Many people ask me what I eat to stay healthy. First, I always admit that my diet is not perfect. I have kids, a hungry husband and an inconsistent work schedule!

A busy life is a common reason for many people to pick up takeout, make meals out of boxes, and eat fast food on the run.

One recent day, I had the kids at home on a snow day. I did a short run on the treadmill for exercise, then had lots of emails to return and computer work to get done. In the fridge, we had blueberries and spinach that needed to be used and leftover buns from chicken sausages.

If you were me on a day like this, here is an example of what you might eat.

Breakfast:

• 1 ½ cups of Special K with Strawberries
• ½ cup Almond Milk
• ½ cup blueberries
• Coffee with Silk Creamer

Snack:

• 1 oz Wheat Thins
• ½ Honey Crisp Apple
• ½ oz Almonds

Lunch:

• Grilled ham and cheese sandwich on whole-grain bread with two-percent cheese
• ½ cup two-percent cottage cheese with 2 T mango salsa
• 1 oz baked Lays

Snack:

• Chocolate Milk
• 1 graham cracker with 1 TBSP natural peanut butter

Dinner:

• 2 cups whole-wheat pasta prepared with red wine, garlic, mushrooms, spinach and bacon
• ¼ cup veggie soufflé with egg whites and veggies
• ½ cup blueberries
• Homemade cheese bread

I try to follow my own recommendations about eating often, choosing whole grains, eating protein and carbohydrate at every meal or snack, and eating following exercise. On that day, I did a particularly good job — possibly because I was writing it down and planned  to tell all of you. The lesson: Write it down and be accountable to someone; you will eat healthier, too!

Still, there are days when eating healthy just isn’t in the cards. Reserve your splurges for these meals and realize there is a rule to eating better “most” of the time. The best rule to follow is that 80 percent of your calories should be from healthy, nutritious foods, and those foods should be without a doubt healthy. If you follow a “clean” diet 80 percent of the time, you probably are eating better, and you also are not completely depriving yourself. Journal your intake and look to your averages to find out what you should eat for that next meal out. Reserve splurging or eating out until you really need the convenience.

My Favorite 200 Calorie Easy Snack:

Avocado Nest:

• ½ Avocado
• ¼ cup one-percent to two-percent cottage cheese
• 2 T salsa (my favorite is mango salsa)

Take the pit out of the Avocado.  Fill the hole with ¼ cup low fat cottage cheese and top with 2 TBSP salsa of your choice.