CenterLight Dietitian Kaitlyn Hempfling recently spoke on CenterLight’s Facebook page about how caregivers can maintain a healthy diet. We understand that caregivers are extremely busy—you may be balancing the responsibilities of caring for an older loved one and taking care of your children while working and maintaining your household. Here, Kaitlyn talks about tips on how you can still keep nutrition in mind despite your full schedule.
The AARP’s Healthy Living Chef Daniel Thomas names 5 easy ways on how you can be mindful of healthy eating even if you don’t have a lot of time as a caregiver. I’m sharing them here and I hope that you will find them helpful. In my experience, they’re tried and tested ways to still keep nutrition in mind even if you’re juggling multiple responsibilities.
Tip # 1: Always Start Your Day with a Healthy Breakfast.
A healthy breakfast will give you the energy that you need to sustain yourself throughout the day, and will help you focus on what’s most important. Without a balanced breakfast, you may start to feel tired and end up making poor food choices later on in the day because you’ll just want to grab something that’s quick and easy.
Protein is a very important part of a healthy breakfast. Having protein for breakfast helps us feel satisfied and gives us the long-term energy throughout the day. Protein also helps regulate our blood sugar. For example, if you had breakfast that doesn’t really have much protein such as pancakes with syrup and maybe some juice, that would make our blood sugar spike and then crash, leaving us feeling sleepy and with no energy.
Fiber is also an important part of a healthy breakfast because it helps keep us full throughout the day and it gives us some lasting energy. Foods that are high in fiber include fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, and when you’re choosing breakfast cereals, you want to look for cereals that have at least 3 grams of fiber. When looking at breakfast cereals, you also want to look carefully at any added sugars. These added sugars can add unwanted calories.
Here are some quick and easy breakfast ideas:
One thing I like to do is over the weekend or the beginning of the week, I like to hard boil a bunch of eggs to just keep in the refrigerator, and then in the morning I can grab those and prepare them with a slice of whole grain toast. You can also add smashed avocado to the toast, top them with the eggs, add a side of fruit such as blueberries, raspberries, or a banana.
Another idea for a quick and healthy breakfast would be oatmeal. You can prepare this the morning of, or sometimes I like to use mason jars or any kind of jars that I have available and make 5 at a time so I can just keep them in the refrigerator and throughout the week every morning I can just grab it from the refrigerator, warm it up and it’s ready to go.
Tip # 2: Always keep healthy snacks available.
We all get hungry in between meals throughout the day. By having healthy snacks in your cupboard, it will be much easier to grab those over a bag of chips that won’t really satisfy you or curve the hunger.
Some ideas for quick and easy snacks would be:
A piece of fresh fruit with a small handful of nuts
Greek yogurt
Vegetables with hummus
When you go grocery shopping, something that I like to do that I find helpful is right when I get home from the grocery store, I like to wash and chop up the vegetables that I’ve gotten. This way, later on in the week when I do get hungry they’re already there prepared for me, and I’m more likely to choose to eat those vegetables that are already prepared as opposed to if the vegetables are there but you have to wash them and chop them but you’re really hungry so you would be more likely to go for a bag of chips or an unhealthy option that will leave you feeling unsatisfied.
Another snack option would be a smoothie. This is quick and easy and it’s also a great way to use up any leftover fruits and vegetables.
Granola bars, however look at the label and make sure there are no added sugars and that there’s a good amount of protein. I usually go for the ones that have at least 10 grams of protein.
Tip # 3: Have good portion control.
It’s important to have good portion control because if we eat too much, it leaves us feeling tired and without the amount of energy that we need throughout the day.
According to the AARP, it takes our brain about 20 minutes to register that we’re full. So if you’re done eating and you think you’re still hungry, wait 20 minutes, have some water, then decide if you’re still hungry or not.
When we’re really busy, it’s easy to rush through meals and eat quick. But it’s really important to slow down a little bit. Chew slower, take smaller bites, just be more mindful and drink plenty of water.
One tip with having better portion control is to think about your plate sizes. For example, you can use a smaller plate, which leads your brain to think you’re eating a lot of food because the plate is full. That then, can be more satisfying.
It’s also recommended that if you’re ordering takeout, when you receive your food, put half of it into a box and put it away in the refrigerator for a later time before you start eating. Most of the time when we order from a restaurant, it’s more than enough food and more than one portion. So the best practice is if you put part of it away, you will only allow yourself to have half of it.
Tip # 4: Eating healthy doesn’t always mean eating perfectly.
Just do your best—try to stay away from foods that are unnatural and have a lot of added sugar. Gear towards foods that have whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Tip # 5: Plan and cook meals ahead of time.
As caregivers, you don’t always have extra time to cook and prepare meals for you and your loved ones. Preparing a meal ahead of time is a great way to save time throughout the week.
CenterLight Teamcare is committed to providing accurate health-related information to help individuals live well, stay healthy and make well-informed healthcare decisions. Information in this material is strictly educational. We recommend that users consult with their doctor regarding their care. If you would like to learn more about CenterLight Teamcare, please call: 1-877-212-8877 (TTY 711), 8AM - 8PM, Monday - Friday. Representatives or message service also available on weekends.
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Last updated January 26, 2021
About the Writer
Kaitlyn Hempfling, RD, CDN is a Registered Dietitian at CenterLight Healthcare.
