Written by Jenny Catton
When you’re trying to eat healthily, the key to success often lies in preparation and organisation. After all, if you come home from work to find nothing in the fridge to make a healthy meal, that’s when you’re most likely to phone for a fattening takeaway. And if when you open your fridge, all you see is calorific treats, then temptation is hard to resist.
One way to ensure you stick to your healthy resolutions is to organise your fridge cleverly. It’s not just what you put in your fridge but how you organise it that can make all the difference. Here’s how…
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Keep your healthiest snacks at eye level in the fridge so that they are the first thing you see when you open the fridge door. Keep treats at the back or in boxes so that you’re less likely to grab them without thinking.
Healthy Leftovers
If you’ve made a healthy dish for an evening meal and have some leftovers, package them into single serve boxes so that you can easily take them out for quick and healthy lunches.
Be Prepared
When you’re feeling peckish, it’s often easier to grab a biscuit or packet of crisps than it is to prepare a healthy snack. Make things easier by pre-cutting fruit and veg into sticks or bite sized pieces so that you can quickly make a fruit salad or raw veg snack when you’re hungry.
Be Inspired
Don’t let the outside of your fridge go to waste – it’s a great place to stick reminders to help with your healthy eating goals. You could stick a calendar of seasonal vegetables on the outside, or a weekly meal plan to give you inspiration when you’re wondering what to cook. Alternatively, keep a list of healthy snack ideas so you’re reminded of different options when you start reaching for the chocolate.
Organise, Organise, Organise
Often we have a fridge full of food but when we open the door we still struggle to know what to cook. One way to make things easier is to keep your fridge neat and tidy. Have separate compartments or Tupperware boxes for different types of food – for example, keep all your cold meats together in one box and all your cheeses in another. You can then easily see what is available and plan healthy meals around the ingredients you already have.
Stay Fresh
Have you ever noticed how unhealthy food seems to stay fresh for longer than the healthy stuff? Quite often that’s because the unhealthy options are packed full of artificial preservatives to make them last longer. It can be disheartening to plan a healthy meal only to find that your salad or vegetable ingredients are past their best. The solution is to make sure fresh ingredients are stored correctly – for some things this may mean removing plastic packaging to stop the ingredients from sweating, whilst other things may last longer if stored in Clingfilm or in a plastic box. A salad crisper is often the best place to store fresh salad ingredients and some fruits will last for longer if kept in the fridge once ripe.
For more information about healthy eating, visit: www.nhs.uk/livewell/healthy-eating
