4 Tips for Healthy Dinner Habits for Career Women

Finding it tough to stick with healthy dinner habits with your work schedule, tempting foods, or kids? No problem.

I’m sharing 4 tips for healthy dinner habits for career women specifically. You don’t need to implement all of these at once. Just start with one that feels like it will be the easiest for you to do first.

Tip #1 – Write Down Your Dinner Plan in the Morning

Last minute decisions are the ones that can get you into trouble regarding eating habits. Especially after a long day at work or if you’re in a rush at the end of the day.

So, decide in the morning or even the night before, what your dinner plan is. Deciding in the morning prevents you from having to make yet another decision at the end of the day after you’re already mentally drained.

It can be as simple as “Heat up leftovers (instead of ordering pizza).” Be sure to write it down, because you’re much more likely to follow through if you write it down. Extra credit if you then say it aloud. That’ll boost the follow-through rate too.

By the way, this is called an Implementation Intention. The more specific you are the better.

So, a more specific example of the above example would be “Heat up chicken, broccoli, and rice leftovers at 5:30 pm tonight, instead of ordering pizza.”

• LISTEN OR READ: Losing Weight With a Busy Schedule (Podcast Episode)
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habits, Weight Loss, Mindset (Weekly Email)

Tip #2 – Make it as Easy as Possible for Yourself

One of the main things with building habits, including healthy dinner habits, is to make the behavior as easy as possible to actually do. Makes sense, right?

So in the morning or the night before, get out a few things you’ll need for your dinner plan you already made, and place them on the counter, table, etc.

That’ll serve as a visual reminder of your intention, plus make it that much easier to follow-through. It can even be as simple as placing out the pot or pan you’ll need plus one ingredient.

Getting started is a big reason people don’t do what they intend, so getting a couple items out means that you’ve already started that task to some degree.

• LISTEN OR READ: Over the Overwhelm (Podcast Episode)
• READ: 5 Tips to Break Bad Eating Habits at Work (Blog Post)

Tip #3 – Have a Backup Plan

Unexpected things happen, right? This can make it easy to feel completely derailed, so create a little backup plan for yourself. I call this a Contingency Plan. It’s also known in the behavioral science world as “If-Then Planning.”

Your backup plan is just what your next best option is if things don’t go as planned with timing, scheduling, kids, etc. This can be something like grabbing a couple healthier snacks in the morning to stick in your car for later just in case.

It can be having a healthy takeout option already planned out if you have to stay two hours late at work.

When you have a backup plan, you won’t have to make that last minute decision, plus you’ll be less likely to go into that “screw it” mentality.

• LISTEN OR READ: When Healthy Food Isn’t an Option (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: Healthier Breakfast Habits (Podcast Episode)

Tip #4 – Have Some Grace for Yourself

Life gets busy, there’s a lot on your mind, and you can’t control other people or certain circumstances. You can control what you think about yourself though.

So, if you didn’t end up following through on the healthy dinner plan, don’t sweat it. It’s already done, so adding the negative thoughts to the mix won’t help. It’ll just make you feel badly and increase the likelihood you’ll just give up.

As much as you may not be in the habit of giving yourself some grace, my final of the 4 tips for healthy dinner habits for career women is to start practicing now.

If you don’t do what you wanted to do regarding healthy dinner habits, accept it. Then think about what you can do to increase the chance you’ll follow through tomorrow.

• LISTEN OR READ: Self-Compassion and Your Eating Habits (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: Mindful Eating Even When You’re Busy (Podcast Episode)

Final Note and More Help

As a career woman, you probably feel like you’re in pretty good control of many things, so why can’t you do the same with eating habits? It’s because you ARE in pretty good control of many things that eating habits are where you’re struggling.

You’re juggling all the things, often for other people or work, and sometimes the things for yourself are on the back burner.

It’s time to focus on you though. If your eating habits continue to not be what you want them to be, you’ll start seeing more of a negative effect. Especially as you get older.

Eating habits is my area of expertise, so I can help give you clarity and direction on your specific eating habit struggles. To get clarity and direction, let’s talk via a FREE 60-minute consult. Book the free consult by clicking the button below.