Find time to eat healthy- cooking healthy when life is always chaotic -tell me your secret!

[Anonymous]

I really struggle in this category. Our life with 2 kids under the age of 5 and two full-time working parents is causing me to eat terrible. I constantly crave carbs and end up drinking more alcohol because of my stress and poor eating habits.

Please tell me your secrets to eating healthier and avoid drinking. I need to lose about 20 pounds!!

[Anonymous]

I am by no means a saint when it comes to healthy eating, but a few things that help me- first, I make vegan chili Sunday night and freeze it into portion size packs. I don't do this every week because I get sick of it but it's a good and filling meal. I find that the better I eat the less I crave crap food...but of course that requires the initial momentum to get started.

Re alcohol, I drink sparkling water from a wine glass instead. The less often I drink, the more crappy alcohol makes me feel when I do drink it, so then I am more likely to save it for special occasions.

[Anonymous]

I find that eating healthy takes less time. Steamed broccoli & baked salmon are a 15 min meal. Marinate chicken overnight in olive oil, salt and italian seasining and 20 min on the grill night of dinner with salad. Olive oil, lemmon & salt on shrimp and sautee for 5 min. Use tin foil for easy clean up. I keep a huge bowl o salad in the fridge which lasts a few days.

[Anonymous]

I'm not quitting for good, just cleaning my liver, but I haven't had a drink for five weeks and have lost 10 lbs. Instead, I have soda water with lime.

[Anonymous]

I was drinking a lot at one point and decided I needed to stop. DH immediately said he'd stop too, and moved all the alcohol out of the house, into the garage.

On weekends after getting home from the farmer's market, I wash and chop all the veggies and fruit. I make enough stock for the week and freeze it. Slice the loaf of bread we bought and freeze that, sometimes make gravy and freeze it in one cup portions for pasta nights.

We use a slow cooker probably twice a week, and order in once a week. Breakfast for dinner is once a week because it's easy and quick to make a veggie omlette and french toast with fruit salad.

Our plates are half veggies or salad (or both), a quarter protein, and a quarter starch. I bring snacks to work and eat one around 3:30 or 4pm so that I don't arrive home starving and grab a bag of chips. My snack is fruit or nuts or something.

[Anonymous]

I make a few cold (bean type) salads on Sunday nights that last the week. I buy those pistachios already shelled and put them in snack bags. I make a few hard boiled eggs and have them in the fridge ready to go. I go to Costco and get the big pack of chix breast, marinate, grill, and chop and then put in single portions in the freezer and nuke up and put over salad greens. I have chili in single servings in the freezer. For me I will eat it plain, for the kids I will cook macaroni noodles and make them chili mac.

I use my Vitamix...a lot.

I have no option other than to be organized. I'm gluten free and work out 6 days a week. There is no way I would be able to work full time, exercise and eat healthy if I did not plan and prep. I usually have one big prep day and then the rest of the week is so easy, I'm on auto pilot.

[Anonymous]

For salads, prep things ahead of time and store them in tuperware.

Chop up greens, put in container. Do the same with carrots, cucumbers, peppers, etc. Each gets their own container.

I like putting toasted walnuts on salads, so I toast those in bulk and just keep them in the pantry.

When you're ready for a salad, it literally will take you 60 seconds, since everything is ready to go.