Maintaining a healthy diet while also sustaining your physical and emotional well-being is a challenge during the pandemic. With so many unique obstacles it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of taking care of yourself. But, a healthy diet leads to increased energy, stronger immunity, and a heightened positive attitude—things we could all use a bit more of.
The key to shifting gears towards a consistent and balanced lifestyle is making a plan. When you’re hungry, rationalization goes out the window, and all your healthy aspirations go with it. It’s very beneficial to plan out your meals for the day, week or month… whatever works best for you. From here, a shopping list is much easier to curate. Grab a notebook and try breaking things down into categories. Consider your meals in terms of breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and whichever elements you want to implement for each meal. Assess the variety of fruits, vegetables, protein and carbohydrates you would like. Not only is planning crucial to stay on the right path, but it’s also helpful for cutting down trips to the market during COVID.
Meal planning is not always necessary when so much time is spent from home, but having certain elements ready ahead of meals will ease the stress when lunch comes around on a busy school day. Keeping grains, chopped vegetables and fruits ready is really helpful. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be a drag either. Finding interesting recipes and experimenting with new dishes from Instagram, Youtube, or magazines can be a nice way to encourage your healthy habits.
Setting a positive intention for a healthy lifestyle can guide the direction of your diet and will determine the longevity of your food choices. In a time when snacking on the couch or eating dinner in bed is almost too easy, making the deliberate decision to eat at the table is certainly worthwhile. Stopping to eat at the table increases satisfaction and creates a distinction of each meal.
When you snack, use it as a chance to get in your fruits and veggies. Cucumbers and homemade hummus, or cut fruit and yogurt are among my own favorites and can be mixed up with different spices and toppings. While at the grocery store, grab a new tea to try during Zoom classes or studying: it’s delicious, good for you, and much safer and cheaper than going out for Starbucks.
If you do want to get out of the house, hop onto Google or Yelp and find which restaurants provide to-go options. Check out those menus and see if you can find dishes that offer substance and are large enough to make into several meals. Nothing is better than some healthy and delicious leftovers.
The key to kick starting or maintaining a healthy diet really is having productive intentions. Going out for walks throughout the day when so much time is spent indoors is an incredibly helpful option when you find yourself going for some infamous boredom-snacking.
Being gracious with yourself and having friends that can encourage a healthy lifestyle is crucial. Everything is about balance in a healthy diet and lifestyle. Understanding that some days you’ll be more “on it” than others is essential. Variation is normal and completely okay. Substitutes like cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles can be fun, but there is nothing wrong with the real deal either. Being healthy should make you feel good and strong, not restricted and overly-regimented.