5 Easy Steps to De-Stress Your Diet Feel Energetic, Slimmer, Happier
Have you ever noticed sometimes you take an easy thing and
make it into a hard thing? This may be
true for you, your food choices and some of the stress in your life could be easy but you make it hard.
You probably never really thought about this but food and
stress go together like bacon and eggs. You can experience one without the
other but more times than not they are inexplicably connected. When ordering
eggs in a restaurant you have to make a conscious effort to choose to hold the
bacon right? The same is true for food and stress, you have to make a
deliberate choice to hold the stress.
Take dinner for example.
Maybe it’s just me
but sometimes just the thought of trying to decide what’s for dinner at the
last minute stresses me out. Especially when I’m at the end of a busy day,
famished, on my home for work, then suddenly realize there’s nothing at home to
eat. Factor this in with the stress of
deciding what to eat, quality of the food and where to get it? To this add the
stress the food choices, healthy or not and depending on my decision, the later
after effects of my dinner choices may or may not have on my body and my health. Then there’s the emotional disaster that
comes with how I feel about your decision making around food isn’t that great.
I know you are faced with these hard decisions every day too.
So what makes an easy thing like food choice a hard thing?
The healthy choice is at the core a pretty easy choice really. It’s just as
easy to pick up a bag of apples as a bag of potato chips. The same is true with
dinner. It’s just as easy to pick up a can of soup, a bag of salad, a can of
nuts which all would make for a healthier dinner than a package or two out of
the foods in the freezer section of the market place. All these foods healthy or not so much can be
found in the same market just a few isles over. No extra trip, time or energy
is required. Many times no extra preparation is required after taking these
foods home.
Maybe you just need to rethink about what’s really hard
about eating healthy because you’re thinking eating healthy is hard maybe
blocking you from what you want which is to feel slimmer, more energetic and
happy.
Consider this …
Mood swings, highs and lows can be caused by stress hormones
which are triggered when you eat those high sugar, low fiber foods you picked
up from the freezer section.
Weight gain and sickness are related to insulin response and
inflammation caused by eating too many packaged, freezer and sugary foods such as the bag of
chips, cookies, cakes, sugary drinks and not eating enough fruits, vegetables,
nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains … remember that bag of apples you walked
by?
Fatigue, sleepiness and brain fog are connected to the
decision of restricting carbohydrates too much such as in no or low carbohydrate
diet. Depression, anxiety, weight gain were found to be related in
many cases to no fat and low fat diets you know the ones that banish all fats
from you meal plan.
Let’s press the easy button. Starting by committing to one
simple change and start feeling better right away. Pick one change to start
with, master it for 30 days then add one more change. Make it easy by keeping the changes you make
small. Just think at the end of 12
months you will have taken a hard thing and made it into an easy thing.
Pick a place to start then make one change at a time. Here
are some ideas to help you get started. The hard way is to make all the changes
at once, the easy way is to make one change at a time until you have mastered
it then move to the next.
1. Once a day pick one fresh food. One food that
requires very little preparation. Cut and serve. Work your way up
to 6 fresh foods a day. Can’t, don’t or won’t do it? Get the rest of the way
with Juice Plus+ whole food nutrition (www.wholefood4you.com)
People who eat more fruits and vegetables feel better, look better, more
energetic, healthier and happier.
2. Adopt a healthy eating plan then challenge
yourself to follow it.
Start with a 1 day challenge, then 7 days, 12 days, 30 days. Challenge yourself
to make healthy choices in a time frame that works for you. The meal plan we recommend is SHRED10 Facebook Support Group click here.
When eating healthy foods on a regular basis you not only are preventing
disease, you feel better about yourself, sleep better, lose weight, experience
less anxiety and depression.
3. Plan for success with your
meals and snacks. Decide as far ahead as you can what, when and
how you are going eat. Even if it’s only one ahead. Any plan is better than no
plan. When planning pair a carbohydrate with a protein such as nuts, peanut
butter, and soy beans with fresh foods such as apples and carrots. Paring your
food helps to reduce the highs and lows of mood connected to lower and higher
(unstable) blood sugars.
4. Eat breakfast.
Start with your day off with a feeling of success by making breakfast your
healthiest meal. That’s what makes smoothies a great choice lots of nutrition
in one glass. Then no matter what happens the rest of the day you’re 1/3 good. People who eat breakfast on a regular basis
are more alert, a healthier weight and make better food choices the rest of the
day. Dr. William Sears "Brainy Breakfasts" are not just for two year olds. Check it out!
5. Exchange 1 sugary drink
with 1 glass of water every day.
Your goal over time is to omit all sugary drinks and replace them with
water. People who consume high sugar
diets experience negative mood states, feeling run down and more tired plus increase your risks of chronic disease click here to read the report.
Making the commitment to one simple change each month
magically turns the hard thing like the stress of getting dinner into an easy
thing your dinner is waiting for you when you arrive home. Are you up for the challenge to reduce your
food and stress connection? Or are you going to stick with keeping it hard.
Your partner in health,
Wellness Consultant
Certified Health Coach
WELCOA Faculty
Founder
#Nutz4Nutrition
#CindyCohenRN
#C2YHWI #C2YourHealth
#wellnesswednesday
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