Simple Ways To Add More Protein To Your Diet
Protein is one of the most important components to a meal. Protein is essential for a healthy immune system, building muscle, preventing muscle loss as you age, keeps you full and satiated, keeps cravings at bay, promotes a healthy metabolism, promotes healthy blood pressure and more. If it hasn’t been something you’ve thought about before, I encourage you to now. Of course, you don’t necessarily need to be counting your macros unless it is needed for a specific goal, and you don’t need to be eating a massive amount of protein to be healthy. However, it is important that you make it a priority at every meal.
Below I am sharing with you a few ways that you can add in more protein easily to your meals:
have protein prepped and ready to go
Having protein prepped is one of the simplest ways to make sure you have protein at every meal, especially lunch and dinners. Protein is often what takes the longest to cook and when you are short on time it can be easy to skip it altogether. Meal prepping your proteins ahead of time or batch cooking at the time of cooking to prepare for future meals, will enable you to easily add in protein to meals throughout the week- especially on those busier days.
add chia seeds and hempseeds to your sweet breakfasts
Chia seeds and hempseeds are two foods that don’t add a ton of flavor and don’t take up a lot of room on a plate. However, they are packed with essential complete proteins. They are so easy to add to your breakfasts. You can easily add a tablespoon to your smoothies as well as top them on your yogurt bowls, add to banana breads and mix into pancake/waffles mixes.
add a scoop of protein to smoothies and yogurt bowls
Adding a scoop of your favorite protein powder to smoothies or mixed into yogurt is one of the easiest ways to get in more protein. Plus, adding in a smooth and tasty protein powder can improve the texture and flavor of smoothies and yogurt bowls.
add nuts and seeds on top of bowls and salads
I recommend always keeping a variety of nuts and seeds on hand to easily toss onto yogurt bowls, salads, grain bowls and more. I especially love having slivered almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and cashews on hand as these go great on most meals.
have quinoa prepped for a base to your dinners
This simple hack can help you pack your bowls with protein. I love having a batch prepped and toss it on salads throughout the week, use as a base for roasted veggie dinners as well as use in place of oats in oatmeal for a high protein breakfast.