Your body needs to be as healthy as possible, especially during pandemic. It’s made to be a machine that processes healthy food and turns it into all the fuel you need daily, both for your immune system and for doing all the tasks and mental processes you need. This can be difficult, though, when you feel like eating healthily means being hungry—which it should not be! You don’t need to be hungry in order to eat healthy things. How can you feel both full and healthy when you eat?
Slow Down
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when eating is not being mindful of what, when, and how they eat. While old school diets erroneously claimed you should slow each bite by chewing a certain number of times, or force yourself to eat slowly to eat less, that’s not what you need. Instead, concentrate upon not eating in rushed ways, where you eat and barely taste your food while scrambling between other activities. Eating in the car, or while on the computer working, can cause your mind to forget you’ve eaten, even if your body knows you have.
Nutrient-Packed Meals
Next, focus upon ingredients which pack your food full of nutrition and complex carbohydrates. For example, if you don’t like the texture of brown rice, try half brown and half longer grain Jasmine rice, which even pickier children often will accept. Soup can be a great source of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients key to your health. Trying new grains, even if you don’t like them yet, can be a good way to practice finding new foods which you enjoy which are healthy and filled with nutrition.
Keep The Good Stuff Nearby
If you get munchy while at work, or when doing a project, keep the healthier things nearby for easily grabbing them first. This doesn’t mean you can never have sweets or other treats you like, but that you first eat the healthy options. This might mean purchasing foods that have been cut and portioned already. For example, if cutting a pineapple stops you from eating it, it’s not helping you. Buy pre-cut.
Your body wants to be retrained to feel full and happy after eating nutrient rich foods. Many relationships with food come from thinking a food is bad, or that a particular body type is bad. Instead, neither is bad, but being healthier is always great!
Check out this article on food that can cause stomach aches!
