, it shouldn’t be an issue. Plus you are not committed to continued orders, so if it doesn’t work out, just don’t order next week.

Check the menus. If you are a fussy eater, make sure there is a huge variety and rotating menu. If you have any allergies, ensure they work with that. And if you just like certain food types, make sure they are on the menu (I eat a lot of fish and this seems to be very lacking in the options most commonly given. This is another reason for loving the Halliday’s menu. Cajun Salmon with Parmesan greens is a particular delight).

Try it once. Providing it is not a subscription service (with long-term commitments) there is no harm in ordering a week’s worth of food and giving it a go. If you find it doesn’t save you the time you though, you don’t like the food, or you don’t feel the benefit, don’t order again. Ultimately though, you have to eat, so why not try this route for a week and see if it truly makes a difference.

Now what is your excuse?

Given everything above and the resources available, if you still feel it is impossible to, at least, improve your nutritional approach, then you should have a read at these 41 excuses to check you are not using one of them.

Sometimes priorities must put your focus in places other than yourself. But do that for too long and your value to those you are giving your time and effort to will diminish as your health and energy worsens.

Your health and well-being is your greatest asset. Without it, nothing else can flourish.

Put yourself first but do it one step at a time.

Whatever route is the easiest to fit into your current lifestyle, start there.

You can always improve as you go on.

And as your health and energy levels improve, you will be better primed to implement even more.

Rather, take the time you need to prepare. Just, don’t use that as an excuse to procrastinate.

You only need to give yourself an hour or so to get your mind in the right place. Maybe a day to do some research into the ‘how’ element. Then another hour or two putting it all together.

Hopefully with that behind you, this year will be the year where you make real, life changing, resolutions.

Ones that you will stick to and follow through on.

After all, you will have a detailed plan and if you stick to the plan, how can you fail?

I wish you every success

Eating Healthy with a Busy Schedule
Eating Healthy
with a busy schedule by Mark Tiffney

Are you ready?

Now you have the tools at your disposal, which is the starting point you are going to take action with?

Click on the one that best suits you right now and get started:

If you have any other routes to offer, please post them in the comments below and help others find their ideal path to success.

Good eating and good health.

Mark.

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