Starting a new business can be exciting and rewarding, but it can also mean a lot of stress and long working hours. That can make healthy eating difficult. However, it is important to prioritize it because when you are eating healthily, you will have more energy for the challenges ahead of you in your new business.
This decision to prioritize healthy eating and understanding that doing so will help you meet your goals is the first step. Next, you need to think about your obligations and your time constraints. Be honest with yourself. It can be tempting to assume that with enough willpower, you can keep adding tasks to your day, but the truth is that even if you maximized every spare minute, you would probably burn out. A realistic assessment of what you need to do each day can help you figure out the best strategies for ensuring that you can eat healthily even when you are very busy.
For example, you may not have much time for making meals on most days, but if you have a block of three or four hours somewhere in the week, you can do batch cooking of healthy meals that you then freeze and reheat. You may look at your schedule and realize that you often are not in a place where it’s convenient to heat up meals. In those cases, you may want to consider batch-preparing healthy salads, sandwiches, and other satisfying food you can eat on the go.
A common mistake when trying to eat healthily is waiting too long to eat and then getting so hungry that you devour the first thing you can get your hands on, which is often something that is not good for you. To guard against this, try to keep healthy snacks on hand at all times. Running a new business can mean unpredictable working hours, but having these snacks means you always have fuel to keep you going.
Even the best-laid plans can go astray. If you find yourself without access to the healthy food you’ve prepared, one option is to look for restaurants that offer nutritional information or to read the labels of food you buy in a store. Unless you have special dietary needs, choosing a mix of lean proteins along with vegetables and fruit is usually a good option.
Part of healthy eating is maintaining a healthy relationship with food, and this means accepting that you probably won’t eat healthy things 100% of the time. Even people who watch their nutrition closely usually allow themselves “cheat” meals, and if you are in a situation where you can’t eat as healthily as you would like or you simply do not make the best food choices, remember that it is only one meal or one day. The next time you have something to eat, you can go back to your usual healthy menu.
You need fuel if you are starting a new business, and that fuel comes in the form of food. Planning ahead and giving yourself plenty of options can help you prioritize the healthy eating that will contribute to your success.
