By Coach Lindsay Leigh
It’s easy to turn to food for comfort when we’re bored, anxious, and stressed. Comfort food is an easy drug.
While we should never focus our eating on restriction and deprivation, we want to ensure that the foods we eat take care of our health and feed our body with nutrient-dense foods, which can help boost our immunity!
Below are a 3 tips to stay on track with your healthy eating to fuel your performance, recovery and health.
1. Plan out your day.
Plan what you’ll have for breakfast and lunch, and have a plan ready for dinner. Try to avoid mindless snacking between meals, and have a plan for what you’ll eat for those too. Using a food journal can be a good way to plan out the day ahead, even if you end up not sticking to it precisely.
2. Add healthy foods in.
The brightly colored fruits and vegetables are the ones particularly effective at strengthening our immune systems, so see if you can eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies per day, working towards 9 eventually. Stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables, and long lasting fresh vegetables like red cabbage that keep in the fridge for weeks. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit (with no sugar added), beans and whole wheat pasta are also good items to have in the pantry.
3. Include 1-2 treats per day, and eat them mindfully.
When you choose to have a treat, put it on a plate, sit down with no distractions (and no watching the stressful news!), eat slowly in a relaxed environment, and give eating your full undivided attention. Focus on healthy, nutritious foods the majority of the time, and sprinkle in the treats sparingly. When you do eat a treat – make sure to enjoy it!
Do your best with each day and stay healthy with these mindful eating tips. Shoot for progress – not perfection. You CAN do this!
Need help with your daily nutrition and hydration needs? Consider our Nutrition Coaching, with a 10-week program to help you dial in your needs to optimal performance and health.