23 April 2010

Eating Better

Eating well does not have to mean cutting out those naughty things and attempting a diet you cannot possibly sustain. In this short guide, I’ll give you tips on how to maintain well-balanced and healthy eating habits that can help you keep your body at it's best.

1. Eat Like A Monkey

Once upon a time, we used to be much hairier and dwell in trees. We’d pick fruits and nuts from the jungle and if the monkey men were lucky, they’d catch the odd wild boar or something. I like to revert back to my monkey ways by sticking to foods that are straight from the trees or the earth. Nothing refined, wrapped in plastic or produced by machine. Simply natural foods. It’s a very easy way to stick to foods that are good for you.

Look for monkey foods you like, so that you don’t find keeping to them difficult. Find your favourite nut, your favourite fruit, vegetable or bean. It might mean you have to go shopping more regularly, because you'll be sticking to foods that are fresh and have a short shelf-life, but you'll find that fresh vegetables are surprisingly cheap, so eating well really doesn't break the bank. Science is increasingly starting to support the kind of diet our ancestors used to eat before the advent of agriculture and industry. Getting back to your monkey roots is good for you.

2. Don’t Feel Guilty

Sometimes though, you can’t help but crave a bit of sugar. And sometimes, you need to grab food on the go or you don't have time to prepare a fresh meal. Packaged and processed foods are everywhere and it's hard to avoid them, especially when you're so busy working your life away to think about what you're putting in your pie-hole.

We all know that fats and sugar in large amounts are bad for us, however, if you’re doing your best to stick to monkey food, you shouldn’t beat yourself up for scoffing the odd cake or chocolate bar, or succumbing to the ease of a microwaved meal. Just because you’ve had a little naughty, doesn’t mean you have to give up your good intentions. All too often, people revert back to eating junk food regularly because they feel guilty for having done so once when they’re supposed to be eating healthily. Eating healthily doesn’t have to mean cutting out treats all together; it means recognising that they can be eaten, but on the odd occasion. Eradicating feelings of guilt means that you’re less likely to start bingeing too, since bingeing is normally a form of self-punishment for a loss of control. Recognise that your self-control has not been lost and that you are allowed to eat naughty foods sometimes. It’s just that they have to be eaten less often that the good and healthy monkey food.

If you do a bit of research into microwaved meals and foodstuffs that we typically call 'treats', you might find that you don't view them in quite the same way. You might not want to eat them so often after all. For example, take our beloved chocolate. I'm really bad for craving chocolate, especially if I'm hormonal or a bit stressed. It helps to think of chocolate as simply a lump of margarine with cocoa powder in it. Essentially, that is what it's made of; milk solids and vegetable oil. I visualise eating a lump of margarine and suddenly chocolate doesn't seem so glorious any more.

In the same way, look at processed foods as packets full of chemicals you don't know anything about. Think about all the preservatives and sweeteners and flavourings and ask yourself whether you feel comfortable not knowing what your food is made of.

3. Little and Often

If you’ve got any interest in your nutrition, then you will have heard this rule already. It is important to eat foods regularly throughout the day to keep your metabolism ticking over. Ideally, eat like a king in the morning, a prince at lunch and a pauper in the evening – start off eating big and then let your portions reduce in size throughout the day. And don't feel bad about snacking throughout the day; just make sure that what you are snacking on is a natural foodstuff.

4. Balance

The most important part is achieving balance. Make sure that you keep your diet varied, so that 1) you don’t get bored with it, but 2) you give your body the range of nutrients it needs to stay healthy and keep working at it’s optimum level for you. Mix the colours of your fruits and vegetables and make your plate look pretty!

5. Losing Weight

Food intake alone is not enough to change your body shape, unless you are starving yourself, which can produce the desired effects short-term. But reducing your food intake dramatically can make your metabolism slow down, which means you pile your weight back on when you start eating normally again.

Eating should be about maintaining your health and ensuring your body is working it’s best, not about the way you look. If you want to change your body shape permanently, as in, get slimmer or more toned, the only answer is sustained exercise. If you can find an exercise you really enjoy and incorporate it into your week, you will achieve your desired results. Changing your body shape and keeping fit is something you have to maintain, but if it's what you really want, it's easy to keep up. (For more info on exercising, see my article 'Feeling Better'). Diet alone is not the answer. However, you can't out-exercise a bad diet, so if you're eating a lot of fatty foods, expect a certain amount of body fat.

6. Motivation

The most successful diet groups (such as WeightWatchers, Slimming World etc) are ones which encourage the balance mentioned here. They also allow you to have goodies, but in moderate amounts. Diet groups can help you to achieve a more controlled attitude towards your eating and being amongst a group can help to motivate you to reach your goal, in avoidance of being publicly exposed. However, if you can motivate yourself, you can save yourself a bit of money and continue to eat well once you've left the diet group. You don't have to be a member of such a group to eat well.

Feeling good about your body means looking after it and treating it with respect. I truly believe that good physical wellbeing means good psychological wellbeing, so keeping your body in good nick will help to keep your mind in good nick. If you're feeling down, have a think about how much your diet could play a part in that. Taking control of this one small part of your life will help you take control in other areas too. The first step towards feeling better, is eating better.