Having a hard time balancing your schedule with cooking? Try these 7 tips to eating healthy with a busy lifestyle.

Your summer was full of action packed memories of jumping waves at the beach, funnel cake & fireworks on the 4th, seeing your favorite band on a picture-perfect evening, or laying poolside with friends and loved ones catching some rays.  So now that Labor Day has passed with the unofficial end of summer now becoming official.  It’s time to get back to the daily grind of the kids being in school, sports and other activities for your children and a seemingly overwhelming work schedule occupying your days.  All these daily plans can make eating healthily somewhat of a challenge when you have an active lifestyle.  Try including these 7 easy to follow tips to help make your busy life that much healthier.

1) MENU PLANNING

You plan your entire life; meetings and deadlines with work, school events and after school activities, and fill your free time with plenty of family fun activities.  So why not plan one of the most important elements to your life?  Taking a few minutes to do the simple task of writing down what you plan on eating for the week means you are consciously thinking about your nutritional consumption, which puts this fresh in your mind and leads you to make better dietary decisions.  Menu planning also helps to maintain a budget when you are grocery shopping, as you are less likely to make impulse purchases since your shopping list is comprised of items from your menu.  Having your menu already decided ahead of time also speeds up the dinner process, as you don’t have to spend time deciding what to cook based on what you may have defrosted or what may be the easiest meal to prepare. (which is usually the least healthy choice)

2) COOKING FROM SCRATCH

It may seem very convenient to grab  frozen prepared meals at the grocery store, which only take a few minutes to heat