Healthy Eating All Day

Life & Beauty Weekly: Health

By Rosa Cordero for Life & Beauty Weekly

When you’re trying to lose weight, you know it’s important to eat healthy meals at regular times — but sometimes things just don’t work out. Early lunches, late parties and midday hunger pangs can wreak havoc on your diet.

Fortunately, there are ways to eat healthily even at odd hours. Roland Semprie, fitness and nutrition expert and co-host of the Slice Network’s Re-Vamped, says a little planning can help you make good choices any time of day. Check out his easy tips for some common situations:

The Early Bird
You like to get to the office early—maybe even hit the gym beforehand—so you don’t eat much before you leave the house. By the time you get to your desk, you’re starving.

Solution: Eat something light, such as oatmeal or a protein shake, but filling enough to give you the energy needed to get through your morning, especially if you work out first thing. If you’re ravenous after a few hours, eat some form of protein/carbohydrate combination, such as gluten-free toast with almond butter, Semprie advises.

Pre-Lunch Muncher
Your boss calls a last-minute meeting right before noon, so you hit the vending machine. You know it’ll be a couple of hours before you can get a real lunch.

Solution: “If you’re going to the vending machine, it better be for water,” Semprie says. “The amount of sugar in any of those vending machine snacks will shoot up your blood sugar levels to the point where you will be wired for the first half of your meeting. But you’ll be crashing faster than you know what hit you within an hour or two.” Instead, Semprie suggests keeping a stash of unsalted almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, wedges of fruit, plums and hulled sunflower seeds at your desk. These will get you through your time of need.

The Party Girl
Whether it’s a Mother’s Day brunch or a fancy evening wedding, you can’t resist all that scrumptious food!

Solution: If you know full well that you may pig out at an event where you can’t control what’s served, you should eat what you can control before you leave. “Munch on a salad filled with cucumbers, assorted red, yellow, orange and purple peppers, sprouts, spinach and pine nuts; have a chicken wrap; or eat lentil, rosemary and garlic soup,” Semprie suggests. “By the time you get to that wedding, you will leave at the end of the night feeling satisfied instead of stuffed.”

The 9 p.m. Diner
Your can’t-wait errands keep you out so late that it just seems easiest to stop at the nearest pizza place afterwards.

Solution: “Because your metabolism slows down, you have to be very careful about the types and the quality of food you ingest later in the evening,” says Semprie. He suggests avoiding foods that are high glycemic (white rice, white potatoes, white pasta) or laden with salt and refined sugars. Instead, opt for combining proteins with vegetables or low-glycemic carbohydrates for proper digestion.

The Midnight Muncher
You find yourself craving something sweet right before bed — or maybe you even wake up hungry.

Solution: “If you have to indulge in a midnight snack, it should be something that you will absorb quickly and that has as few calories as possible,” Semprie says. “Water and herbal tea are best, as they are easy to absorb, have very few calories and will make you feel full after drinking them, thereby halting the hunger you’re trying to quell.”

Rosa Cordero is a Miami-based freelance writer who frequently covers beauty, fashion and entertainment. She runs the blog AccidentalSexiness.com.