Published July 2001

Eating right on the run
With a little planning, nutritious meals can be quick and easy, dietitians say

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

Remember those TV shows from the 1950s? They depicted a world where a well-balanced dinner was always prepared by 5 o’clock and served on an immaculately set table.

Of course, by the time Beaver Cleaver returned home from school, his mom already had spent hours planning and preparing the meal, and viewers often saw a perfectly frosted cake sitting on the counter.

In today’s fast-paced environment, however, most people don’t have hours to spend on meal planning. There are kids to transport to baseball practice and piano lessons, evening meetings to attend and those trips to the gym — all this on top of a full day at the office.

But good nutrition doesn’t have to fall to the wayside of a busy schedule, dietitians say, and it doesn’t have to be a time-consuming chore, either.

“If we can just take a few minutes to plan ahead sometime during the week — a little bit of planning goes a long way,” said Jody Byrne, a registered dietitian with The Everett Clinic.

She and dietitian Carolyn Conner recently spoke at the Women on the Move conference, sponsored in part by the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce. At the conference, the duo discussed everything from planning dinner menus and snacking to making smart decisions when eating out — things women need to know for good nutrition on the run.

Dinner at home
When it comes to planning dinner, “scale down your expectations ... of what menu planning needs to look like to something more realistic to fit into your lifestyle,” Byrne said.

Look at the coming week and its activities. Are there nights when dinner will have to be “quickie” meals? Are there evenings when you plan to have time to prepare a sit-down meal? What about nights when no one will be home? Should those be written off as “eating out” nights?

With those questions answered, take 10 minutes to plan menus for the week. And we’re not talking about sitting around dreaming up appetizers, to be followed by soup and then the main course. Keep it simple: maybe pasta and salad one night, with burritos the next night. Don’t forget to figure on a night for leftovers, too.

Also, “get your family’s input,” Byrne said. “They’re going to have 2 cents to say when you put it on the table, anyway, so you might as well get their input early on.”

After the menus have been planned, take another five minutes to write up the grocery list, head out for 30 minutes of shopping and, voila, you’ve got the menus and fixings for a week of dinners, Byrne said.

“Think about that time added up ... compared to if you didn’t do that and you stopped at the grocery store even every other day at 5:30 in the express line, which isn’t very express at that time of the day,” she said.

Besides time, the quick planning will save money and anxiety.

“Do you not just hate those words, ‘What’s for dinner?’ " Byrne said. With a little planning, you always have the answer.

And if you save those menus for future use, planning just gets easier.

Snacking
Dinner time isn’t the only time to think about eating right. Often, the hustle and bustle of office life makes it nearly impossible to eat lunch at one sitting. But that shouldn’t keep you from getting the nutrients you need, dietitians say.

Remember, “snacking” is not a bad word, Conner said. It’s only because people link snacking to foods such as chips, cookies and other so-called “snack foods” that it has a tainted reputation. When a snack takes the form of yogurt, fruit or some other nutritious food, snacking has its pluses.

“I have found, for me, having snacks through the day helps keep my energy level up,” Conner said. Also (packing snacks) “saves a lot of money, not having to run down to the fast-food restaurant on the corner or the espresso place at work.”

Some studies have shown that people who eat more regularly throughout the day have an easier time controlling their weight than those who eat one or two main meals during the day, Conner said. Part of that is snacking helps you feel full so that you don’t overeat.

But the key to proper snacking is doing it nutritiously. So plan ahead. When you’re at the grocery store stocking up for dinner menus, stock up on healthy snacks, too, Conner said.

Some ideas: pretzels, graham crackers, cereal, fruit, small bagels, yogurt, string cheese, light popped popcorn and breakfast bars.

“That way, you’re less tempted to stop at the vending machines that usually have candy bars because you know you’ve got something healthier,” Conner said.

Another time-saving tip: When you’re preparing dinner or cleaning up after the meal, package your snacks/lunch food for the next day, Conner said. There’s always time while the pasta noodles are boiling to put trail mix in a plastic bag. And when you’re washing dishes, put the leftovers in a container for lunch.

Smart fast-food choices
While planning goes a long way toward bypassing the drive-through lane, “the reality is, most of us are going to eat fast food at some point,” Byrne said. To make that experience more nutritious, “plan, before you walk in the door, what you think you might order.”

Some things to consider:

• Watch those free beverage refills. “Unless you’re a diet-soda drinker, you can drink a lot of calories before you walk out the door,” Byrne said.
• Grilled-chicken sandwiches can be a nutritious choice, especially if you ask the restaurant staff to hold the sauce or have it served on the side. Same with salad options, if you use a light dressing or vinaigrette.
• Whenever you have the opportunity to just pick up the meal and bring it home, you can supplement it with salad, fruit or other healthy side dishes, Byrne said.
• You can always get nutrition information while you’re in a fast-food restaurant, Byrne said. The restaurants have the brochures. Also, a lot of establishments have Web sites with current menu information.

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