When you make meals and snacks for yourself, they will taste better and be better for you than processed junk food. Here are some easy ideas and quick tips from Naturally Thin, the New York Times bestseller by Bethenny Frankel.
Preparation Ideas
I provide custom meals for my clients at work, so I know how easy this can be if you simply take the time. Purchase reusable plastic containers, and either prepare every day for the day ahead or — even better – prepare several days at once. Buy your supplies at the grocery store, then spend an hour preparing meals and snacks for the next few days. This is an hour invested in a valuable commodity: your own good health. This is also a great way to use leftovers when you’ve cooked a big dinner, or when you’ve brought home a lot of extra food from a restaurant.
Here’s how I do it:
- Line the bottom of containers with different types of salad greens. Top them with your favorite protein — it could be canned tuna, chicken from the night before, sliced leftover steak, or baked tofu. Then add a sprinkling of some flavor such as cheese or nuts, and combine with colorful veggies such as tomatoes and bell peppers. Fill a small plastic container with a low-fat packaged dressing to go with it. Add a slice of whole-grain bread, some brown rice, or whole-grain pretzels or something else crunchy and starchy. Voilà, you have a light, healthy lunch you can take with you or keep easily accessible at home.
- Another good meal to make ahead and store for a convenient lunch or dinner: soup. Especially in the winter, a pint of nice homemade soup will do wonders for your waistline, as well as for your attitude. On one night, sauté onions, carrots, and celery; add your favorite chopped vegetable with salt and pepper and a container of chicken stock. Puree, season to taste, then separate into several containers for high-volume snacks or lunch sides. Some canned soups are great, too. I love Amy’s soups. Some boxed soups are also very good and low in calories but high in flavor. Read the label.
- For healthy morning and afternoon snacks, keep small containers of Greek yogurt in the fridge with individually portioned plastic containers or snack bags of low-fat granola or fruit and nuts. Another easy snack: whole wheat pita wedges with store-bought hummus or a slice of whole-grain bread with low-fat cheese or peanut butter. Whole-grain pretzels with a slice of cheese would be a great afternoon snack, too. If you have healthful foods you actually like in the refrigerator, you’ll grab them.
- Edamame is a delicious and protein-rich snack.
- The cucumber salad is a great one to make and save when between-meal hunger hits you.
- If it’s sweets you crave, then make up portion-controlled containers of dark chocolate and almonds (the healthy fat in the almonds helps to balance the sugar in the chocolate) or combine whipped cottage cheese, honey, maple syrup (or Splenda), vanilla extract, and chocolate chips (or make faux cheesecake). This can be made in several variations, such as with slivered almonds and almond extract. Divide between small containers for something quick, sweet, and delicious.
The possibilities are nearly endless, but the point is to make up the snacks in portion-controlled batches before you get hungry — and to make snacks that you will actually eat. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that if you have no food, you won’t eat. When the body is hungry, it finds a way to eat. Whether you will be going to work, to a gym, on a road trip, or to an airport, be ready for hunger. When you make meals and snacks yourself, they will taste better and be better for you than processed junk food. Desperation usually results in poor choices.
Once you understand and adopt this concept and it becomes second nature, you might wonder why you never practiced it before. Why wouldn’t you eat really good food you made yourself? Why wouldn’t you order food that will make you feel good, not sluggish and bloated? But the only way to make these new practices into habits is to make them fit you and your life. Let self-knowledge be your quest.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A former Martha Stewart Apprentice runner up and a star of The Real Housewives of New York City, Bethenny Frankel is the author of the New York Times bestseller Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting (Copyright © 2009 by BB Endeavors LLC) and The Skinnygirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life. The founder of natural foods company BethennyBakes, she is a monthly columnist for Health magazine. She has cooked for celebrities including Denis Leary and Mariska Hargitay. She lives in New York City.
MORE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHOR
LEARN MORE
- Read the Introduction to Naturally Thin
- Watch Bethenny Frankel talk about her book and how she learned to be naturally thin
- Discover Bethenny’s new book, The Skinnygirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life
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