Sarah Roberts 

Making healthy meal choices while at work may be hard, with time constraints, alarm clocks, not having time to go to the supermarket, or plenty of other excuses. Sometimes that’s exactly what it comes down to: Excuses. If you or I are working a full time job and have the weekends and evenings off, what is our excuse for not making a healthy meal the night before or if dining out, choosing the healthy choice of side dish? 

Saeedah Pirzada, 27, used to work as a receptionist for an acupuncture clinic. She says that her eating habits changed time-to-time, though she says that most days she would only pack a limited amount of food to take to work. “Normally I would only bring snacks and buy lunch, since it would be fresher and my lunch (break) was after one in the afternoon, so it was a long day. What I would buy normally depended on my mood.” Pirzada says the decision of what to buy to eat would change, but says she tried to eat healthier meals. Sometimes her healthy food decisions would include some unhealthy food choices too. Other days I would get a chicken wrap with lots of vegetables. Once in a while, the chicken wrap would be from Tim Hortons, just because I wanted the cookies and well, the coffee too (for the combo),” she says. Jasmine Ho is a Dietician for Toronto Public Health. She says that people often make poor food choices when distracted about food. “Oftentimes, people make (bad food) choices when hungry, in a hurry and haven’t planned in advance,” Ho says.  “If people prepare before hand, they may not make these decisions and make healthier ones.”While Pirzada was busy treating herself to a wrap at Tim Hortons as a healthy food choice, other healthy eateries were opening up. The clinic Pirzada was working at was located far from the City, so these choices weren’t available, but for those living in Toronto, Tim Hortons isn’t the only answer.

Healthy Eating Isn’t a Struggle, Part Two will be published in February.  Watch for it in Prospere Magazine‘s February issue.