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Keep Healthy Snacks At Your Desk

Keep Healthy Snacks At Your Desk

Most of the time, the only way to have healthy snacks at work is to keep healthy snacks your desk. A healthy eating plan should include healthy snacks for mid morning and mid afternoon. In fact, snacks round out a healthy eating plan and provide additional nutrients to ensure you get all the nutrients you need throughout the day. Eating healthy, lower calorie snacks also help ensure you don’t overeat or ravage the candy counter in the grocery or gas station on your way home from work. You’ll avoid the urge to raid the vending machine and save money in the process when you have healthy snacks.

Fresh fruit can be easy to store in your desk.

If you’re an on the go person, carrying an apple, orange or banana with you makes snacking super easy. If you work where there’s a refrigerator available, fresh vegetables and cantaloupe or watermelons cut into bite size pieces can be added to your snacking. In fact, I highly recommend that people cut up melons the minute they get home and wash cherries and berries, so they’re ready to eat. A tablespoon of nut butter and a half apple make a great snack. Nut butter has a shelf life of two or three months. If you don’t eat it often, either buy a small jar or store your jar in the refrigerator at home and take a small amount to work in a small container.

A bag of air popped popcorn or your make-it-yourself microwave popcorn from is a tasty snack.

Air popped popcorn is the best, but if you don’t have an air popper, making your own microwave popcorn can be a great alternative and far cheaper than those bags of microwave popcorn you buy at the store. You need small paper lunch sacks, 1/4 cup popcorn kernels and a microwave. Pour the popcorn in the bag, loosely fold the top so you don’t have kernels spilling out and pop approximately 2 to 21/2 minutes, when there are more than three seconds between pops. Remove and season. One tablespoon of Parmesan Cheese as a topper is only 22 calories.

Create your own trail mix or baggies of mixed nuts.

The other day, I was running late and absolutely starved. I was near a grocery and decided to run inside and grab some trail mix to replenish myself and my stash at home. I couldn’t believe it! Every bag of trail mix had M&Ms. I’ve always made my own, so you can imagine my surprise. Instead, I bought some raw almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and craisins. The basic recipe is mixing two parts of nuts to one part of seeds and one part a mixture of dried fruit, popcorn, dark chocolate chips and other healthy items. I actually don’t add dark chocolate, but it is healthy enough in tiny amounts.

  • Snacks for work should be prepackaged in single serving sizes so you aren’t tempted to eat more than the single serving size. A handful of nuts, one ounce, is an excellent snack. A pound of almonds isn’t.
  • A half apple and a tablespoon of butter has approximately 135 to 150 calories. It provides healthy fat, protein, fiber and other nutrients.
  • Take an avocado and cut it in half and add some hot sauce on top for a tasty treat. Leave the pit in the remaining half and cover it for later use. Avocados turn dark quickly so putting the cut side on onions or sprinkled with lemon juice will keep it fresh longer.
  • We have some great ideas for at work snacks that are low in carbs and calories but high in nutrition. There’s a dip from pureed beets that I love and makes even the blandest vegetables taste good.

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Love To Eat, Hate To Exercise

Love To Eat, Hate To Exercise

No matter how much you want to lose weight, if you love to eat, but hate to exercise you’ll find that losing weight seems like an insurmountable task. It’s not. While it’s not going to be easy, it’s easier when you first commit to shedding pounds and start by taking baby steps. Create a list with all the changes you need to make to lose weight and a weight goal you want to reach. One-by-one, start including those changes in your lifestyle.

Cut back on processed and fried foods and load up on veggies.

Sometimes, changing the order of food you eat can make a huge change and help you shed pounds. Pick out four vegetables to go with every meal and serve the other foods you’d normally eat, but cut the portion in half. Eat the vegetables first and follow with the half serving of the food you’d normally eat. Do this for a while and after a few weeks, substitute fresh fruit for dessert.

Build on that base of healthy eating.

Once you become adept at increasing the portions of vegetables, start focusing on your main dish. Instead of fried chicken, go with baked, grilled or air fried. Learn to make substitutions when cooking, like replacing oil and sugar in baked goods with unsweetened apple sauce or using Greek yogurt for sour cream.

Getting more exercise is important even if you aren’t trying to lose weight.

Exercise doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a formal program, although that does ensure you’ll improve your cardio, strength, flexibility and balance fitness and work on all muscle groups. It can start with something as simple as walking each day, or turning up the radio and dancing like nobody’s watching for a half an hour. Find something you love that is active, whether it’s walking, riding a bike or even roller skating and do it.

  • Start experimenting with new foods. You’ll be amazed at how delicious spaghetti squash is when you use it to replace pasta or love the eggplant or zucchini lasagna that’s richer in nutrients and lower in calories.
  • Make an effort to get more exercise in non-traditional ways. Park further from the grocery, take the stairs instead of the elevator or find a two, three, four or more minute short workout to do every time you have a few minutes.
  • Change a regular walk to an HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout by varying the speed you walk. Walk as fast as you can for a while, followed by a short period of recovery where you keep a moderate pace. It’s one of the fastest ways of getting into shape.
  • Make an effort to do something new and active. It might be actually signing up and working with a trainer, learning kettlebells or taking up hiking. If you don’t like it, try something else.

Fit Men Cook

Fit Men Cook

Great bodies are created in the kitchen and the gym just does the fine tuning. What you eat determines not only your health, but also how well you build muscle tissue and your workout endurance. You shouldn’t leave that important job to anyone else, particularly a fast food restaurant. That’s why it’s important to know that fit men cook.

You won’t build big muscles or even be healthy unless you eat a wholesome well balanced diet.

What you eat can even help you build muscle tissue faster. If you’re grabbing your meals out of the freezer section or even at fast food restaurants, it’s time to make changes. The closer you eat foods to their natural state, the more nutrient packed it will be. You can get as fancy as you want, creating sauces and using fresh herbs with a meal that takes longer to prepare or just keep it simple, grilling vegetables and meat or fish and serving them with pasta rice or a salad. You might actually find you love cooking especially when the results taste so good and are healthy.

Don’t forget to include snacks to your list of foods to make.

Snacks are an important part of your diet. They should be high in protein and essential amino acids to supply the building blocks for muscle tissue and keep you feeling full longer. If you’re building muscle tissue, you also need adequate calories, but not so many calories that you fail to burn fat. Even though real men cook, that doesn’t mean the recipes can’t be simple. (Women love this type of recipe, too!) Want a summer treat that’s ready when you are? Blend together either a cup of blueberries or strawberries or a frozen banana with 3 1/3 tablespoons of cottage cheese, 2 tsp of whey protein and ½ tsp milk. Pour in a container and freeze for at least 30 minutes. It’s loaded with protein, plus healthy carbs to provide the energy to keep you going.

Lots of times, healthy cooking requires a good recipe and lots of chopping.

Many healthy recipes are simple, yet pack the most power for the punch. It should have a source of high quality protein, like skinless baked chicken (26 grams) or 1 cup of cooked lentils 18 grams. You need carbohydrates for fuel for your muscles. Whole grain breads, fruits and vegetables are good sources. Add in some healthy fat, like an avocado or some nuts and you have a diet that’s ready to help you build muscle tissue fast, while keeping you healthier.

  • Finely chop 1 ½ C cooked skinless chicken. Add ¼ C toasted chopped pecans and chopped apple and 1 Tbsp. dried cranberries. Mix in a tablespoon plain Greek yogurt and drizzle with ¼ to ½ C balsamic vinaigrette and toss. Salt and pepper to taste and chill. It makes two servings to top Romaine or spinach or serve on whole grain bread.
  • Salads take on a new twist when you top them with grilled vegetables and grilled shrimp or chicken. Chop up some avocado and add some herbs like cilantro and you’ll be congratulating yourself on being a chef with a focus on good health.
  • Make your breakfast filled with more than just a bowl of oatmeal. If you have leftover vegetables and some mushrooms from the grill, toss them in the pan and then crack a few eggs for a scramble that boosts your health.
  • For a delicious, nutritious meal, top two cups of pasta, or spaghetti squash if you’re trying to lose weight, with 6-8 ounces of ground beef fried with broccoli, onions and mushrooms. Add a side of salad and some fruit for dessert.

Everyday Health

Everyday Health

There are a number of reasons people in Florida exercise and focus on healthy eating. Sometimes, it’s all about body image, but most of the time, improving their everyday health is their top priority. There are so many lifestyle changes that affect your good health, but for most people, focusing on healthy eating and regular exercise makes a huge difference in the quality of life and overall good health.

It’s pretty obvious that alcohol, drug and tobacco can play a huge negative role in your health.

What’s less obvious is the role that eating fast food or processed food and a sedentary lifestyle plays. In fact, globally, a bad diet impacts the health negatively more often than alcohol abuse, drug abuse and tobacco combined. Of course, the consequences should never be minimized and the study by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition was taking a world view which included malnutrition in countries where food was scarce, but it does make a point.

You can be starving, yet still overweight.

It’s sad to say, but too often people trying to lose weight are also malnourished. They consume to many calories that are empty and contain no nutrients. Candy is one of the biggest offenders and so are some of the so called granola bars or granola (which often contains candy). It’s not just what you eat, but what you drink, too. Soft drinks are the biggest offender, but most fruit drinks are too. It’s time to take charge and start providing your body with all the nutrients it needs for a healthy, long life.

Make it green and make it fresh.

How can you turn your health and eating habits around? Start by making sure you have more fresh fruits and vegetables on your plate. If you want to get really creative, start substitutions. Use spaghetti squash instead of the pasta spaghetti. Have a salad with each meal and make sure it contains more than just iceberg lettuce. Romaine and red leaf lettuce are better choices. Add some arugula, kale, cabbage and spinach, plus tomatoes, red pepper and even some onions and you have a bowl of nutrients ready for the dressing. Eating healthy means making small changes that become habits. Consider using Greek yogurt with a live culture over sour cream for your baked potato. Drink water instead of grabbing a soft drink.

  • Don’t forget about exercise. Make every movement part of your exercise program. When doing house or yard work, put your whole body into the effort and work fast to build endurance.
  • Take a break away from the computer every fifty minutes and get up and walk around or do a few jumping jacks. Studies show that prolonged sitting is just as lethal as no exercise at all.
  • Avoid processed foods and those with ingredients you can’t pronounce. The fresher the food, the better.
  • Cut out added sugar. It’s lethal and addictive. Eat foods for a week or two that contain no added sugar. If you crave something sweet, grab a few grapes or a slice of apple with some nut butter. After your trial run of a week or two, you’ll notice you no longer crave a sugary fix.

Lose Mommy Belly

Lose Mommy Belly

If you live in Florida, you know that the clothing is often casual and skimpy….particularly in the hot summer months. Those revealing clothes are a huge incentive to lose mommy belly. If you’ve had a child, you know exactly what that means. Right after delivery, you look down and what was once a bump is now flat again, at least until you stand up. That’s when you suddenly see a ball of belly drop! The muscles are stretched and they take time to help you get back into shape. Hanging belly is made worse by extra pounds. Most women gain a few extra pounds when they’re pregnant, so losing that weight is necessary, too.

Start by eating healthier.

You’re a new mom, so expect to be tired and not quite ready to put hours into meal prep. Don’t worry, some of the best ways to shed pounds and eat healthy is to eat whole foods that are closest to their natural state. Don’t skip meals, you need your energy. Make sure you have healthy snacks available. Eating five or six times a day is better for reducing belly fat than eating three big meals. Enjoy your meal. Take time to savor the flavor. You’ll be tempted to eat on the run…but don’t! Get plenty of fiber and drink at least twelve cups of water a day. Cut out sweets and use fruit and nuts or other healthy food as a treat.

Start your exercise program when your doctor gives you the okay!

I know a woman who thought she’d start her workout program immediately after childbirth. While it wasn’t a good decision, luckily for her she had been quite active before delivery, so it didn’t cause a problem. Most doctors recommend waiting to start a rigorous exercise program for six to eight weeks. You don’t have to sit idly by during that time. Take baby for walks and get active or go to the pool and walk in the water.

Start working out slowly.

When you and your doctor feel that it’s time for a formal workout program, start slowly. While you need to do abdominal exercises and those to strengthen the pelvic girdle, total body fitness is the way to go. Strength building exercises can burn tons of calories, plus build you up to carry baby as he or she grows. HIIT workouts allow you to set your own pace and can provide strength, flexibility and aerobic workouts all in one.

  • Get adequate sleep. That may sound tough when you first deliver, babies don’t keep your schedule! Take frequent naps to help your body get back into shape and keep your hunger hormones in check.
  • Do isometric exercises, such as tightening and relaxing stomach muscles. Blow all the air out of your lungs, pull your stomach in and hold as you breathe in slowly.
  • Don’t skip meals. Eating healthy foods throughout the day can keep your metabolism at top speed and help you shed those baby pounds.
  • Don’t expect overnight miracles. It may take six to twelve months to get your body back to normal. If you’re having trouble losing baby belly after a year, it may be time to get help from a trainer.

Fitness Is Mental

Fitness Is Mental

You probably equate getting fit with working out in the gym and eating healthy foods, which makes it seem purely physical, but the truth is, fitness is mental. That’s right. Getting fit starts first in the mind, long before the physical side is even started. In order to be successful, it requires perseverance and mental toughness. It takes determination. That’s why approaching it as a goal makes more sense. Goals define what you want to achieve, plus provide a path to achieve it and a way to measure success.

To be successful physically, you have to identify it clearly mentally.

What do you really want? Do you want to lose ten pounds? Feel great again? Increase your energy? Those are all ways people identify their version of fitness. It has to be something achievable, measurable and really important to you. Looking like a specific movie star may not be possible, but becoming the best you is. You need a strong reason to and goal to keep you going when the road gets rough.

How will you keep that mental power going?

One reason you track your progress and set goals is to boost your motivation. Seeing progress is extremely important to sticking with any program. It keeps you focused and motivated to stick with it, even when it’s tough. Don’t just use weight loss as a measurement. Use inches lost, energy gained, amount of weight you can lift or distance you can run. I’ve worked with people who wanted to get fit to help relieve back or joint pain. They tracked their fitness by hours without pain and eventually days without pain.

Ask yourself if you really want that last slice of pie.

Eating healthy doesn’t mean depriving yourself of all the unhealthy foods. You can still eat that occasional piece of pie or bag of chips. It just means making smart food decisions most of the time. Ask yourself before you eat high calorie food that have limited nutrition whether you really want that particular food. It’s extremely important when you first start, especially if you eat a lot of sugar. Sugar is highly addictive, so you might find you crave it. That’s when the mental side kicks in and helps you skip it until eating healthy becomes a habit.

  • Getting fit means forming new habits. One of those is drinking more water. If you normally drink sugary soft drinks, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel when you drink water and how much easier it is to lose weight, particularly if you drink them often throughout the day.
  • Planning is important when you get fit. It means including your workout in your schedule and planning meals ahead of time, so you aren’t tempted to grab carryout.
  • Your attitude is extremely important as you work toward fitness. Focus on enjoying your workout and healthy eating habits, rather than on the negative.
  • Speaking of enjoyment, consider getting a fitness partner. It’s more fun to workout with someone, which is why group sessions are so popular. Sharing goals and successes with another person helps you stick with a program and be even more successful.

Burn Fat While Sleeping

Burn Fat While Sleeping

Yes, you can burn fat while sleeping. Your body is constantly burning calories, even when you sleep. There are ways to boost that number, too. However, burning calories isn’t the only way sleep helps you. Besides benefiting your body and keeping you alert, it helps you stay thin in another way. No matter how many calories you burn, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. When lack sleep, it causes your hunger hormones to increase and those that make you feel full to be limited. Lack of sleep causes overeating!

Studies show that lack of sleep causes weight gain.

If you sleep less, you might find that you gain weight easier. One review found that the potential for obesity increased by 55 percent in adults and a whopping 89 percent in children who lacked adequate sleep. The Nurses study that tracked the sleep habits of 60 thousand nurses who weren’t obese for sixteen years found that those who slept just five hours or less were fifteen percent more likely to be obese than those who slept seven or more hours. One small study showed that cutting back sleep for a group of adults to five hours for just five nights showed a weight gain of almost two pounds!

When you get adequate sleep, it keeps your metabolism at full throttle.

Not only will you have more energy to workout when you get adequate sleep, you’ll be more resolved to stick with your workout program. Keeping your metabolism running at full force is important to weight loss. If you want to boost belly blasting, keep your room cooler. Studies show that keeping the temperature in the room at 66 degrees doubled the amount of belly fat lost compared to those who slept in 75 and 81 degree rooms.

Try some protein at bedtime.

Casein protein, such as that found in cottage cheese, can actually boost the amount of calories you burn as you sleep. It takes a long time to digest, approximately seven hours, which means it keeps your metabolism going strong throughout the night. It also helps prevent early morning hunger, which is good if you workout first thing in the morning. One study showed that consuming the protein casein before bed helped improve muscle repair and strength, while burning an extra 30 to 35 calories. Not only does cottage cheese contain casein, it also contains tryptophan that improves your sleep.

  • Do strength training resistance exercises after work. Strength building exercises boost your metabolism for up to 16 hours, which means you’ll be burning more calories as you sleep.
  • Turn out the lights and all technology to get the best possible sleep.
  • If you use the snooze, you don’t lose. Rather than setting your alarm for an hour early and allow yourself to hit the snooze, set it for the time you intend to get up. You’ll get better sleep that helps keep pounds off when you don’t interrupt it every 15 minutes to hit the snooze button.
  • Establish a bed time and wake up time and stick with it, even on weekends. It helps you get better REM sleep that affects the number of calories you burn. This deep sleep state is when you burn the most.

Workout Tips For Busy Moms

Workout Tips For Busy Moms

I get a lot of requests from clients in Florida, for help. One of the biggest problems they have is fitting exercise and a healthy lifestyle into their schedule. It’s especially a problem for moms, whether they work outside the home or not. They have so many demands on their time that are controlled by others, whether it’s the boss at work, the children’s schedule or a spouse. That makes carving out time for themselves almost impossible. Here are some workout tips for busy moms that can help make working out regularly easier.

Make your workout a priority, not a luxury.

Feeling selfish about carving out time is one of the biggest hurdles busy moms have. I’ve actually seen mom’s put off going to the doctor for medical conditions, using their child’s school trip or other family needs as the reason. Some misguided moms think that taking care of their health is a luxury, but they’re wrong. In fact, it’s selfish not to make sure you’re in good health and stay that way. If you aren’t healthy, not only is there no one to take care of your family, someone has to take care of you. Working out regularly and eating healthy should be a top priority. Treat it as such and schedule it into your week.

Create a routine and get the kids involved in working out and staying fit.

Younger children often love working out with mom. When working out is part of your schedule, you are more apt to do it. The kids also know that it’s your time to get fit. Make it a rule that if they need you, they have to join you in exercise. If you’re doing jumping jacks and they want to tattle on brother or sister, they have to do jumping jacks with you to report the infraction. It actually makes it more fun when you have a workout zone where everyone who enters joins the routine.

Create healthy meals and make them on your days off work.

If you are a stay-at-home mom, devote one or two hours each week to meal planning and creating a grocery list for healthy eating, a specific time to shop and two days to prepare the weekly fare. Make sure you double the recipes, so you can freeze meals ahead. In a few weeks, you’ll have healthy meals and snacks ready with only a few hours of prep, since you’ll already have enough meals ready to use in the freezer.

  • You don’t have to do an exercise routine every day, some of your workout can be devoted to fun kid time. Hiking, biking and even hula hooping provide the exercise you need and a fun family time.
  • Get up earlier. Nobody wants to have to get up before the family to get in workout time, but sometimes there’s no alternative. It’s one option to work it in your day.
  • Get adequate sleep. To be your best, you need plenty of sleep to have the energy. Getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night will help you stay healthier and make it easier to lose weight.
  • Share your goals. If your kids are old enough, share your goals. Put reminder signs up, post a schedule and keep your goal in front of you. Letting the kids know that success comes from setting goals and the creating the steps to achieve them is a huge lesson in life.

Habits Of Healthy People

Habits Of Healthy People

You may have heard of the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which helps identify the habits, so the reader can do them and become highly effective. It’s no different from learning the habits of healthy people. Once you know them, you can develop them and become healthier for life. One of the habits most people recognize is that healthy people are active people. That doesn’t mean they’re working 24/7, but that they take time to play and get plenty of healthy exercise. Even if you do physical work throughout the week, it often means repeated motions and focus on endurance or strength building. Taking free time to balance the workout and even enjoy the time is important.

Healthy people eat healthier.

If you’re a junk food junkie, you’re probably not the healthiest person you know. Eating healthy means eating more whole foods and far less processed food or even cutting out processed foods completely. Healthy people often make meals over the weekend so all they have to do is warm them and assemble them during the week, which is a lot easier than standing in line at a take out restaurant and often tastes far better, too. Learn to plan menus, shop and prepare foods ahead and you’ll ensure healthier eating.

Healthy people understand portion control and also know that sometimes a bit of cake doesn’t hurt.

While you might eat healthy most of the time, sometimes, you can indulge in some less than stellar selections occasionally. Healthy people don’t want to be those people that require specific food at parties or turn down a dinner invitation with friends because it’s not the type of food they eat. Eating the occasional quickie burger and fries isn’t a great choice, but as long as it’s occasional, it’s not a problem. One thing you’ll probably find after eating healthy for a while is that even your favorite cake or pie will taste far too sweet and nothing like you remember. Those fries you’ve coveted since you started healthy eating, won’t taste nearly as good as you thought. Occasionally eating less than healthy food will actually eliminate most of your cravings.

Healthy people hang out with other healthy people.

If you’re an active person, you’ll be more likely to have friends that are active, too. Once people get on the healthy lifestyle track, they often find that they add friends to their circle of friends that enjoy a healthy lifestyle. That doesn’t mean you desert old friends in favor of new ones. In fact, it actually could mean you introduce your old friends to some of the fun you have with your new lifestyle or invite them for healthy meals.

  • Healthy people smile more. Studies show that people who smile more tend to live longer. Other studies show that laughter really is good for your health. Being optimistic is a direct road to good health.
  • Healthy people drink plenty of water throughout the day. In fact, water is often the drink of choice for healthy people. If you’re drinking eight glasses a day, you’re on the road to a healthy habit.
  • Healthy people take time to rest mentally and wind down throughout the day. Whether it’s just taking a few alone minutes or practicing meditation, healthy people take time to defuse throughout the day to reduce stress and tension.
  • Don’t forget to get eight hours of sleep. The average person needs seven to nine hours of sleep to function their best. Healthy people get that sleep in a dark room, without any interference from electronic devices like TVs or computers.

Beginner's Guide To Food Prep

Beginner’s Guide To Food Prep

Eating healthy doesn’t normally come naturally. It’s tough to break old habits of carry-out, quickie meals and sugary snacks. That’s why setting goals, planning meals ahead and preparing them ahead is a huge benefit. If all you have to do is warm and serve, you’ll be more apt to eat healthier, especially when you’ve had a long day. This beginner’s guide to food prep can help you start your program of healthy eating and eliminate some of the pitfalls.

If you aren’t already using a healthy eating meal planning program, create your own.

Take an hour to scan the grocery sales and include the in-season fruits and vegetables when you plan your meals. Once you identify the primary ingredients you’ll use, find healthy recipes that store well for your weekly menu. If you’re buying a special ingredient, such as fresh cilantro, find a recipe that uses it for other meals if you want it fresh or freeze it in ice cube trays and use it in cooked recipes later. Nothing will go to waste when you plan. Fresh fruits and vegetables make great snacks and can be used in recipes throughout the week. Anything left over makes a great soup.

Make shopping a once a week job you do after you eat.

Whether you shop at night or during the day, don’t do it without eating first or you’ll find your cart filled with impulse options, like sweet treats or crunchy chips. Take your shopping list with you. It should include all the ingredients you need for the meals and for snacks. Snacks play an important role in healthy eating. They help prevent overeating at meal time or grabbing a quick candy bar or sweet treat between meals. Get the kids involved in helping you choose the snacks, but do it when you’re planning meals, not at the grocery. You can narrow their choices by allowing them to pick the fresh fruit, healthy dip or vegetables to serve as snacks. Ants on a log, celery filled with peanut butter with raisins dotting the top, or yogurt with fresh fruit, are examples of choices.

Take two days to devote to the weekly cooking.

If you’re working outside the home during the week, use the weekend for your cooking spree. Make double the recipe, so you have some to eat during the week and meals to store for another week. At first, you’ll have to cook all the meals in two days, but eventually, you’ll have enough stored up to cut cooking to one day and plenty of meals ready to eat in the freezer.

  • When you make meals ahead, you’ll have plenty ready to heat and serve. You can even create one free day when the family gets to pick out exactly what they want to eat from the stored food.
  • Label your frozen foods with the name of the food and the date stored. It’s easier to have portion control when you buy divided meal containers for meal storage.
  • There’s never any waste if you plan ahead. Instead of throwing out, store some leftovers that aren’t used in freezer bags and when you have enough, make soup! If you make a rotisserie chicken in your air fryer, use the bones for bone broth.
  • Creating healthy snacks isn’t hard and it also cuts down on meal prep time. Wash up fresh fruits and vegetables and have them ready in eat in bite size pieces. They provide snacks and the ready ingredients for a healthy stir fry or other menu option.