How to make eating on-the-go as healthy as possible

This is a collaborative post

Rushed mornings, late trains, dashing to pick up the kids, meetings that cut into your lunch ‘hour’ - most days don’t leave you with quite as much time as you’d like to eat a healthy, balanced diet. Being healthy on the move doesn’t mean eating a perfect, warm, healthy meal with a knife and fork for every meal - it’s about making the best choice that’s actually available to you. Let’s take a look at what some of those choices are.

Nutritional bases

The quickest way to stay full is to go with a base of protein and fibre. In a café, that might be eggs on toast with a side of spinach rather than a lone pastry; in a supermarket, it could be a low-fat yoghurt pot or cooked chicken with a grain-and-veg salad, instead of a beige triangle of white bread and crisps. 

If you’re pulling into a service station, then you could go towards something like chilli, soup, or sushi plus edamame. The point is to look at the options in front of you, assess which option is the healthiest, while also picking something that you actually enjoy.

Carry some healthy snacks

A handful of small items can really make healthy snacking a whole lot easier. Pack a spoon, a foldable container, a source of protein that doesn’t go bad (like some John West tuna), a couple of oatcakes, a mini nut butter and an apple in your bag before you leave your home. 

Suddenly, a plain yoghurt becomes a proper snack, a side salad becomes lunch, and a basic smoothie stops being little more than sugar in a cup. It takes almost no space, and saves you from the emergency that leaves you feeling tired and potentially even hungrier.

Photo credit Dana Sarsenbekova via Unsplash

Don’t be overly rigid

On a more general note, most dieticians would agree that the most important thing when it comes to eating well is not to be overly rigid. The most important thing is that you eat well over a long period of time, not that you eat a ‘perfect’ (but largely unpalatable) diet for just a few months, before ultimately cracking. 

If this means having the odd sweet snack, that’s totally fine. You just want to make sure that the majority of your food sources also contain healthy amounts of protein, fibre, fat and carbohydrates, so that your body is getting the building blocks it needs to keep you healthy and happy. 

Timing is important

That being said, it’s far more likely that you’ll crack and eat something sugary if you wait to eat until you’re absolutely starving. Stave off that extreme hunger with smaller snacks - nuts, oat cakes, rice cakes - and you’ll have a much more pleasant experience overall.

Eating healthily while on the go isn’t all that hard. What it does require, however, is a bit of forward thinking, and some adaptability. If you’re regularly in a rush, then those desperate bouts of hunger shouldn’t be unpredictable - plan just a little bit in advance, and you’ll make life so much easier for yourself.