Five Nutrition Tips for Busy People

Top habits I found work that for me while juggling a busy work life

I remember it was December 2017 when I decided to really tackle my nutrition. Up to that point, I was exercising consistently, but I was succumbing to the stress of my job and travel which meant consistent poor eating decisions and lack of sleep.

For quick context, in 2017 I built a new team at Amazon which developed a charter of “fast-tracking” Amazon retail expansion in new countries. Our first significant project was the launch of Amazon in Australia followed closely by Amazon’s acquisition of Souq.com in the Middle East and North Africa. The work required us to travel frequently, meeting prospective vendors in those countries, hiring teams, training teams, and being a support structure as the launch arrived. I traveled to Australia 8 separate times in 2017 and MENA 3 or 4 times. This meant LOTS of time in airports, on airplanes, across multiple time zones, and also plenty of eating out. Honestly, the last thing I was thinking about was what I was consuming. Oftentimes, I would come off flights and go directly to a full day of meetings which meant pure survival mode…just trying to make it through a day in order to rest and recharge. Once Australia opened for business in Dec 2017, I knew I needed to experiment with how I could eat healthier and better complement the work I was doing in the gym.

I started to do some research and test strategies to help me form better habits. Like with any habit, I always tell my clients what works for one person won’t necessarily work well for another person. Nutrition, like exercise, is personal. With fitness, I have some clients who are great at waking up early to train at 6am everyday while others are night owls and have trouble getting up before 8. The most important thing is to find what’s going to work best for you and be honest with yourself about what you’ll be able to maintain over a long period of time. If you don’t do this upfront, there is a high likelihood you‘ll get discouraged quickly. In the end, consistency always wins.

With that said, here are a few of the top strategies that worked for me. Hopefully one or all can work for you!

1. Make some easy swaps — when I coach people, this is typically the first thing I recommend they take a look at. It’ll require you to be more aware of what your consumption looks like for a few days (I recommend keeping a simple food journal for 3 days), but you’ll be surprised how easy it is to make some simple switches. This is the first thing I did and most of my swaps are ones I still do today. One of my best examples of this was coffee. Every day, I was consuming a latte in the morning (~150 cals). Instead, I switched to an americano (~10 cals). When you think about your overall caloric intake for any given day, 140 calories is not insignificant. The best way to find these easy swaps is to ask yourself if the alternative you swap to is something you would be confident in maintaining 9 out of 10 times (at least 90% of the time). If it’s a yes, do it. If you’re unsure, find something else. Make this easy on yourself and find the lowest hanging fruit first.
2. Set a 5-minute timer after eating— I am a fast eater. At Amazon, I would often go grab my lunch and eat at my desk while catching up on email or reading a document. During this time, I didn’t think about what I was eating; I was just trying to consume something to give me enough energy to tackle the next pressing item in my day. If you are a slow eater, that’s ideal because your body has more time to properly digest what you’re giving it. However, if you’re like me, try this: after you’re done eating, if you still feel a little hungry or you’re unsure, set a 5 minute timer before eating anything else. If, at the end of 5 minutes, you’re still hungry, eat something. If you’re not, don’t. 9 times of out of 10 I’m not hungry anymore at the end of the 5 minutes.
3. Start meal planning — You probably hear this often, right? Go to the store on Sundays, stock up, spend a few hours prepping all your meals for the week and voila! you’re set. Man, how daunting this always sounded to me. Frankly, I don’t want to spend a few hours cooking on my weekend. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t “meal plan” in some capacity. All that term means to me is that you simply have some idea of how and what you are going to eat. One thing I’ve found success with: a meal service. For me to be able to stick with a “meal plan” I know it needs to be easy because I’m not willing to spend a ton of time in the kitchen. Meal services have actually worked out well for me, especially during the day. Right now, I use one that provides me 10 meals per week, and I eat 2 a day. It’s super easy, good quality food, and is ready to eat in 2 minutes. I pay ~$100/week which means ~$10/meal. Not bad, and I’m willing to absorb the cost because I know it helps me eat better.
4. Eat similar things every day and make it simple — As with the meal plan, my theme is make it simple (as in not spend too much brain power on what or how I eat). Every morning, I eat a very similar breakfast- greek yogurt, wheat toast with peanut butter, athletic greens, and black coffee. During the day, I plan a few go-to snacks- my favorites are almonds, apples/oranges, grilled chicken breast, and baby carrots. Everything is easily portable and simple to grab when I need a snack between meals.
5. Don’t be afraid to indulge and do it consistently — I always saw this advice when I was first reading about nutrition- the infamous “cheat meal” or “cheat day.” At first, I thought it seemed counterintuitive (no way do I want to lose progress, right?). Well, turns out, I really like this for a couple reasons: 1) whether you like it or not, you will get cravings. Putting these cravings off for too long just makes them grow louder until you finally give in. Instead of feeling “bad” about giving in, why not celebrate it? I eat fairly well during the week and I choose to eat whatever I want on Saturdays. This mindset helps me stay focused during the week and not feel bad about eating some things I’ve been craving. I literally get excited about eating my apple fritter on Saturday morning. :) 2) If you are losing weight (like I did) and reduce your caloric intake over time, your body becomes more efficient at utilizing the energy you give it. This means you will need to make adjustments to your diet and caloric intake over time if you want to continue making progress. If you have one day during the week where you eat more calories and “spike” your metabolism, your body has a harder time adapting to the amount of energy you’re giving it, and you’re more likely to continue having consistent success meeting your body composition goals.

In summary, try out a few of these and see if they work for you. Some may work and some might not. Sustainable habits are built through experimentation. Keep testing and I guarantee you will land on the habits that work best for you. Good luck!