Lazy Man's Guide to Eating Healthy

It's a lot of work exercising enough to stay fit. But when did it get so hard to eat healthy? Here are some tips to outwit the system (and yourself) so eating right becomes automatic.

Obvious Tip Number One: Eat Before Shopping

There's science behind this one, but your grocery bill should be proof enough. When we shop hungry, we tend to buy a lot more snacks, desserts, and other tasty treats that are bad for us. Eat first, and you're much less likely to find yourself thinking, "Screw all this cooking, I could really go for these Twinkies right now."

Fresh, Frozen, Canned

Say it with me: Fresh, Frozen, Canned. That's a general ordering of healthiness. If you like carrots, buy fresh carrots if you can, else frozen, which still locks in most of what's good for us. Canned is OK if the week's budget demands taking advantage of a sale, or you'd like to stock up, and canned veggies are still way healthier than fresh donuts. (Once more: Fresh, Frozen, Canned.)

Sandwiches!

Like pizza, a decent sandwich packs a lot of nutrition into its hand-held goodness. Double up on the vegetable condiments (eating your lettuce before it wilts is good economic sense too) but go easy on the mayo, non-lean meats and other sources of fat and cholesterol.

(Bonus factoids: The best thing before sliced bread was steel wool. Before that it was the cast iron skillet, the cleaning of which brought about the steel wool thing. And yes, the Earl of Sandwich legend is true, he hated greasy playing cards.)

Feed the Masses

It's much harder to cook healthy for one person than it is for a group. That's why microwaveable TV dinners gained such popularity, though they don't deliver on the nutrition promise of their shiny wrappers. So when possible, potluck with friends where everybody brings their single best dish, an arrangement both cost-effective and tasty. Not the dinner party type? Cook a family-sized batch of lasagna, or anything else, and bag individual servings into the freezer for the coming weeks.

Grow Your Own

It's really not as hard as it sounds to grow your own vegetables. There are dead simple techniques for growing tomatoes in a bucket in your window sill. Herb gardens turn plain chicken into dishes with fancy French names. While your jeans are dirty, plant a couple flowers to brighten the the place up. Nasturtium and sweet peas are easy, and edible.

Psychological Warfare

Grocery stores put the items they'd most like you to buy right in front of your nose, within easy reach. (Products for kids are down at their eye level.) Use the same tactic in your fridge. Shove the junk food to the back and the lower shelves, and keep your fresh and healthy foods front and center. Move the ice cream to the back of the freezer, blocked by your frozen veg of choice. You're more apt to make the right choice when you don't have to dig.

Break Fast

This one shouldn't even be in the list any more, but somehow people are still skipping breakfast. Whatever time or attention they think they're gaining, they certainly lose it all back when their blood sugar drops later in the morning. They'll probably overcompensate at lunch and eat too much, and screwing up dinner too. Eat your breakfast, champ, k? A bowl of cereal goes a long way.

Underbuy

If you're craving soda, grab a six-pack or even a single can instead of the 24-case, plus your healthy alternative (like water!) Later at home, your soda fix will have been satisfied, and you'll switch to H20 or juice instead of driving all the way back to the store. Try this on any food group you wish you had more willpower over.