Diet Tips For Busy Women: Stay Trim On The Run!

by Lani Muelrath, M.A., the Fitness DreamMaker

Too busy to eat right?  Well, I have some EASY solutions for you;  in just 2 minutes you'll have a whole new arsenal of ideas about how to stay trim AND healthy while busy during the workweek, travel, or in whatever busy situation you find yourself!  Here is a short instructional video, followed by my video notes…

It's really no secret. Staying slim is a science AND an art, though simple if you are first armed with some basic knowledge.

And critical to successfully getting and staying slender is implementation of that knowledge with strategic planning.  And a little planning can go a LONG way toward keeping you trim, as I proved to myself last weekend!  More about that in a minute….

Put Your Knowledge To Work With Simple Action

Universal, conventional wisdom tells us that a d*iet rich in colorful, high water content vegetable is a star in the "plus" column for not only good nutrition science, but becoming and staying slim.  Right?

The challenge then can become getting those servings in our daily food plans.  I recommend, and personally aspire to, 5-6 servings of colorful, fibrous, high water content vegetables a day.

What does this look like?  A "serving" is about 1/2 cup of raw, steamed, or stir-fried veggies, or about a cup of leafy greens.  Generally, a green salad with my avocado/tomato sandwich at lunch, for example, gets me at least halfway there;  steamed veggies and crunchy crudites usually take me the rest of the way at about dinner.

This is the fashion in which I can ensure, day by day, that I am maximizing nutrition when it comes to vegetables.  Some days more, some days less, it all comes out in the wash.  It is how I can put the knowledge about vegetable content to work with simple action.

But what happens when we're busy, we're on the road, we have a gazillion things to do during the holiday season?  How do you keep up with these great, green intentions?

Which brings us to the tale of my recent road trip adventure.

Action:  "Don't Leave Home Without It!"

No, I'm not talking about credit cards here, though during holiday season it certainly may seem like it!

I'm talking about the veg-plan.  How do you keep your phytonutrient content HIGH when your schedule may take you outside of its normal bounds?

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to teach several fitness and nutrition classes in N. California.  Everything from T-Tapp to Weight Training to Nutrition.  I had a ball!

At the same time, I knew with several hours on the road (4 hours one way to SF State), hotel stays, and scheduling of events might prove challenging to keeping up to speed with one of my slim secrets, keeping up with veggie content.

So, I planned and prepped, and it was SO easy!  Here's what I did.

The day before I left, I popped into the supermarket and bought, along with some apples and grapes,  3 bags of my favorite, durable-for-travel veggies:  sugar snap peas.  I like these in particular for 3 reasons that come to mind:

1) They keep well for awhile in various temperatures,
2) They are easy to eat without special tools, and don't create a mess! (unless you drop one down between the car seats, which I did, but was able to retrieve later  ;-)  ).
3)  I really like them!

I added them to the rest of my travel food arsenal, so that as I pulled out of the drive, I had nestled in my food bag:

1)  3 bags of sugar snap peas (resilient!)
2)  2 apples
3)  bag of green grapes (durable!)
4)  2 small bags of almonds
5)  4 chunks of seasoned tofu (frozen to help keep the veggies cool, except for one thawed for the road that day!)

I was on the trip from the crack of dawn on Friday until late Sunday.  This was easily supplemented with
food I picked up at various stops along the way:  muffin and hardboiled eggs with fresh coffee (hotel lobby),  salad and panini (short drive for dinner Saturday night), some handfuls of premium-blend alfalfa tabs for extra shots of green, and a little wine and chocolate thrown in for good measure.

Stay Slim Success!

Not only did this work out well with my gustatory goals (I only eat things that I like!), but my stay-slim
on the road goals as well.  I came home feeling good, stayed trim, and it was easy to accomplish with just a little advance planning.

© Lani Muelrath, 2008 WANT TO USE ANY OF THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it (and let me know about it!): "Fitness professional and entrepreneur Lani Muelrath, "The Fitness DreamMaker,"publishes the "FitDream eZine" with 2,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to revolutionize your health, fitness and well-being, go to www.lanimuelrath.com."