It is ok!!
As the circumstances have not been normal but here are a few things you can do to help particularly after Easter OR Orthodox Easter and Pesach!!!!
Let’s face it there has been constant 24/7 access to food.
In reality only 30% of us work predominantly from home, until only just recently, whereby we have been forced to work from home WHF, a situation quite foreign to most of us and perhaps the new normal (yet only temporary).
We are all trying to figure out how to navigate this. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that none of this is normal so we can’t expect our eating to be either.
I bet most of us are raising an eyebrow or 2 and thinking…:
“I need to get a grip and control my eating…. ”
A nutrition plan is super important right now
and as a clinician I have been working
with a lot of my clients in the past few weeks just on this,
on a nutrition plan…..
and I am proud to say it is working!
We are holding OUR waistline together!!
There is a big learning curve when it comes to WFH, especially under these new circumstances. Do you shower? Do you not? Do we wear a little make up? Do we get changed into work clothes or not… shave?? The list goes on… structuring your day so that you have clear boundaries is super important.
It is actually not just work, it is being home all day, every day and for how long??
Turning to food for comfort can add even more stress to our lives….
life now as you know it is at home, potentially alone, with a kitchen stocked full of food. Easter eggs, biscuits and cake aghhhhh!!
And that’s OK, as we can all help each other and gain control…
1. Keep to solid meal times and structure
Otherwise meals integrate and can become a whole blur… a snack can become snackssss and can lead to continued eating… To help avoid this, make sure you define meals and snacks.
For instance, avoid letting breakfast continue on until you’re at your third snack. Another piece of advice: When you have a snack, make sure it ends in a ‘k’ not an ‘s.
To make that a bit easier, I have been guiding my clients around times, keeping to a schedule while you’re WFH can help maintain the structure and prevent you from mindlessly snacking and overeating throughout the day.
Many of our feelings have been replaced with stress and anxiety and at the moment I am encouraging we all pay attention to the times more than our hunger ques as our eating has become a little cloudy..
2. Work out where to set up shop
Some of us, if not most of us will snack because food is “just looking at you” or we are bored and using food as a distraction. This is even more obvious right now whilst in social isolation.
My first piece of advice: don’t work anywhere near the kitchen. If you can help it, set up your work place away from the pantry & countertops. If you are in a warm environment and working outside is helpful as it removes yourself from the kitchen, but also to ensure you’re getting fresh air and sunlight.
If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind.
3. Move the Snacks Away
Move your snacks to the back of the pantry, even in another separate location. Alternatively, you can also move them to an entirely separate location, like the garage or a drawer/closet outside of the kitchen that you don’t usually go into… give them to hubby to take to work, or even put a lock on the pantry door and give someone the key….
4. Switch Up Your Kitchen Strategy
We have started to create a new home habit: BAKING…. Somehow, we have all decided to bake…we seem to be sharing recipes and posting our latest baked good…. We need to find another past time, or we must try and follow some strategies when baking like bake when we are not hungry and wrap the baked goods into individual pieces and freeze them so we don’t eat them to the end
Instead be dedicated to prepare and plan a veggie / fruit hydrating snack in the afternoon, this is a simple way to get hydration in, so you don’t miss interpret thirst for hunger and secondly nourish the body…. Or cut up veggie sticks, cherry tomatoes… If it is fully prepped, then you will eat it first and this stops you from eating further!! “You will be less likely to Fall in a heap or the chip packet in the afternoon”
5. Re-Think Your Drink
I think liquor store sales have hit an all-time high….. .!
We could do both, re think our drink and / or pay attention to how much you’re consuming. Nowhere to go, a little more stressed and anxious and we are looking for that something to help calm us? Whilst in the short term in may feel better to pour that glass of wine it will affect us in the long.. So, let’s close that gap and decrease the volume.. Having rules of when to drink is also a great strategy, pick your nights and enjoy then. A good way to cut the alcohol escalation is to replace with kombucha, mineral waters, infused flavored sparkling, water drinks or even a healthier option like a smoothie!
If you’re enjoying a glass or two a day but want to keep your indulgence on the healthier side, one simple trick is pouring yourself a glass of sparkling water between drinks or watering your drink down with some seltzer. This will help slow down your drinking and help keep you hydrated.
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