We ask a lot from our bodies. The way that we live our lives today is more stressful and fast paced than ever before. Just the mere act of keeping up with our home and family is enough to drain our batteries. Proper nutrition is vital to our existence. The simple fact is that you cannot expect your body to do everything that you ask of it on a daily basis if you are not putting into it the things that it needs to function correctly. The way that we live leaves little time to eat properly most of the time. For the vast majority of Americans the idea of eating healthy is limited to leaving the cheese off the quarter-pounder and having a second trip to salad bar when we go out to the buffet. No matter what the golden arches would have us to believe an order of fries does not constitute a full serving of vegetables. So how are we to make sure that we are getting the nutrition that we need in our busy lives?

Since I took a pot shot at fast food lets be fair and point out the ways that you can get a great deal of nutrition in the drive through. One of the best choices is Taco-Bell. Yes I know you may think I am completely off my rocker at this point. You may be wondering how a deep fried tortilla filled with re-fried beans, fake meat and nacho cheese is actually healthy. I am going to let you in on a secret about Taco Bell that most people do not know. You can order anything on the menu “fresco”, this means that they will replace all the cheese and red sauce (its evil high in sodium) with extra lettuce and their special “fresco” salsa blend which is a great mix of onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro and lime juice. You can also get almost every item on the menu with grilled chicken instead of their “meat” and exchange sour cream with guacamole to cut the fat even further. Instead of a shell or flat bread, get your tacos soft and you’ll skip the frier all together. Lastly, lose the beans, or if that just seems to be too great of a sacrifice ask them to go extra light on them. You can cut down the sodium by asking the girl at the counter for a package of the “green” sauce instead of getting the normal three, the flavor is just as intense but has no fat, half the calories and 1/3 of the sodium, the only thing you will really miss are the cute saying on the front of the little packet.

OK, so southwest is your thing, how about Subway? Yes we have all spent the last few years watching the nerd wander around the country showing off his fat pants and telling us how he got skinny by chanting the mantra “eat fresh” to himself four hundred times a day. The truth is that Subway really is the best thing going when it comes to getting a huge amount of nutrition in ten minutes or less. They have a whole menu of items that are less than 650 calories, six grams of fat or less and have 0 grams of trans fat per serving. In this case a serving is huge. One serving is considered to be a six inch sub, five inch flat-bread sandwich or a full salad. Considering the fact that you can also pile on all the veggies you can swallow and burst the flavor with any of their low fat sandwich toppers then you have a great choice here. The recent addition of their five dollar foot longs deal means you can have 2 full meals of great healthy food for less than five dollars.

As you can see its easy to get extra nutrition in your diet even when your running around busy. Other options exist you just have to know where to look. Good luck and Good Eating!