I was sitting in a crowded area a couple of months ago, listening in on a conversation between two moms about eating healthy. Both of these moms are drastically overweight, and I think it is GREAT that they were having this talk about how to start eating healthier. What wasn't great was what their idea of healthy food is, it was shocking.
They were talking about packing food to go to the beach and how they used to just eat the concessions food but now they decided to stop eating that "junk food" and pack ahead of time. GREAT! However, they went on to talk about what they packed. They said they were bringing lunchables, chex mix and fruit snacks... ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Everything they mentioned is prepared packaged food loaded with preservatives, sodium and lacking nutrition. Let's start with the lunchables, this is not healthy and if you give these to yourself or your children please stop. Look at the ingredients, can you even understand half of it? The lunch meat is loaded with preservatives and nitrates, horrible for you. They have well over an entire day's allotment of sodium. Chex Mix not sure why I have to clarify that this is not healthy, but I will. Look at the ingredients, may of it you can't even pronounce which typically means it is not good for you. Again, the sodium content is unbelievably high. Sodium can lead to so many health problems and it also has a lot to do with why even children are so overweight. I will leave the detailed sodium discussion for another blog. Now to the fruit snacks, just because it has the word "fruit" does NOT make it healthy! Again, look at the ingredients and you will see words that are unrecognizable and corn syrup and food coloring, none of which is good for you at all.
So how do you eat healthy when you are on the go. This isn't just about packing for the beach, it's about packing food when you are out and about and how to make healthy choices for you and your family. Sure it is easier and quicker to grab something that is already packaged, but it is not the healthy choice. You first need to make sure you set aside a little extra time to prepare some food to bring. It doesn't have to take long, at the most 10 minutes. We take 10 minutes to stop and put gas in our car, so take 10 minutes to put good fuel in your body too. Grab a cooler and put fresh fruit in it. It takes as long to grab an apple or an orange as it does to grab a bag of chex mix, so no excuses there. Carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and grape tomatoes are another great snack to put in your cooler. Peel your carrots, cut up your vegetables the day you buy them and have them ready to grab in your refrigerator. I do this once a week and it makes my entire week so much easier to stay on track. If you must have a dip with them buy a ranch from the healthy foods section and look at the ingredients! Or make one with plain greek yogurt and seasonings like dill and garlic. Did you know that most mainstream ranch dressings have MSG in them??? So now some of you are probably saying, well I don't like fruit or I don't like raw vegetables... well I don't love them either but I know my body needs them so I eat them. There are so many to choose from, I am sure that you can find some that you will eat and figure out the best way that works for you to eat them. I had to start by flash steaming my veggies and then cooling them - especially the broccoli and cauliflower. I don't love them raw, but I like them slightly cooked and even chilled after cooking them. Now I can finally eat them raw. I also like to cut up a ton of vegetables and marinate them in a light balsamic vinaigrette or a light italian dressing. You can make your own with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and italian seasoning or buy one that has good ingredients. Poor it on your veggies, shake it up and let them soak in it in the fridge.
Basically keep a small cooler handy in your kitchen to load in your healthy food options to bring with you when you are out and about. If you are thinking that your kids won't eat fruit and vegetables as a snack... I bet they will if that is all you have. They are not going to let themselves starve and if you stand your ground your children will also learn to like these foods the more they eat them. I also put Thousand Hills beef sticks in my cooler and Organic Cheese Sticks, my kids love these. Hard boiled eggs are another easy on-the-go snack - just try not to load it with salt and if you do use salt, use sea salt! You need less because sea salt is natural and has so much more flavor in smaller amounts. My rule is that my kids have to eat a fruit or a vegetable before having anything else. They are learning to like more and more veggies by doing this! I also will bake or grill chicken breasts and then slice them into strips and keep it in the fridge. It is another great thing to grab and snack on. Make some lettuce wraps using a large leaf lettuce, some of that chicken and chopped up tomatoes and cucumbers... you can add some hummus or garlic laughing cow cheese. Wrap it up in plastic wrap. Make them ahead of time and keep them in your fridge to grab when you need it, they will hold up for a few days prepared in advance.
We are all busy and can make all the excuses in the world as to why it is easier to grab a packaged food instead of a healthier raw food choice. Stop making excuses and start prepping. Do things that will make it easier to grab healthy choices. If you are someone that thinks things like Lunchables and Baked Doritos are healthy snacks I encourage you to start educating yourself on nutrition and eating healthy. The first step is to try to avoid buying or eating things that come from a package. I know it is not realistic for some people to eliminate these foods entirely, but start to TRY. Start with what you snack on and make small changes, baby steps, to eating healthier snacks. Then start to tackle other meals. I will continually blog about some healthier choices for all of our meals and I hope that you can learn from them. I also hope that people will take some time to comment here on some healthy on-the-go snack choices they like for themselves or for their kids to give everyone more ideas. Now I am craving some marinated veggies, good thing I still have some prepped and ready to grab in my fridge!
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