Let’s be honest how many items do you have in the pantry that don’t need to be there?
But first thing’s first, the most important tip that helps me avoid unnecessary snacking at night or at random times between meals is having junk food snacks out of my direct sight. Not on the eye level shelf of the pantry.
Tip 1; Move the tempting (junk food snacks) away from your immediate eye sight, eye level shelf.
If you are a work from home mum or busy person like me, how many times a day do you open that pantry and fridge? Common now, be honest, we all do it, lol.
It could be that you are just feeling peckish, want a break, bored or tired or all of the above and you open the pantry looking to find something to snack with the hope that you will stop yourself at one or two of whatever it is, the truth is many times it doesn’t work out that way.
If the only thing you take away from my blog article today then let it be this…, that shelf that is at your eye level, it could be as simple as moving those snacks to a top or bottom shelf where it doesn’t hit you right in the eyes or even placing those items behind other things like coffee or oatmeal jars or things that you have to prepare. That way your family can still have access to it, but it won’t be in your eyesight every time.
There is a good chance that if you are the one preparing dinners at home most of the times you will also open that pantry a few times during dinner prep, and often at that time you might already be quite hungry grabbing those nuts, chips and crackers while you are cooking dinner, right? Has that happened to you? I have learnt the hard way.
Calories from the snacks you eat standing up don’t count right? Ha ha I wish. Unfortunately, all these bites and licks add up. And if you are trying to lose weight or stay lean this isn’t helpful at all. So, move those things away from your direct eyesight and it will make a huge difference I promise.
Do the same thing to your refrigerator.
Tip 2; Stock up on easy healthy snacks that you grab fast when you are tight for time.
Again, this is super helpful for the busy mums who are trying to get healthy. As hard as we try to be super organised and prepared for the week with meals and healthy salad bowls etc., this doesn’t always work out the way we plan, and its ok we are only human and can only do so much in a day with all the chores, house work, school pickups, fitting in exercise and possibly work on top of that.
So having some quick to grab snacks on the go often are a life saver. Some you can take with you and pop it in the bag or some you can quickly snack on at home and need to be kept refrigerated or in a cooler bag.
Here are some of the items that are always on my shopping list;
- Eggs (I try to preboil a few ready to go).
- Protein bars (the higher the protein the better).
- Protein powder for a quick shake or smoothie, try to find one that has the highest possible protein content, above 24g per serve.
- Easy to grab fruit & veggies like apples, bananas, berries, cherry tomatoes, baby cucumbers, carrots, celery sticks.
- Healthy brown rice crackers or corn/rice thins.
- Cottage and ricotta cheese.
- Turkey breast slices and ham from the deli.
- Cans or tuna or salmon.
- High protein, low sugar cereals and light soy milk if you need a sub for dairy, almond milk is fine too, but soy milk has more protein if you struggle to get enough from your other meals.
As you notice I try to keep as many high protein low calorie options as possible at home to help me reach my protein goal for the day, because I am all about building toned muscles while staying lean and healthy. If you want to grab my free cheat sheet of all the high protein and low-calorie foods you can join my mailing list and get it in your inbox right now. Here is the link to my FREE CALORIES DEFICIT CHEAT SHEET right here. A more extensive list of foods that you can find at local supermarkets in Australia.
Tip 3; Organise your cupboards and pantry so things are easy to find and your life is less overwhelming.
You might have to schedule one day to do this, so it’s a bit more work, but you will only have to do it once and then try your best to maintain the order.
Go through all your pantry items and throw away those expired beans and oatmeal my friend. Get some good clear jars to keep things tidy or some type of a lazy Suzan. Throw away almost finished packets of random things that are just cluttering up your pantry. And while you are at it, get read of as much junk food as possible, except those that your family must have of course.
Go through your storage container cupboard and organise your containers so you have them ready for some healthy meal prep. Keep what you really need and get read of those old take away containers that you probably don’t use. It will just make your life less stressful trust me. Trying to find things when you are in a rush can be very overwhelming for a busy person.
Tip 4; Get the kitchen tools you need to make your meal prep easy and quick.
(Check out my list of kitchen tools from Amazon that I can’t live without for my family meal prep). CLICK HERE
If you are trying to get lean, toned and healthy I can’t stress enough that meal prep is key. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you just need to have a couple of simple things on hand to help you get through the week, my frequent go to are my High Protein Fetta & Veggie Lunch Muffins (click here for recipe). These are so good to have for lunch or any time of the day. It’s a complete balanced meal in a muffin. You can make this in one dish as a frittata also.
Tip 5; Reorganise your fridge.
This is similar to reorganising and cleaning out your pantry I guess, but the fridge is worth mentioning on its own because again if you have left over pizza or take away foods at the eye level shelf then that is most likely what you are going to be tempted to go for rather than throwing together a quick fresh tuna or Barbecue chicken leftovers salad. Cause its there and now you saw it.
Have freshly cut up and washed veggie container right there, at eye level as soon as you open the fridge, have your boiled eggs and cottage cheese or turkey/cold meat slices ready to go. Have those things in clear containers so you can see them and you will immediately be reminded that that is what you should be reaching for.
Also, handy to have another clear container of fresh washed fruits like berries or even apples or pineapple, cut up mangos or whatever fruits you like. Don’t keep those things in the bottom drawer because it means you are less likely to eat those. We are naturally lazy creatures, we reach for what’s already cooked, washed or chopped up.
So, allocate a hour or so on the weekend to have all your fresh foods as ready as possible for quick snacking. As well as of course a couple of meals if you prep some and those lunch muffins or something similar again in the most convenient shelf of the refrigerator.
And put the less healthy stuff on the lower or less accessible or visible shelves. You might even forget about that leftover take away or pizza even if you can’t see it right away.
This sort of ties in with the first tip.
Hopefully these tips can help you kick off a healthy week next week. And don’t forget to drop me a comment below, I would love to hear from you with any questions or feel free to share with me which tip you loved the most.
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