During your day as a startup founder, you don’t really want to spend time cooking. You just want to grab something quick to fill up your belly so you can get back to work.

While doing so might save time, you forget that you have to keep yourself healthy to perform well. Staying healthy will therefore have a positive impact on your startup.

Here are some tips I found helpful to maintain healthy eating habits while not spending too much time on preparing meals…

– Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. It will not only keep you fresh and alert, but it will also fill you up and suppress hunger. Water-rich foods like soup, salad, fruit, and vegetables will also fill your belly with healthy liquid.

– Thoroughly chewing your food increases what researchers call “oro-sensory factors,” which send satiation signals to your brain, helping you feel full on less food, according to a 2009 study by Dutch researchers. Study participants who chewed each bite for an extra 3 seconds ended up consuming less.

– Bread: Always pick whole-wheat over white for the extra fiber. Look for at least 3 grams in each slice. Sourdough is good too for probiotics.

– Greek Yogurt is great for breakfast or as a snack, you can add granola to it which will make it extra yummy and healthy.

– There are a lot of vitamins and nutrients that can be cooked out of foods. To avoid that, just save time and eat it raw!  Raw foods can be anything from fruits to veggies to even fish (sushi 🙂 ).

Make sure to schedule a day each week to go to the grocery store (my favorites are Trader Joe’s and Sprouts) to stack up on all the ingredients you’ll need to quickly put together meals. You can make quick and simple things like sandwiches, steamed or roasted veggies, salads, etc. Some of the items I buy are avocados, tomatoes, mixed greens, broccoli, potatoes, mini carrots, hummus, celery, apples, oranges, jicama, turkey meat, almonds, pecans, whole-wheat bread, greek yogurt, granola, healthy energy bars (like Kind).

Also, taking vitamins is a great way to keep your immune system strong, thus not wasting time on getting sick 🙂 I like taking Vitamin K2, and then Zinc when I feel like I’m coming down with something.

Get outside every day for a few minutes to breath fresh air and soak in on some sun to optimize your vitamin D levels.

Have fun and keep it up.