Maintaining a proper balanced diet can be challenging in these busy modern times. Most people have a lot of personal and professional commitments and don’t have room in their schedule to cook a proper meal. While some make the effort to plan meals or do meal prep on weekends, not everyone is able to manage it. Most are forced to order take away or visit the local fast food restaurant to satisfy their hunger.
Unfortunately, this can ruin your goal to follow a healthy, balanced diet because fast food and similar meals are full of unhealthy ingredients and processed items. This may seem like a catch-22 situation where you don’t have time to prepare healthy meals but you compromise your health significantly if you seek alternatives. Fortunately, that’s not the case and there are better alternative available.
Consider Meals To-Go
Meal to-go or ready-to-eat meals are an excellent solution for people who want balanced meals but don’t have time to make them. These meals are made from good ingredients, served hot and are filling. They are similar to home-cooked meals and are made from fresh ingredients instead of processed food.
This makes meals to-go a much better alternative to fast food. Restaurants that provide meals to-go often have different lunch and dinner menus with a diverse range of options. People with special dietary needs can choose vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free options if needed. There’s no lack of choice and all meals are delicious so people have no excuse to choose a fast food.
Get Frozen Meals
Meal prep is all the rage these days but preparation can be a bit tedious. These are convenient because you can just freeze the dishes for 4 to 5 days before heating them up on the store or in the microwave. These meals will remain flavorful for a few days and also retain their nutrient value. If you don’t have time to do this, why not buy frozen meals? And this doesn’t mean going to the nearest supermarket to get some processed food off the shelves.
Many restaurants prepare frozen meals fresh and with good-quality ingredients. These are made by an experienced chef and often by hand. They are healthy, flavorful, and full of much needed nutrients. You can simply take away from frozen meal boxes from the restaurant, store it in the freezer, and heat them according to the instructions when you need it. This is the perfect solution and you can stock up the meals for the entire week if needed.
Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth
Hand-made or home-cooked deserts are a much better alternative to what you find in fast food restaurants or supermarkets. If you have a craving for sweet food, order some desert along with your ready-to-eat meals. Most establishments offer a diverse range of options like carrot cakes, chocolate cakes, date squares, fruit squares, lemon squares, etc. Many of the desert options available have moderate levels of sugar, sugar alternatives, or natural sweeteners.
Some establishments will even provide gluten-free or nut-free deserts to people with specific dietary needs. You can have a complete meal and desert without compromising your health in any way. Some ready-to-eat meal restaurants even have specialized menus for holidays so you don’t have to cook during these occasions and can just enjoy them.
Meals to-go are a great take-away alternative to traditional fast food or restaurant take-away because the focus is always on creating well-balanced meals that can be an adequate replacement for home-cooked food. Many people find it easier to switch to a better lifestyle when most of the preparation is already done for them, which make ready-to-go meals a great motivator as well.