Fruit Salad with Cacao Nibs Recipe: www.sweetonveg.com

Making sure you get a healthy, well-balanced diet can be challenging at the best of times. For very busy people, it’s not only the cooking time that they struggle with, it’s the planning and preparation. Eating a balanced diet requires finding healthy recipes, creating meal plans and shopping lists. For many busy professionals, a quick meal bought from the supermarket at lunch or after work has become the norm. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Follow these tips, and you can enjoy a healthy diet while keeping up with the demands of your busy lives.

• Cut corners on organisation

Super busy people will not be pleased to hear that planning is an essential part of maintaining a healthy and well-balanced diet. However, the good news is that this doesn’t need to involve a huge amount of time or effort. If you don’t have spare time at the weekend to create a meal plan for the week ahead, use a pre-prepared one. Simply by searching online you’ll find that many healthy eating websites offer free weekly meal plans. You can follow this to a T or amend items that are not to your liking. Search for quick and healthy recipes online, like beef casserole, if you need to make any amendments. Some sites will also give you a shopping list based on the meal plan, so the majority of the hard work is done for you.

• Shop online

With your shopping list, score of any items you already have then order everything you need online. Getting all the ingredients you require for the week at once will save you all that time spent going to and from the supermarket just to pick up a few things at a time. For especially busy people, you may wish to consider buying you

• Eat it raw

You can cut out a lot of time spent on cooking by eating a lot of recipes based on raw ingredients. Not only is this time-saving, but it’s also a healthy option as you’ll get the maximum nutrients from uncooked ingredients. There are a number of delicious recipes using raw food, which can be prepared for lunches and dinners very swiftly. Beautiful salads and vegetables with hummus are just a couple of examples.

• Make a quick breakfast

A quick breakfast is better than no breakfast at all. If you want to look after your body and mind, it’s important that you don’t skip the first meal of the day. Pouring milk over a bowl of granola and taking a piece of fruit for the road takes no time at all. Alternatively, fruit and veg can be whizzed up in an instant for a detox drink. If you are a late riser, make or buy granola and leave it in your desk drawer at work so you can eat it when you arrive. Additionally, bake some healthy breakfast muffins in advance and freeze. Take one out the night before, and it will be ready to enjoy in the morning.

Hey presto! You can now manage a healthy diet and a busy lifestyle!