Maya Vadiveloo spends most weekdays studying food. As a dietitian and associate professor of nutrition at the University of Rhode Island, she pores over large data sets to help people make healthier decisions at the grocery store.

But at night, when she gets home from work, perfect nutrition is not top of mind.

“I obviously spend quite a bit of time thinking about food,” she said, but as a single parent of an 8-year-old daughter, she tries to model balance and pleasure rather than perfection and rigidity.

Here are seven tips she shared for maintaining that balance, and for eating well when you don’t have a lot of time.

Make veggies your ‘lazy’ snack.

Dr. Vadiveloo always keeps carrots, cucumber slices or celery sticks on hand for a quick snack. That helps her meet her goal of eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and it means the easiest choice is a healthy one.

“It’s amazing how satisfied I can be by just having a bag of baby carrots at my desk,” she said.

Focus on the perimeter of the grocery store.

Most supermarkets place fresh, whole foods like fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat and fish on the outside edges, with processed and packaged foods in the center aisles.

Dr. Vadiveloo spends the most time in the produce section, comparing prices and selecting in-season fruits and vegetables to have on hand for smoothies, lunches, snacks and dinner sides. She rounds that out with a stop at the freezer case, where she picks up a few versatile and budget-friendly favorites like frozen broccoli, green beans, edamame, corn and berries.

Read the nutrition labels on packaged foods.

Dr. Vadiveloo tends to buy the same kinds of yogurt, tofu and whole-wheat bread each week. But when she’s picking up an unfamiliar brand, she scans the nutrition labels.

With breads and breakfast cereals, for example, she looks for those that list a whole grain as the first ingredient and have at least three grams of fiber and less than five grams of sugar per serving. She tries to stay below the same sugar level when buying flavored yogurt for her daughter — and she often chooses unsweetened yogurt and adds her own honey and vanilla at home.

For canned soups and jarred sauces, which can be quite high in salt, she chooses those that are lower in sodium.

Get creative with smoothies.