5 Nutrition Tips For Lockdown!
If you're struggling with your eating habits over lockdown, you're not alone! Amy gives us some great tips and strategies to keep your nutrition on track.
Prioritise your health AND wellbeing!
Lockdown can be a difficult time for many different reasons - don’t let your eating habits be a cause of more stress!
There are a few things you can do to prioritise your health right now but just make sure to also prioritise your wellbeing.
I know you’re a wonder woman but this really is one of those cut yourself some slack situations - so do whatever is YOUR best with your healthy eating. You’ve got this!
Tip 1 - Meal Planning
Meal Planning can be hugely helpful. In fact planning anything! For some reason you just feel more on to it when you have a list written with your intentions on it. You are way more likely to remember the actual ‘plan’ when your cravings, TV ads or family try to get you to do otherwise. You are much more likely to execute your idea with a plan, plus you get to give yourself a big fat affirming tick once you complete each meal.
Tip 2 - Eat Until You Are Satisfied
One of the biggest reasons that you will find yourself picking, grazing or bingeing is that you are not satisfied. You may not be satisfied because you are undereating on food in general. This may be the case if you are skipping meals or limiting meal size, so go ahead and schedule those meals and keep eating until you are satisfied. Alternatively, you may not be satisfied because you are not allowing yourself to eat the foods that you are truly hungry for. If you want something sweet or you fancy something salty, that’s fine! Try to satisfy that craving with a filling and healthy version e.g. yoghurt, berries and granola or salted kumara chips.
Tip 3 - Have An Abundance Of Healthy Snacks
You’re at home, you are therefore much more likely to snack! Fact. The snacks are way more accessible, you’re stressed, you're bored, you're busy, you can hide away from the judgement of society. Whatever the reason, snacking may well increase, and that’s just fine! So make sure you have an abundance of healthy options and grab what you feel like. Snacks are opportunities to nourish your body. Check out the Lockdown Snacks blog for snack ideas.
Want to improve your nutrition?
Join DediKate Reset! Our new 5 week Nutrition Education Programme that starts on Monday 30th August!
Increase your confidence in your food choice, your nutritional knowledge and improve your relationship with food. Get back on track to enjoying a healthy and less confusing relationship with your food.
This is an education, it is not a diet.
There's 2 more great tips to go - keep reading!
Tip 4 - Do A Few Things Well
This is not the time to take on a multitude of new commitments. Many of us have already found ourselves dealing with more complexity (school work?) and responsibilities (primary caregiver to a whole household 24/7) than usual. So now is a great time to drop some of the less pertinent goals and focus on what is important for you and your life at the moment. You may not be able to juggle all your nutrition requirements right now but you might be able to focus on getting fruits and vegetables into your days. Perhaps you need to focus more on a different area of your life, such as mental health, right now. Don’t feel like you have to do it all, doing a few things well may be a better way of staying on track.
Tip 5 - Don’t Be A Tyrant
Don’t be hard on yourself! We are all under a lot of pressure. Quite honestly food is one of those constants in our lives right now that has the power to comfort and bring joy. You are only human and probably like the majority of the population you are tempted to indulge a little bit more in this time. And those people who are not indulging more than usual are not morally superior, trust me. Instead of feeling bad, guilty or shameful about your human behaviour try to accept it. Work on increasing nourishment in an imperfect diet instead of demanding perfection of yourself like some sort of dietary tyrant. It’s just not worth it.
We are here to help!
If you are struggling during lockdown please reach out. We are here to help you to build physical and mental wellbeing.
For more information around healthy eating during the lockdown watch or listen to Amy’s DediKate Eat Great chat - Episode #46 on Lockdown Nutrition.
