This week I was having a conversation with some friends about skipping meals and I started, ahem, yelling about not doing that. During my health and wellness journey, one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that under eating could also be contributing to you not hitting your goals.
Diet culture has taught us that ‘eating less’ is the way to stay thin and healthy, but that is one of the reasons you are fatigued, have headaches, and you are hitting up the pantry in the middle of the night. Skipping meals is not serving you and I am here to help you fix it with 3 quick fixes, so let’s get into it!
- Eat breakfast. I know – we are busy with school drop-off, rush hour traffic, and email notifications from work, but I need you to stop, make a little time for yourself, and fuel for the day. Your brain needs food to function properly! I recommend having some form of carb and some protein. A bagel or toast and sausage or eggs; boiled eggs and fruit; or a yogurt cup and granola. SOMETHING! This will prevent crashing out at 10 am and sustain you through lunch. You will also feel like a human being for the first few hours of the morning instead of a zombie – thank me later. 🙂
- Prioritize protein at every meal. If you have been on social media or watched the news at any time in the past year, I am certain you have heard someone talk about a high-protein diets or high protein snacks. While all of the recipes are not slam dunks – eating more protein is very important for your metabolic health. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, meaning it takes energy for your body to break it down helping you to stay fuller longer. How often have you found yourself gorging on steak, a chicken breast, or cheese like you would a bag of chips? Never. Protein also helps you maintain any lean muscle mass you have on your body. I recommend getting as much as you can in with whole foods (anything that grew on a tree, in the ground, or had a mother) and supplement if you need to with a protein powder. If you need help figuring out how much you need to eat, start with eating .5-1 gram of protein times your body weight. If that seems too much, just start with increasing what you are already eating – something is better than nothing!
- Eat more fruit & vegetables. When most people think of eating healthy, they immediately think about what they should remove from their diets. I like to think of things I can add to my meals. More fruit and vegetables is a great way to add more volume to your meals with a very small uptick in calories. Adding this volume let’s you eat more food, helping you feel fuller and also boosts your fiber intake. Fiber is the good stuff that helps your stomach digest your food and keeps you regular with #2. If you find that you aren’t able to poop regularly – check and see when was the last time you ate some fruit or vegetables! A few of my favorites are apples, bananas, oranges, broccoli, and green beans! Don’t forget about beans and legumes – these great sources of fiber and protein.
These diet hacks are what have helped me feel my best on my wellness journey. Food really is medicine and you will notice how much better you feel by tweaking just a few of your habits. There is so much to learn and unlearn about how food affects our bodies, so the more I learn, the more I will share.
Please drop me a comment and let me know if you plan to try any of these tips or what your diet hacks are!
Until next time…
xo, Siara