Healthy Food Swaps

In a massively fast paced world full of high stress, high performance, instagram, instant deliveries, busy jobs, looking after children and running households, we’re all meant to look great too!   But where on earth do we find the time?   In amongst everything we’re already cramming into our increasingly ram packed day we’ve got to find the time to train and eat properly. With the masses of information around training we know you can achieve a huge amount with HIIT style workouts, this can save a lot of time compared to the traditional liss style running or cycling.   But how do you save time eating healthily?   You still have to prep food for the day and even find the time to eat it, but what if there were a way to save time here too?   Here are few food swaps to hack the prep time in your day.  

Protein This is an easy one. Sure, we all know whole foods especially leans meats and fish are the best way forwards for health, fullness, and digestive reasons, but it does mean making best friends with your George Foreman grill, or being tied to the cooker making multiple meals. Instead of having all of your meals from meat, fish or eggs you can quickly switch out for protein powders. There are a myriad of flavours and types to suit all needs. Typically protein powders are 70-80% protein which is around 25g per 30g scoop. This is the equivalent to 100-120g portion of most meats or fish. You could have whey protein first thing in the morning instead of the usual eggs, or have it before and after training as it’s quick to absorb. If you’re caught short in the daytime you can throw a shake back to fill the void. For midday meals use casein or vegan proteins as they’re slower releasing and offer a steady sustained release of aminos through the day.  

Carbohydrates   Carbs are always a controversial topic with regards types, timings, and quantities for fat loss or muscle gain. However if we assume you’re eating some with most meals you still have to prepare them. Are you baking sweet potatoes and spending hours boiling rice? Brown rice takes around 30-40 mins to cook, who even has that much time?   It’s probably wise to still try to eat some solid carbs in your day to build good dietary habits around foods but there are a few products that can save a little time. If your having rice or porridge oats, which can take a fair bit of time to get ready, try switching to cream of rice plus. This can be eaten with just a shaker and kettle and tastes great, it also has the added benefit of a digestive enzyme to look after gut health. It works brilliantly as a pre or post workout carb as well as an alternative to oats for breakfast. Potatoes could be switched out with sweet potato powders or ultra fine oat powder which can be mixed up in just a shaker and can be drunk, or made into longer lasting pancakes.  

Vegetables Macros Vegetables are the cornerstone of any solid diet plan and should be eaten when possible, especially the cruciferous types like broccoli, sprouts, and spinach. Not only do they offer a multitude of vitamins, minerals, and fibre, they help lower oestrogen's and keep gut health in check. Much like most prep issues the effort to prepare, cook, and eat these dietary gems can be time consuming and impractical. A great time saving food swap for this is to include a quality greens powder like go greens. This type of supplement contains a vast array of the superfood vegetables we need and are conveniently freeze dried into a easy drinking powder. You can rest assured that you’re getting one of your five-a-day in a meagre 6-7 grams serving. They can also help with some symptoms of IBS and can reduce the acidity of a high protein diet.  

Meals   If all of this still seems like too much effort then there are still more ways we can hack the monotony of meal prep. There are now a multitude of companies that are providing pre-made macro friendly meals like GN meals where you can have them delivered straight to your door. They are cleanly cooked without hidden extras and have the exact number of calories and macros clearly labelled so it’s easy to work them into your diet plan. This way you could avoid the whole messy debacle and be bang on your daily intake. Sometimes sitting down and eating a whole meal just isn’t logistically practical due to meetings or driving. Maybe you do have the time to scarf down a decent protein bar. The fashion these days are the super low carb variety, however, there are numerous that have a more evenly balanced distribution of macros which work well as a missed meal. The pro crunch bar offers near perfect balance macronutrients with 20g of protein, 25g of carbs, and 11g of fat.     So, with just a few tweaks and hacks to your daily routine you too can get yourself on the straight and narrow to achieve your health goals without having to spend hours prepping and eating  your meals.