As a nutritionist working in practice, this is one of the main obstacles that I am faced with from my patients. They want to lose the weight and eat a healthier diet, but they have one main downfall, they are too busy to cook. And this is when they tend to fall off the wagon.

Our lives today are constantly packed with work, family, friends, exercising, socialising and hobbies. We are time poor as it is, and the last thing people want to do when they get home, is to cook for themselves or their families. This is when a takeaway becomes an option – even though it’s not good for their health or weight.

When I talk to my patients about tackling this obstacle, the one thing we focus on is TIME. We want to make food prep and cooking as easy and quick as possible, as well as being nutritious and healthy. These are my tips on how to plan and make time for healthy home-cooked dinners.

1. FOOD PREPARATION – setting aside a couple of hours a week to prepare your food for the week makes life so much easier. All you have to do when you come home in the evening is either put your food in the oven or re-heat what you have prepared, stopping you from phoning that takeaway company.
2. SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE – yes your meals do not have to be gourmet or restaurant quality, stick to simple foods that do not take time to prepare or cook such as a one pan casserole or a stir fry.
3. PLAN YOUR MEALS – knowing what you are going to eat each night will take the pressure off from deciding what to have on the night. You are busy enough each day so having this already planned will stop you from getting stressed and just not bothering to cook.
4. GET THE FAMILY INVOLVED – make cooking a family activity, this way you all get to spend time together as well as making a healthy nutritious meal. Make fun and interesting meals maybe opting to cook a different type of cuisine each week.
5. SHOP ONCE A WEEK – set aside to do your weekly shop once a week, write a list of all the ingredients that you need to make your meals for the week, this way you have everything at home ready to make a meal and you aren’t spending extra time each day popping to the supermarket.
6. SLOW COOKERS – these are amazing for time poor individuals and families, you can literally put everything in one-pot in the morning, turn it on and when you arrive home that night your meal will be cooked and ready to eat. Make meals such as stews, soups, slow cooked meats and vegetables, curries and Bolognese.
7. FOLLOW RECIPES – there are so many quick and simple recipes on the internet and in cookbooks that you can use from people such as Jamie Oliver and The Body Coach who do 15 and 30 minute quick meals.
8. LEFTOVERS – when cooking an evening meal, make enough for a few other meals that you can eat later on in the week.

If all this fails and you are still struggling to cook a healthy evening meal and opt for a take away, consider these rules when eating in/out.

1. GO FOR BAKED OVER FRIED – when choosing a meal try and go for baked options over fried. So if you ordering a certain type of fish, ask them to bake or pan fry it rather than have it battered and deep fried.
2. CHOOSE WISELY – every restaurant or take out place will have some kind of healthier option, go for a tomato based pasta rather than a creamy pasta, opt for a steak and vegetables rather than steak and chips. These simple changes will cut down your calorie intake.
3. ORDER ENTREES – by ordering a couple of entrees instead of a main meal, will give you a bit more variety and makes sure you don’t overeat.
4. AVOID THE SIDE DISHES – mistakes that we all tend to make when ordering take out is that we love a side dish to go with our mains. So when you next order remember to leave off the poppadum’s to your curry or the garlic bread to go with your pasta dish. These are extra calories that we don’t need to be consuming. It’s called overindulging!
5. BE MINDFUL – if you have eaten a large lunch make sure to eat a smaller dinner. Also use a smaller plate when dishing up your take-out, we have this tendency to want to finish everything on our plate, by reducing the size of your plate you can still finish your meal but you wouldn’t have eaten a huge amount.

There are also many healthy food companies online where you can specify your dietary requirements and they will tailor make your meal for you.

I hope that all these tips help you with cooking a healthy dinner and continue you on your health journey.

Lisa is a qualified nutritionist having completed her advanced diploma in nutritional medicine at The Australian College of Natural Therapies (ACNT). She practices as a nutritionist working in a clinic based in North Sydney, NSW and consults in most areas of health and wellbeing, including but not limited to stress and anxiety, digestive issues, intolerance / allergies, obesity, weight loss, blood sugar imbalances and diabetes. Lisa regularly presents to companies around Sydney about health and nutrition and writes blogs on various nutritional subjects.
Lisa believes that being a Nutritionist is all about helping others to achieve their goals and become the best version of themselves, and assists by sharing her knowledge and experience. In the world that we live in today, everybody needs a little help and push in the right direction. Lisa’s aim is to do exactly that and show all that living a healthy lifestyle does not have to be hard or boring, that it can be an exciting and fun life to live.

To read Lisa’s recent blog Should I be Taking a Probiotic, click here. Follow Lisa’s blog Eat Love Believe on Instagram or Facebook.