Healthy Family Ideas

[Celestia Andromedus]

Okay, so my family is going on a diet. Having a household of 5 (my little brother is under the age of 1) can be pretty busy! We eat dinner together so I needs a good budget family meal idea. However, if your feeling froggy then breakfast and lunch ideas are appreciated. I'm in college, my step mom is a teacher and, my little sister is a student, and my dad goes to work. So lunch and breakfast can be sporadic, whats a good take on the go health food?

[Chibi Halo]

Almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and hazelnuts are a great take with you snack. You can buy a huge bag of oven roasted nuts and dish out the recommended serving size into a snack sized bag and toss in with your school stuff. You can also have little bars of extra sharp cheddar cheese around for a quick afternoon snack with a piece of fruit after school. I've also found pre-portioned bags of baby cut carrots are great to have with your lunch. You can have bread just make certain it's a whole grain bread where the first ingredient on the label is unbleached wheat flour, the same thing goes for things like pasta, oats, or waffles. As side dishes go you can have brown rice, quinoa, bulger, barley, rye, buckwheat, whole-wheat couscous, and corn (corn is a grain and not a veggie like the industry would have people believe). Also you'll want to get as much protein as you can from sources like beans, lean chicken, lean beef, and fish like salmon and tuna. Having a pouch of water packed tuna with you to add to a garden salad makes for a great quick protein packed lunch.

The easiest thing to do is to pick one day a week, Saturdays and Sundays are the best days to do this, to prep things like servings of carrots, celery, nuts, and hard boiled eggs for the coming week or so. That way during the week you can grab a serving of nuts, toss some celery or carrots into a lunch pouch (good for you, your step-mom, sister, and dad if you guys bring a lunch with you), and have the hard boiled eggs for either a lunch side or a quick breakfast. I find hard boiled eggs to be a great breakfast option when you don't have the time for a sit down breakfast. It also helps to have some fruit around like apples and bananas. Another good quick breakfast that I've done a lot is a whole grain toaster waffle smeared with a good nut butter. You get protein from the nut butter and fiber from the waffle. Throw on a few banana slices or berries and you have a well rounded quickie breakfast. The key is to get your breakfast no matter what it is, even if all you have is a banana or a protein packed yogurt based breakfast smoothie (though some of those packaged non yogurt breakfast smoothies can have sugars in them) something is better than nothing. Never skip breakfast.

Also, in the place of the colas and other sodas you can have sparkling mineral water. Add in a bit of lemon or lime juice or any other bit of fruit you like and you have a very healthy alternative to sugar packed sodas. Just remember to have an insulated water bottle around so you can get your daily amount of water through the day.

This should be a good start for you because the idea is not to cut too many things out but to replace the unhealthy with the healthy.