Time is one of our greatest assets, but it isn’t always on our side. For many people, a lack of time is the reason that healthy eating is so difficult. When a hundred responsibilities compete for your attention after a long and busy day, it can make cooking a nutritious dinner seem impossible.
Though OPTIFAST products can save you time on healthy meals during medical weight loss in Chandler or Scottsdale, they are not a permanent solution. When you’re ready to make the transition back to normal foods, you won’t be able to rely on the drive-thru menu for a meal when crunched for time. To keep up your weight loss progress, you’ll need to cook your own healthy meals every day, even when time seems too short to allow it.
There are many things you can do to speed the cooking process without sacrificing the nutritional value of your meals. Here are a few ways to save yourself some time as you lose weight in Chandler or Scottsdale:
- Keep things tidy. A messy kitchen can slow you down considerably. Instead of wasting precious minutes every night cleaning or searching for utensils, get your ducks in a row right now. Put similar utensils together in places close to where you’ll use them. Get extraneous stuff out of the way—bulky and unused items can be stored outside the kitchen.
- Plan ahead. You may not be able to scour the internet or your cookbooks for the right recipe when time is of the essence. Instead, sit down one night a week to plan every meal you’ll make in the days ahead. Consider the ingredients you’ll need and buy everything in one trip to the grocery store. You can save even more time by purchasing ready-to-use ingredients like canned and frozen vegetables. These ingredients are sometimes not as tasty or nutritious as their fresh varieties, but they can be a big help with your schedule—just check the label to make sure they’re right for your diet.
- Introduce new tools. Many modern appliances are designed to save you time in the kitchen. A crock pot can be left to slow cook a delicious meal for hours while you’re away, and its large batches will make plenty of leftovers for quick meals later. Besides cooking rice in a jiffy, a rice cooker can be used to steam vegetables and make soups and stews. Though you may associate the microwave with Hot Pockets and TV dinners, it can be used for so much more—try using it to boil vegetables, thaw frozen meat or reheat leftovers from the night before.
Healthy eating depends on healthy cooking, but you don’t have to spend hours over the stove every evening. If you have any more tips on saving time in the kitchen, let us know in the comments!