How Healthy Eating Habits Save Time

Over the years, I’ve discovered that healthy eating habits save time.

I know that’s a really hard sell.

I can assure you though, as a busy woman always looking for ways to save time, I have found that healthy eating habits save time in both the long- and short-term.

I’m going to share how, so you can be a believer and start making healthy eating a priority this year.

Especially if it isn’t going to be a major time consumer.

Healthy Eating Habits Save Time With Less Decision-Making

Have you ever wasted time because you were trying to make a decision? Especially when there are just too many options?

For example, looking at paint samples at the paint store.

Deciding what to wear when you have a wardrobe the size of a Manhattan apartment.

Or maybe, finding a movie on Netflix on a rainy Friday night.

Whatever the situation may be, time is spent making decisions, especially when there are more than just a few choices.

When you narrow down your options, you are practicing constraint.

Constraint means simplification. You are giving yourself choices, so you have freedom, but you’re limiting those choices so you have some control.

For example, I used to wear all different colors…teal, baby blue, earthy greens, light pink, mustard yellow, dusty rose…

That made matching tops and bottoms a little more effortful every day.

So I constrained to wearing just white, black, gray, beige, and blush for business and casual.

It’s saves brain energy plus time by allowing for minimal decision-making when it comes to buying clothes and picking out what to wear every day. I never get tired of it, especially since I can mix and match the tops and bottoms easily.

Let’s apply this to eating habits now.

If you get develop healthier eating habits, you are constraining yourself in what you have to choose from. Meaning, you are no longer choosing from ALL the food options available to you, but instead the more healthy options.

So right there, you’ve already eliminated many foods, which means you don’t have to spend as much time or mental energy deciding.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have unhealthy foods if you decide to, but on a routine basis (or by habit), you choose the healthier option.

• Related Blog Post: 7 Ridiculously Easy Hacks for Healthier Eating Habits            

Healthy Eating Habits Save Time Because of Practice

So, taking the easier decision-making one step further, if you make a habit of eating a healthy breakfast and you typically choose between just 2 or 3, you’re going to get very fast at preparing that breakfast.

Same thing goes for lunch and dinner. If you get in the habit of cooking several healthy meals, if you limit the number of recipes you normally make, you’re going to get very good at mastering those specific ones.

• Related Blog Post: 5 Quick and Healthy Work Lunches for the Week
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You’ll get in a routine, or habit, of making those meals and it will go much more quickly for you.

My husband Paul and I do this regularly.

We have a few staples that we make in 15 minutes or less, that we keep consistent. Then, since I really love trying new recipes, I’ll try out a few, find the ones we love, and rotate those in with our staples.

I’ll get quite good at making the new ones fairly quickly, since I end up making them multiple times in the coming months. If we get tired of one or two, we just take a break from them for a few months and rotate in a couple of new ones.

Healthy Eating Habits Save Time By Decreasing Health Issues

This one may have been a bit more obvious than the other two, but it’s of course a major reason how healthy eating habits save time.

If you feed your body with food that is nutritious and decrease the intake of food that can lead to health issues, you’ll spend less time at the doctor’s office, hospital, less time researching your symptoms and diagnosis, and even less time worrying about your health.

You may also increase your likelihood of living substantially longer, according to a study summarized in the Harvard Gazette. In this study, Harvard researchers looked at 34 years of data from 78,865 women and 27 years of data from 44,354 men (collected from 2 large studies).

From the date, they determined that 5 specific lifestyle factors might impact mortality.

The factors were a healthy diet, BMI between 18.5 and 24.9, at least 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, no more than moderate alcohol intake, and no smoking.

The researchers found women who maintained all five healthy habits, gained on average, 14 years of life, while men gained 12 years. (Incredible, if indeed accurate!)

This was compared to women and men who did not maintain any of these healthy habits. Habits, meaning performing all five consistently.

Personally, decreasing the likelihood of having to spend a ton of time at the doctor’s office or hospital either now or later in life is enough of a reason for me to want to develop healthy eating habits. That’s not only time, but money and stress too. No thanks.

Final Notes

There are of course specific circumstances where ordering the takeout, eating the packaged, frozen meal, or a quick bowl of cereal saves time in that moment.

I certainly won’t deny that.

Healthy eating does take some planning, effort, and time of course.

However, in general, healthy eating habits save time by decreasing decision-making time and effort, decreasing potential health issues, increasing the speed (or automation) of eating and food prep, and even potentially extending your life.

So, if you’re a busy career woman previously convinced that it would take too much time to eat healthy and develop healthy eating habits, I hope this post opened you up to the idea that it can be the reverse.