Here are a few tips for eating healthy while busy as an entrepreneur.

The other day our Arth Real Estate team was wondering out loud: “how do local entrepreneurs stay healthy and take care of themselves with diet and nutrition?” It seems as entrepreneurs, we are constantly busy and running from meeting to meeting. No two days look alike and there are always unexpected events thrown into the midst. So with all the chaos, how do we set our nutritional intake in balance and not reach for junk food, fast food, or an instant cup of ramen? Because while we can have great intentions to eat right, sometimes the craziness can catapult us into eating “911 food.”

We reached out to the incredible Callan Wall of Tula Wellness. Callan is a non-diet registered dietician. And what that means is, well, she thinks diets and diet culture can be confusing and overwhelming. Instead, she values focusing on health behaviors, instead of the scale, as a means to improving health. Diets, she said, can trap us into the restrict/binge/guilt-shame cycle, and no one wants that. Definitely check out Tula Wellness to learn more about Callan and her practice and read below for a few tips she suggests for local entrepreneurs hoping to feed their bodies the best nutrition in a chaotic schedule.

Schedule your meals

Entrepreneurs might not have much time in their day to really stop and eat. With stress and anxiety also playing a role, she said, it may be easy to miss hunger cues and forget to focus on healthy eating. “I recommend looking at your schedule that day and asking when is a good time to stop and nourish yourself — even if it’s for a few minutes and just a snack,” Callan said. “Coming up with a flexible schedule of when your meal and snack times will be can help you from neglecting nourishment. Because when we do that, we obviously don’t work as well as we could.”

Plan out meals and snacks

Callan said she loves to help clients on Sundays look at their week ahead and plan easy, quick meals. She suggests planning out meals and grocery lists so that clients are ready for every meal and even snacks. “When there is not enough food in the house, that is when people order takeout,” she said, “so to avoid that we stock the pantry and fridge.” Meals also do not have to be intense or require hours of meal prep. Simply planning out something like a banana and peanut butter for a midday snack can help.

Keep plans flexible

Being able to schedule time for meals or plan meals is not helpful if the plan is not flexible, Callan said. Boxing yourself in with rigid diets, timetables, and calorie counting will only add to the stress of someone already working their own stressful business. Tula Wellness can help clients set themselves free from a rigid diet plan and focus more on a healthy relationship with food and food behaviors.

Consider protein

We asked Callan if she could recommend some energy-boosting superfoods that would help entrepreneurs get through the day and prioritize healthy eating. Sadly, there isn’t really any magical food out there that can do that, she said. Instead, she encourages clients to pair a consistent intake of carbs with protein. So maybe if you have crackers, have them along with cheese, or if snacking on fruit, go ahead and have some nuts too. This will help prevent major spikes in blood sugar, which happens when just eating carbs by themselves. “I generally recommend clients reach for a carb and protein every three hours, consistently all day until dinner, to help keep you from having a blood sugar crash.”

Follow Tula Wellness: Callan is a fabulous follow on Instagram, check her out here.