One of the hardest, but most important things to do in life is to manage our time, and unfortunately, as we face new transitions in life, so will how we manage our time. Due to the commitment required to manage life, family, work and play, fitness often takes a back seat because spending hours in the kitchen is not a practical nor sustainable solution.

Thankfully, the food industry has advanced to a point where we can spend as little as 30 seconds to prepare a full meal, allowing us to stay healthy and still deal with the important things in life.

While there are specific recipes that requires low prep time like many that are showcased on our website, this article is focused more on concepts or strategies you can adopt to help you eat well without spending hours in the kitchen everyday.

Have Ready Recipes To Work With

One of the fastest way to help you save time is to know what to cook. This reduces thought process and brain juice, allowing you to become more efficient as you cook what you need without fussing over what you or your family wants.

To help you get started, simply visit the recipe section within the website and you’re good to go!

this is how you can continue eating healthy even when you’re busy — ^{Search Recipe under Resources, or click here to go straight to the recipe section}

And if you need more recipe ideas, my friends at YoRipe have done an amazing job in building a database of recipes that is personalized to your dietary preference, giving you new ideas on what to cook!

Click here to download the Yoripe App on your phone

Essentially, you want to save these recipes into your own database, creating your own personalized cookbook.

Prepare Your Ingredients in Bulk

In cooking, one area we always spend a lot of time is in the preparation of ingredients. This could be from chopping onions to measuring your ingredients, ensuring that you have enough for the whole family.

There are generally two ways to help you save time in this case.

Spend an hour or two a week to chop all your ingredients in advance
When you are chopping your ingredients, make extra for your next meal.

Buy Ready-To-Cook Ingredients

The fastest way to save time from chopping ingredients is to basically not chop. Supermarkets are loaded with frozen whole-foods such as broccoli, mixed vegetables, berries, and meat. Aside from the meat which may require defrosting, you are generally able to cook the rest frozen, saving you precious time and effort.

You can also purchase cous cous as a time saving method to get your carbohydrates in along with the rest of your nutrients. Simply add hot water to your cous cous and watch them rehydrate into a meal.

If You Are Cooking, Make Extra For Another Meal

This is the one tip you can use to make more meals with almost the same amount of effort. Making extra not only saves time, but also ensures that you have a meal to work with tomorrow. You also only have to wash your dishes once!

Make Friends With Time Saving Kitchen Equipment

While I love to cook, there are also days when I don’t want to spend time preparing a full meal. This is where time saving kitchen tools come in to save the day. I have made sous vide chicken breast that taste like it came from a restaurant to spiced broccoli that are air-fried to replace snacking on potato chips, and only stayed in the kitchen for less than 5 minutes. When you become friends with the right tools, you quickly save hours.

Here are some of my favorite kitchen equipment:

Sous vide machine
Air Fryer
Baking Oven
Blender (For Smoothies)

Have Emergency Food At Home

You don’t always want to cook even when you are hungry, and that might cause you to succumb to convenience. This is where emergency food thrives – they are healthy, yet easy to access to, allowing you to still have a meal ready in seconds, preventing you from trying to binge on that brownie cake from your aunt’s birthday.

For me, emergency foods are largely protein based to help regulate appetite and help reduce the potential of me grabbing another bite later on. These could be whole foods like boiled eggs, lean ham, beef jerky, high protein cottage cheese or skimmed milk. I also have high protein cereal, muesli, berries, and some nuts to have with milk. These will help you ensure a meal even when you are busy.

To supplement protein in a more convenient manner, you can also consider using protein powder or protein bars as an option. While it used to taste nasty, protein supplements today taste a lot better, and are often used as an ingredient in many recipes.

Order Meal Delivery Services

Sometimes, it’s hard and I get it – you really want to step into the kitchen but you just don’t have the time. One time saving that has been helpful is to order meal delivery services online.

At the touch of a button, you will be able to enjoy healthy meals (if you choose the right food) without the fuss or mess.

If you happen to be in Singapore, one such meal delivery service you can consider looking out for would be Yummybros.

this is how you continue eating healthy while life throws itself at you — ^{Photo Credit: Yummybros}

At an affordable starting price of $6.50 per meal, You can choose the amount of meat, vegetables and carbs you want in your meal, and even calculate the macros of your meal with their meal macro calculator.

Our friends over at Yummybros have also kindly given us a promo code for readers of this post! Simply enter “YUMMYSNJAMES” and get 10% off your first order with Yummybros.

Disclaimer: I do not earn anything nor am I sponsored for sharing this – the code is for you to enjoy, no strings attached!

Of course, this isn’t to encourage you to consume meal delivery services for all your meals, but can be very helpful as a way to save time and still be on track with your fitness journey.