Top 5 Tips to stay consistent with healthy eating during Quarantine.
It seems our world as we know it has transformed within the past few months. Now more than ever it is important to stay on top of our health journeys, but with being stuck in the house 24/7 it seems almost impossible as boredom strikes, Unhealthy food becomes more and more tempting. Here are my top 5 tips to stay on top of your journey as much as possible!
Meal prep 5 meals a day 3 meals, 2 snacks
Continue to meal prep, as you would in your normally and if your not use to meal prepping, then now is a good time to start. Once you have meal prepped, portion out your food in meal prep boxes ( this will help with portion control). Being aware of what is going into your food is another reason why meal prepping will be helpful. In such times, it is also important to maintain a good structure as much as possible. Therefore I will be maintaining the same meal breakdown of 3 wholesome meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner with 2 snacks in between meals).
Reduce your intake sugar
My second tip is reducing your intake of processed sugar as much as possible. Many processed foods are full of empty calories, these non-nutritional calories in effect leave you more hungry after, causing you to overeat and put on weight. This is because for the most part processed sugar can cause blood sugar spikes. Insulin is a regulatory hormone produced by the pancreas to help our body utilise glucose from the food we consume into energy or store as glycogen for future uses. This hormone stops our blood sugar levels from getting too high or too low. However, when we consume simple carbohydrates and processed sugars which the body breaks down in to simple sugars this causes insulin spikes, resulting in heightened blood sugar levels as a result.
Remove all temptation from the house.
The easiest to say but the most difficult for most of us to execute. Removing all snacks from the house reduces the temptation to snack on unhealthy food and binge eat. Replace high calorie snacks with low calorie alternatives. Such as swapping crisps with low calorie popcorn, Biscuits with Rice cakes or sweets with fruits. Removing temptation also includes deleting all the fast-food apps. For some that may be slightly extreme but for me I find it easier to control my eating habits that way. If I fancy ordering a cheat meal on my cheat day i will simply re-download it.
Use this time to improve your culinary skills and experiment with different Herbs and spices
For most of us healthy eating is not so dreadful, its the lack of time that leads us to quick and unhealthy alternatives. Use this time to experiment with different cooking methods. Try out new recipes, use flavourful spices that will make mealtimes exciting and keep you on track.
Schedule cheat meals.
Life is all about balance. Reward yourself with your favorite cheat meal (if you feel the need to). Schedule this cheat meal. I don’t mean down to the minute but simply strategically placing it on a day during the weekend works for me. Many studies have actually shown strategic cheat meals to help with maintaining a lean physique due to “metabolic flexibility”, but that’s a topic for another day.
