Let’s face it; if you’re a woman, you’re busy. Period.

So is it any wonder that we struggle with our eating?

Our days are a giant cake batter mix of child school pick-ups, office meetings, emails laundry and grocery shopping. God forbid you should actually try and squeeze a yoga class into your own life…ooooh nooo! No time for that!

As an ex-fad dieter, I can tell you from experience that if I skipped a meal or was forced to eat “on the run”, there was no way I was subjecting my taste buds to a boring green salad. No way! I was diving face first into the nearest greasy, salty, cheesy thing I could find!

Of course, as soon as the last cheesy morsel was wiped from my lips. I instantly regretted my decision.

So in an effort to dial down the food anxiety, I’m sharing my Top 10 Tips For Eating Healthy On The Go (Hot Tip… the last point is the best!)

1. Prep your stash

That’s right. Keep a stash of healthy (and portable) foods with you at all times so you never get caught with your smoothie down 😉 Some of my fave and totally transportable foods are fruit, chocolate banana smoothie, nuts, goji berries, paleo lemon chia muffins,  sexy superfood snack bars and banana oatmeal cookies.

2. The Food Court is not a Carnival

If you’ve been a hard core dieter like I was, you’ll know the feeling of being “set free” when you decide to break your diet. So many of us think that if we can’t eat our regular “safe food”, then we might as well eat all the junk in the world because, after all, we’ve ‘broken’ our diet. Well, I’m about to bust that myth wide open! When you Ditch the Diet, you ditch the rules. There are plenty of healthy choices you can make when you’re eating out. Just because they’re not part of your regular rotation doesn’t mean you should go on a week long binge-fest.

3. Tune In

Eating is about more than just filling a cavernous hole in your stomach. Actually paying attention to what you’re eating will (surprise, surprise) allow you to enjoy your food, instead of scoffing it down like a rabid dog. There is an entire universe of flavour, texture and emotion connected to the food you eat. Absorb it. Inhale it. It’s all part of the eating experience.

4. Brain Dump

Strange as this may seem, if I felt that I was starting to get a little (eer, ok… a lot) stressed throughout the day, I would whip out my trusty diary and start re-organizing my “to do” list. Why? Because if I was feeling super stressed and like there was just nooo waaaay I was ever going to wipe out even half my to do list, I would do one of two things… I would eat from terror of realizing I could never accomplish the dissolution of said list or, I would eat to procrastinate from even having to look at said list. Reschedule and revive. Your eating sanity may very well depend on it.

5. Order In

So the boss wants to go over the sales reports during your lunch break? Order in, baby! Don’t smile sweetly, work through your lunch break and then devour the entire menu of Macca’s on the way home. Get the local salad bar to whip up a superfood salad and order.it.in (at the bosses expense, of course. It’s the least they can do for hijacking your lunch break) 😉

6. Don’t lie to yourself

When you tell yourself you won’t eat the pasta carbonara with extra cream for the fourth night in a row and then you do, you are breaking your own trust. What does this mean? It means that each time you do this, you trust yourself less and less around food. Pretty soon you’re reciting mantras in your head like “I just can’t trust myself around food” or “there’s no way I can stop at one bite”. If there’s one person in the world you should be able to trust, it’s YOU! Next time you say “I’ll only have one chocolate cookie”, do it.

7. Find your food-spiration

Tread lightly here. If looking at pics of food on your Instagram feed will make you want to binge, then skip this point and move on, but… if you follow some super healthy accounts like, well, mine Kylie Pax or Food Fixup or Naturally Nutritious or Pheebs Foods, you will never run short of super healthy and super delicious meal ideas.

8. Put the “R” back into Routine

Take the ‘R’ out of “rush” and put it back into “routine”. Rushing around like a crazed lunatic will not help you dial down the emotional eating gig. If anything, it will just make it much, much worse. Stick as close as you can to a regular routine. Take your snacks with you in a mini cooler bag if you need to, just never leave the house unprepared.

9. Don’t eat food that makes you sad

If you know that as soon as you finish that lemon curd tart you’ll regret it, then why even go there? Make food choices you can feel good about. And if you’re choices are limited, then do the very best that you can, given the circumstances you’re in. Whatever you do, choose food that will make you happy long after the memory of it has passed from your lips.

10. If you’re going to eat it, then eat it and ENJOY it

So you’ve weighed it up. You could choose a salad but you just don’t want to. No problem. Eat anything you like on one condition… eat it and enjoy it. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t say “I know I shouldn’t be eating this, but…”. No. If you’ve made the choice to eat the creamy, crunchy, salty, sweet thing, then eat it with pride. Enjoy every mouthful and don’t look back. Life is about balance, not perfection.

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What’s your top tip for eating healthy on the run?

Join the conversation below and be sure to tune in next week… I have a loooong awaited surprise to reveal that will answer all your weight loss prayers!

Till then, lovely!

Here’s to Ditching the Diet!