We have been spending most of our time at home and started to see ourselves sitting down all day. '' I sit all the time, I started to get fat, what should I eat not to be fat? '' These questions started to come to our minds. In fact, this is the beginning of an awareness. We start to be aware of our body and worry about our health. I want you to think about it, nowadays we just think about our bodies and realize changes at our bodies. I want to be aware of that, those who did not have a very active life before, those who sits all day at work, actually there are no significant changes in your life. But now, you have started to realise that inactivity harms our bodies? Then it is time to move and time to change things. You can do physical activity at home. Because I don't have any excuses anymore, like the gym being far away, no time to do exercise or being tired. Excercise is now a click away from you.
So what should we pay attention to in our diet?
1. Should we count calories?
No, it's more important where the calories come from than counting calories. In this process, take care to reduce processed foods and eat more home cooked foods as much as possible.
Don't count calories putting yourselves to a stress.
2. Do not skip meals or reduce meals during the day. Only the environment has changed, but your body continues to work the same. Your body has the same physiological needs. Your hunger and satiety mechanism works the same, so putting yourself to starving is not the right option because when you are hungry you try to fill the gap at the next meal. So continue to eat balanced and regular meals.
3. Create a weekly meal schedule. Planning your meals before, will be easy for you and encourage you to eat healthy balanced meals. If you make your meal schedule with the ingredients that are present at home, you don't need to go to shopping often and you can easily control your consumption.
4. Try to make your meals more balanced. A proper nutrition plate model is that, half of your plate is filled with vegetables, 1/4 of your plate is filled with protein and the rest is filled with whole grains. The protein sources can be legumes, dairy products, nuts or meat, fish, chicken. Whole grain means that it is rich in both fibres and vitamins and minerals. Another important fact is that it will increase your blood sugar slowly and provides long term satiety. The most important fact is to be drinking approximately 1.5-2 liters of water a day.
5. We try to consume foods that provide long term satiety. Examples of these foods are:
* Whole Grain Bread: As the fibre rate is high, it will keep us full for a long time. Stocking pastas is not a very smart idea because pastas made from white flour will provide instant saturation and will make you feel hungry in a short time. Therefore, it would be healthier to change pastas to bulgur, whole grain bread and legumes.
* Egg: It is one of the best quality protein sources. It keeps full for a long time with its protein and fat contents. So try to eat at least 1 egg per day.
* Green vegetables: It supports long term satiety with its rich fiber content.
* Milk-yoghurt: With its balanced protein and carbohydrate content ratio, it will keep you full for a long time.
6. Do not eat while you are laying down, or while doing something else. In this case, you can lose control. Often during the day we are eating on the way, or while doing our jobs, while talking on the phone. Maybe we have skills to do multitasking, but our digestive system is not able to do that. Unfortunately, when we do not focus on our meals, our brain cannot send signals to our digestive system because our brain cannot perceive eating process. Either we become aware of our satiety too late or we cannot control ourselves and keep on eating. Sit calmly at the table and be aware of the food in front of you, focus only on eating and enjoy this moment.
Do not immediately sit on a sofa after eating, give time to your body to digest what you have eaten.
7. Do not eat nuts or any food you consume from the jar or package. Take a convenient portion you can eat in a bowl, and consume. Because there are no limits in the package, you can easily lose control and finish all at once.
8. When you want sweet things, you can go to the kitchen and try to create healthier recipes and it will be a relaxing activity for you. Those who say that they cannot cook, try to discover a new talent in yourself.
9. Realise why you are eating and then if you think there is a problem, first identify the problem. Why do you think that you eat too much and in what situations do you feel hungry?
" I can't stop myself when I see the food in front of me. When I get a package in my hand, I feel like I have to finish it."
" I always want to eat when I'm feeling bored, anxious or sad."
The first thing we need to do is to learn managing our emotional hunger. Before starting to eat, we have to listen our body throughly and try to understand what our body actually needs. Review your hunger signals, is your body really physiologically hungry? Are you feeling tired, feeling dizzy, having a headache or are your tummy rumbling? In fact, these are physiological signs of hunger. But if you feel hungry when you hear, smell or see the food and if you say that you can't control your hunger, then these are emotional hunger signals.
So how do I manage this?
The first thing we need to do is to remove the food that stimulates our emotional hunger away from your eyes into a box. Then, put fruits and vegetables to more accessible places. Take notes of what you eat, this makes it easier to control ourselves.
(When was the last time I had dinner, can I really be hungry now?) We can check ourselves with these questions.
Now it's time to listen ourselves, to realize and organize things. It's time to do the things we postponed. It's time to take action for our health.
Keep Healthy and Safe
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