Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Eating and Stress: Support Your Wellness with Food

What are the things that you can do to support your body in combating stress and in improving your overall wellness? Most of them are common sense. Some of these things may be new to you.

A well balanced diet is among the best things that you can do to improve your overall wellness. Include lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, a balance of protein and carbohydrates, and some healthy fat. If you aren’t sure where to start talk to your doctor, naturopath, or a nutrition professional.

Play with grazing to see if consuming six, or more, small meals a day works. This isn’t for everyone, but, it can improve mood and energy. It can level blood-sugar to help us deal with stress.

Fuel your body properly with three balanced meals every day. Try to be consistent with meal times. This will help your body run your brain and deal with the challenges of everyday living.

Mindful eating slows us down. Pay attention to your chewing, to the taste of the food in your mouth. Mindful eating will help you process your food more efficiently and comfortably.

Pay attention while you swallow. We all have foods that don’t agree with us. Eating them is irritating. A stressed digestive tract cannot get the nutrients out of our food as well. If something doesn’t feel right, stop eating it.

Mindful eating takes longer, but, you will feel satisfied eating less food. In our rushed, food-addicted, culture most of us are over-eaters.

One way to support mindful eating is taking a break to eat lunch. It can be quick and efficient. Getting away from the phone, the computer, and constant interruptions is a mini mental-health break.

When it’s time to grab a snack reach for yogurt and nuts. They pack a punch of two powerful amino acids that will team up to help you combat the effects of stress. Watch the sugar content of the yogurt and sodium in the nuts.

Have you turned around a bad day just by eating right? I’d love to hear about it.

Connect with Brian

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. It's always been my downfall, the bad eating. I find it's a spiral either way for me. If I plan well, I eat well, I have energy and endurance.

    If I let it slide like I have been lately, I'm testy. And today I skipped a trip to the grocery store and ate fast food instead. Ugh.

    Thanks for the reminder about keeping the basics in mind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Robert. It is a journey. Take it one step at a time. Remember how far you've come. B

      Delete