10 Food ideas For When The Struggle Is Real
One of the perks of the entrepreneur life is that you get to call all the shots, from exactly how you work to when, where, and what you eat. The whole process is frankly exciting and absorbing. You’re inventing a life that works for you, but in the thick of the action, it can be difficult to figure out how healthy eating fits into your day – even when it’s one of your top priorities. When you’re busy keeping all those plates spinning, how do you keep your own plate filled with healthy, nourishing food?
And then there’s the stress factor. Building a business, as wonderful as it is, comes with its unique stressors. We know stress can impact eating in all sorts of ways, from diminished appetite to amplified cravings. So what do you do when all you can think about is chocolate and the thought of anything else just turns your stomach, and yet you still need to nourish yourself?
In food tips for busy workers, we talked about some essentials of maintaining a healthy relationship with food while working remotely. Here, we’d love to share some of the tips and tricks that have worked best for our team when we’re in plate-spinning mode. Yes, we admit it! Sometimes we love our job a little too much and forget it’s mealtime. But it’s okay because we’re strategists. There’s always a back-up plan. Allow us to throw open the fridge and let you in on some of the food strategies that help us perform at our best.
#1 Soylent
Soylent is our biggest secret. Soylent was designed by a couple of Silicon Valley techies who struggled to eat and decided to make a drinkable meal instead. (Extra points if you catch the sci-fi reference!) Soylent is designed to provide all the vitamins and minerals we need to stay healthy, and there are a variety of flavors to choose from. Many on our team are die-hard chocolate lovers. The plain one doesn’t cut it for us, but if plain is all you can get your hands on, just add some flavored protein powder! Which of course brings us to our next hack…
#2 We love Protein Powder
We love protein powder. It’s a great way to enhance the Soylent if you go that route, and there are tons of brands and flavors to pick from. As previously mentioned, we’re obsessed with chocolate, so some of us stack chocolate Soylents with chocolate protein powder .
Remember when you wanted to eat ice cream for breakfast as a kid? Okay, as an adult? This is like having a milkshake for a meal – minus the bloaty, energy-draining effects of a milkshake. You can use a Blender bottle to shake it up, and there you have it, a drinkable meal on the go.
#3 Drink more Yogurt!
By now you may be catching on to our liking for drinkable stuff. It’s perfect for when we’re in flow and don’t want to stop to cook. We especially like Chobani complete , which is a drinkable yogurt with extra protein. These have 20g of protein in them for 170 calories, which is frankly fantastic. If you aren’t looking for extra protein, the regular chobani have 10g of protein and are just as good.
#4 Invest in fresh delivered meals during those busy times
Yes, we do eat solids around here. When cooking is tough and a salad won’t cut it, we still like to avoid frozen meals. They just don’t have as many nutrients and aren’t going to go down well on a stressed stomach. During these busy times, we find it helpful to lean on high-quality meal delivery services. factor75 has very healthy meals that are fresh and heat up in about 2 minutes. cookunity is another brand we like that’s similar to Factor75. Both are surprisingly good for microwavable fare. On days when we don’t have time to cook but still want to eat healthy (solid) food, these make life a lot easier.
#5 Smoothie city, baby!
Okay, we’re back to drinkables. If you want something fast and easy, Daily Harvest has pre-made smoothies you just drop into a blender with a base. If these taste a tad too healthy for you, just add a bit of honey – still healthy, but sweeter. If you’re going the homemade route, just take your favorite fruits and veg and mix them with a base of your choice. We love smoothies because you can throw in anything you like. When you can’t stand another salad, this is the way to go!
To get you started, here’s one of our go-to smoothie recipes:
• 2 Handfuls of kale
• 2 Handfuls of spinach
• 1 Banana
• 1/2 Cup of mango
• 1/2 Cup of pineapple
• 1 Lemon's worth of juice
• Coconut water as the base (You can also do apple juice, greek yogurt, or just plain water.)
• A splash of honey
#6 Bars of things
See? More solids. Granola bars – not to mention granola, nuts, and grains in non-bar form – are all a great place to start when you need a hit of healthy carbs and protein. However, not all bars are created equal! There are a lot of brands out there, and many are marketed as health foods but are in fact loaded with processed sugar. So If that’s something you’d like to avoid, be sure to check the nutrition facts before committing. Because these are such easy snacks, some on our team even keep a desk drawer filled with bars, nuts, and protein snacks so we can grab one any time we need it.
#7 Ramen, duh
Ramen – is it really a solid if you can slurp it? We love ramen because it’s got all the comfort factor of chicken soup without the work of making it. Since we’re all about the protein over here, we especially like protein ramen . We’ve tried a ton of varieties and found this one the best-tasting and most affordable on the market.
#8 Cheez-Its, except protienIer!
Sometimes you just need a little crunch. And a little cheese. Preferably real cheese with real protein. While we love Cheez-Its, we get more energy for the crunch munching on quest's high-protein, low-carb version.
#9 Energy Bars disguised as candy
As mentioned several times by this point, we absolutely adore chocolate. We also love sugar, but sugar doesn’t always love us back. To satiate our cravings while avoiding the nasty sugar crashes that tend to follow, we go for the chocolate energy bars. We especially like these protein peanut butterbars. These give us sustained energy without the crash. And they might also be candy.
#10 Reliable Cheese + Crackers
Let’s be real, it’s one of the tastiest and easiest things to eat but cutting cheese slices can be super annoying. That’s why we love Cabot pre-sliced cheese. It’s the easiest to grab on the go as you’re running into another meeting and snack until you’re full. Brandi’s favorite is to pair them with Dill flavored Triscuits. 10/10, would recommend.
And there you have it: our ultimate food survival guide for when the struggle is real. Half drinkables, half solids, with the jury out on ramen, and lots of chocolate to mask the healthiness. We acknowledge that this isn’t always an especially cost-effective way to eat. However, healthy living is such a priority for our team that we find ways to realign our spending to prioritize getting the nutrients we need to operate at our best. Our goal is to support a healthy work-life balance for ourselves and every client we serve. If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed with managing business logistics and want to bring things back in balance so you can properly care for your needs, give us a call. We’d love to discuss how we can support you when the struggle is real.
WRITTEN BY: DEBORAH STEVENSON
