By Dr. Joseph Mercola
     with Rachael Droege

One of the biggest challenges to eating healthy is finding the time to do it. But while it may be tempting to justify your fast food lunches by saying you "just don’t have time to eat healthy," in the end you are only setting yourself up for a rocky road in the years to come.

Don’t let time get the better of you. Once you read through the tips below you won’t be able to make any more excuses; you’ll be able to eat nutritious food even if you don’t think your schedule allows it.

Cook in Large Batches

Whether you are cooking some grass-fed bison patties or making fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, cooking large batches will assure that you have some left over for the next day. Almost anything you make can be stored (in glass containers) overnight and eaten as another meal the next day.

Leftovers from dinner can even be eaten for breakfast and in fact are likely to be a healthier choice than the typical American breakfast of cereal, toast, pancakes, bagels or doughnuts.

Eat at Least One-Third of Your Food Raw

There are valuable and sensitive micronutrients that are damaged when you heat foods. Cooking and processing food can destroy these micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. Regular vegetable juicing will easily help you reach this goal of one-third raw food in your diet but you may need to set aside some time to juice regularly.

However, there are plenty of foods that can be eaten raw while on the go and that save you the time of cooking. Raw vegetables, raw seeds, raw nuts and raw dairy all fit into this category, although you will want to tailor your individual choices to fit your metabolic type.

You can also eat raw eggs. Raw, whole, organic eggs are a phenomenally inexpensive and incredible source of high-quality nutrients that many of us are deficient in, especially high-quality protein and fat. They are also one of the quickest foods to eat if you are short on time.

Prepare Your Lunch the Night Before

Morning can be a very hectic time of day and one way to cut down on things to do in the morning is to prepare your lunch the night before. This will also reduce the risk that you will neglect to prepare a lunch altogether and then decide to pick up some unhealthy junk food later in the day. It is much easier to eat healthy if you can grab your ready-made lunch from the refrigerator as you head out the door.

Eat Only When You’re Hungry

If it’s lunchtime at work and you don’t feel hungry, skip it. The worst thing you can do is to go out and grab some fast food and eat it simply because it’s time for lunch. Chances are your body can use the break from digestion and the junk food you would be tempted to get while on the run will only make you tired and sluggish.

In fact, occasional fasting is a healthy practice for most people. Simply tell yourself you are making a choice to improve your health and live longer. I have used this technique very successfully especially when I am traveling and there are just no healthy options.

Be careful not to get carried away with this practice, such as skipping breakfast everyday, as studies have found that people who skip breakfast are over four times as likely to be obese than people who eat something in the morning. If you’re looking to save time in the morning or for another meal, but don’t want to go without eating, opt for a quick superfood drink like Living Fuel Rx. This will give you almost all of the daily nutrients your body needs and is a much better alternative to any fast food.

Include the Most Nutritious Foods You Can

When you’re looking to save time, one strategy you may use is to combine two things into one, or "kill two birds with one stone," if you will. This mentality can be applied to many areas of your life and one of them is eating. If you think of food as serving a purpose--to give you the maximum amount of healthy nutrition possible--and then cater your food choices to that purpose, you will save time.

Only eat the most healthy, most high-quality foods around and don’t waste your time with inferior junk foods. Here is a list of Six Foods That Will Give You the Most Health "Bang" for Your Buck to get you started.

Rethink Your Priorities

If you are healthy it is easy to take your body for granted. Those who are sick, though, realize just how important their health is. But you don’t want to wait until your health goes away to realize that it is one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of life.

If your car breaks down, you can have it fixed. If a relationship fails, there are almost always more to come, but if your body breaks down you will have a hard time experiencing life as most would like. This is why nutrition and health should be a top priority in your life.

You must protect your body as you would any valuable possession, but the way to protect it isn’t with insurance or a lock and key. You must protect it by being proactive. Prevent the disease before they begin, fortify your body with nutrients, exercise to keep strong--in short, follow the program described in my Total Health Program and get started today by looking through my nutrition plan. If you feel you don’t have time for this sort of effort, then you may want to consider rethinking your priorities.

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