As a certified nutrition coach, time management and planning are two core habits I help my nutrition Warriors develop and master when working together because being “busy” is the biggest barrier when it comes to eating healthy.

“I’m just too busy” ……..

“I don’t have time!” ….

“I can’t afford to spend hours in the kitchen.” ….

“I want to but my job, my kids, my schedule.” ……..

Developing consistent nutrition habits is CRUCIAL for improving your health, getting results, and making sustainable lifestyle changes.Exercise is NOT enough. It doesn’t matter how long or how hard you exercise.

If you neglect nutrition, you can’t expect results.Today’s Coaches Blog is teaching you 4 ways to make time for your nutrition, and it starts with:

STOP using BUSY as an EXCUSE!

Life will always be busy, that is just the plain and simple truth. We give too much power to time, using it as an excuse for “falling off”, eating “bad” or not being consistent.

Most people think they should wait until they’re less busy to start exercising and eat better.

The truth is: the best time to start is when you’re busy so you learn how to make it work under the most challenging circumstances. And it can certainly feel hard UNTIL you learn what to do and how to simplify things!Which is why I am here!

I am giving your 4 tips on how you can start making time for nutrition without adding more time into your day or wasting hours in the kitchen so you can start improving your health, making changes and seeing results.

5 TIPS: HOW TO MAKE TIME FOR YOUR NUTRITION

#1: IDENTIFY WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU

It all starts here: one of the first steps for making your nutrition a priority and refocusing time and energy towards reaching your goals is having a strong “WHY”.

Your “WHY” is your reason why this is important to you and why you want to make changes. Sure, we all want to look and feel better but, really look for and identify a deeper meaning to you:

…You spent the last several years caring for everyone else and need to feel like yourself again.

…You age is “catching up” , you no longer can keep up with your kids / grandkids and need the strength and energy to do what you enjoy with loved ones.

…You see how your aging parents struggle and want to maintain your independence as you grow older.

…You want to go off all medications and manage health indicators such as cholesterol and blood pressure through a healthier lifestyle.

…You haven’t made your own health a priority and are feeling run down and sluggish.

When thinking about your “WHY”, really take the time to evaluate what is important for your future self by thinking about how you want to feel and live one, ten and fifty years from now.

#2: IDENTIFY TOP PRIORITIES

Next up, identify your top priorities (other than yourself, of course), thinking of your time as a jar you will be filling with these priorities. By establishing your top priorities, you will make room and time for the big picture items.

Next, fill in the remainder of your jar with the items you don’t struggle with- think of the things requiring LESS commitment to complete or manage. For example, perhaps meal prep is not your strong suit but pre-planning meals is a breeze. In this instance, you would want to devote more time to executing meal prep and less time to planning your menu. This guarantees you are using your time and energy where it is most needed.

Seems easy but as humans, we stick with what we know and avoid what we don’t enjoy, aren’t good at or makes us uncomfortable. In this instance, we could plan meals for the next 3 months which is great, but without meal prep, your intention to have healthy options available doesn’t do you much good.

#3: SAY GOODBYE TO TIME SUCKS

Identifying your “time sucks” is the next part of the process and super important because if you think you are too busy, I bet my life THIS is where you will find that “extra” time to devote to your nutrition and making lifestyle changes.

First, let’s assess: Where are you wasting unnecessary time?

…Scrolling Facebook?

…Up in that TikTok app?

…Surfing the Internet?

…Bingeing Netflix?

The average human spends 145 minutes on social media / day!

And we wonder why we never have enough time to get everything done.

Stepping back to truly understand where you are spending and wasting unnecessary time is both eye-opening and life changing. By identifying time that can be better utilized toward reaching your goals, you can slowly begin to devote more time to things like your nutrition. Here are some examples:

• Maybe instead of 30 minutes on Facebook, scroll for 15 minutes maximum and use the other 15 minutes to pack your healthy lunch for the next day.

• Instead of 3 episodes of your favorite Netflix show, watch two and use the remainder of the time dedicated to making other behavior changes such as searching for new, healthy recipes to add to your rotation.

• Disconnect from the digital world as a different way to decompress after a long day of work. Instead, opt for cooking yourself / your family a well-balanced meal. Need some super easy and healthy recipes? Click HERE!

To get started, try keeping a time diary for at least two days. This is a great way to assess and identify where extra time can be found. From there, begin aligning your schedule with what you hope to accomplish and replace the “time sucks” with better-for-you behaviors over time (see examples above).

#4: CREATE HABITS AND SYSTEMS

Once you know how and where you can better utilize your time, you can begin creating systems that will make your lifestyle changes faster and easier to manage. When you spend a little extra time and put forth some effort, reshaping your environment feels less daunting and easy to do!

What is one of the MOST efficient systems you can create to make time for your nutrition?

Meal prepping and planning of course! All that time you spent / lost on your phone can now be reallocated to planning and prepping some or all of your meals and snacks.

• Start by picking the meal(s) you never have time to prep in real time. For some, this is breakfast for others, maybe dinner. The goal is to prep in advance what you know you won’t have time for that day.

• Next, schedule the day and time you will grocery shop and prep in your calendar. Physically scheduling this prevents anything else from taking precedent and using time as the crutch.

• Prep like a boss! Use the allotted time to prep as much as you can and relish knowing you have healthy options available! Start by cooking the foods that take the longest (think protein sources like chicken, beef, fish and smart carbs like potatoes, brown rice, quinoa) and work your way down to the stuff that is less time consuming (chopping and washing fresh fruits and veggies).

Along with prepping and planning, you can begin transforming your environment into one that supports your short and long-term goals. Few suggestions:

• Keep real foods in plain sight: leave fruit on your kitchen counter and fresh veggies in the fridge. By putting the good-for-you stuff front and center, you are setting yourself up to make better choices.

• Reduce snack foods kept in the home. If you know your trigger foods, avoid buying them or, buy them in individual, single servings instead of larger quantities.

• Set a bed time so you are well rested and energized to consistently practice these habits and stick to your habits and systems!

#5: CREATE A CALENDAR

This is how you hold yourself accountable. Begin scheduling healthy lifestyle actions into your calendar(s) and yes, I am talking about making an appointment with yourself!

It is easy to neglect items not scheduled into our day. Plan on working out today? Put it on your calendar and schedule. Want to have a home cooked dinner tomorrow? Put it on your calendar and schedule. Once again, make yourself a priority. Chances are you are not cancelling meetings on others so, why cancel on yourself?

At the end of each week, take the time to review how your week went:

• Establish areas for growth based on what you struggled with and come up with some action steps to solve any problems and remove barriers.

• Review what worked for you, what went really well and do more of that! The more time you spend practicing habits and completing action steps, the more likely they will become permanent lifestyle changes.

• Aim to make slight increases in time and effort over future weeks. For example, bump up the number of meals you plan each week. Maybe you first start with only prepping dinners and once you are comfortable, begin planning lunches as well.

Remember, when it comes to improving our health, reaching our goals and seeing results, we NEED to be making time for our nutrition. Making time for your nutrition is somewhat of a learning process but one that will pay off for life.

It’s about progress over perfection, and I am here to help you get 1% better each day! I know you have time for your nutrition, have time to make better choices, practice better habits and set yourself up for success around reaching your goal. It’s only a matter of applying these 4 tips if you are serious about creating change and want to consistently make time for your nutrition!