Just to give a bit of info about me — I’m a mother of three beautiful girls (5, 3 and 7 months), been a dietitian for about 10 years, and training for 4 years. Sometimes I wonder how I get my teeth brushed and out the door much less eat right and get my exercise in.
As far as my exercise goes, I feel that it’s crucial to stay healthy and sane with mommy duty all day so I make it a point to do something active most days of the week. I’m lucky enough to get a few strength training days during the week before my early a.m. clients come in otherwise I’ll workout at home with my KB, TRX or take a run.
As far as nutrition goes — a bit more planning comes into play. Because I find it challenging to bring 3 kiddos to the grocery store, I send my hubby on Sunday with a long list of things to get for meals and snacks for the entire week.
Here are some tips that I use to keep my nutrition in check that you may find useful:
1) Be prepared, very prepared! You must get ready for the week on the weekend before.
2)Have your grocery list ready by the end of the weekend and get groceries prior to Monday. Make sure to stick to the list.
3) Always have fresh veggies and fruit around for snacks and to add to meals (wash & cut so you don’t waste time during the week. I make an enormous bowl of colorful salad mix to eat throughout the week. That way I just grab a couple of handfuls and add some lean protein and I’m set for a meal.
4) Always have extra protein cooked to add to salads, snacks, kids plate. This could be chicken, fish, turkey, lean meat (honey baked chicken and turkey burger patties are our staples).
5) Don’t buy things that you know you don’t need! I have a major sweet tooth so if I make homemade chocolate chip cookies, I will eat them, all of them 🙂 Studies show that if you have stashes of your favorite junk foods around the house (even if you hide them from yourself) you will eventually give in and eat them!
6) If you know you have some travel days ahead of you or long hours at the desk make sure to get things that can go in the desk drawer, office refrigerator or briefcase to keep you on track(i.e. almonds, walnuts, fresh fruit or veggies, Greek yogurt, string cheese, almond butter).
Recipe for Honey Baked Chicken
1-2 pounds of chicken breasts (depending on how much extra you want)
2T or more of olive oil (add a tad more if you buy extra chicken)
2-3tsp of honey for each chicken breast
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put chicken on pan lined with aluminum paper. Add olive oil, sea salt and pepper to chicken and toss to cover both sides of chicken. Add honey on top of each chicken breast. Cook for 30 minutes or so turning at least 5-6 times throughout cooking process to cover with sauce. Should be brown to get the best flavor. Add on top of a big colorful salad (so good you don’t need salad dressing) or serve with cooked veggies. My entire family loves this chicken!
Enjoy and I hope you get ready for your battle (or week ahead) and set you and your family up for good nutrition!
Natalie
