Eating Well When You’re Tired, Busy and Slightly Broke

A lot of nutrition advice seems to be written for someone with a personal chef, a farmers’ market on their street and three free hours every Sunday to meal prep in matching glass containers.

I have a small kitchen, a long commute and a budget that looks at me with concern. So this is for women like me.

Forget perfect. Aim for better.

You don’t need to eat perfectly. You need to eat reasonably well most of the time. That’s it. One takeaway doesn’t undo a week of decent meals, and one salad doesn’t make up for never eating vegetables.

Think in patterns, not individual meals.

The simple framework I use

Add, don’t just subtract. Instead of obsessing over what to cut out, I focus on adding things in: a portion of vegetables to dinner, some fruit in the afternoon, more water during the day. Adding feels a lot less miserable than restricting.

Build plates that keep you full. Some protein, some fibre, some vegetables, some carbs you enjoy. A plate like that tends to carry you for longer than a handful of biscuits eaten standing over the sink. Not that I would know…

Keep easy wins around. Frozen vegetables, tinned beans, eggs, oats, rice, bananas. They’re affordable, they last, and they turn into a meal in minutes.

Cook once, eat twice

When I do cook, I make double. Tomorrow’s lunch is sorted. Future me is always grateful to past me for this one.

You don’t need to batch cook a week of meals on Sunday. Even cooking a little extra on a couple of nights makes a real difference.

Food is more than fuel

Food is culture, comfort, celebration and connection. The jollof at a family party, the cake at a friend’s birthday, the soup your mother makes when you’re unwell. These aren’t “cheat meals.” They’re part of a good life.

A note on specific needs

If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have specific dietary requirements, a doctor or registered dietitian can give you advice that actually fits your situation. A blog post, even a good one, can’t do that.

Be kind to yourself

Eating well when life is busy isn’t about discipline. It’s about making the easy choice a slightly better one, most of the time.

Tonight, for me, that’s eggs on toast with a tomato on the side. Look at me, eating a vegetable.

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