I feel like we all struggle with diet and gut health at least at some point in our lives. I am no exception.
My biggest issue at first was going for junk foods. I mean, junk food is so easy to get and yummy too. This was the late last year 2021 and the beginning of this year. I would pretty much just snack in place of eating a good wholesome meal. In particular, all my lunches were subbed with snacks soft drinks, salted nuts, cookies literally anything. Most of the time, I would just skip breakfast. It felt too much of a burden to go get some lol. (This time I was in school)
This resulted in me having serious issues and they all started with getting extremely bloated once I ate something.
In March, I did an article about sugar and during the process of writing it, I learned so much about the negative effects of sugar and how it affects our bodies. Sugar really is a demon! Have a read here
So I decided to stop all my junking and really focus on eating less sugar overall. Within the first week. I had a whole 360-degree mood change. Everything was just blaaahhh. I was not excited about anything or even worried about anything for that matter. I noticed that this was a result of reducing my sugar intake. It is usually one of the first negative side effects of quitquittinging sugar. However, this whole mood swift ended within a week.
The other thing, I realized was that I was able to 'feel' my sugar craving. Feeling the urge itself, for example at one point I would feel I really need chocolate right now. Before, I didn't recognize them. It is weird, I know. I was very excited about this because once I felt that, I would try to go for a healthier sweet snack like fruit.
What did I do,
First was make the decision to have three large meals during the day. Skipping meals lead me to snack. It sounds so easy to write that. In all my meals, I made sure to particularly include protein. As we know, protein keeps you full for longer and the body also burns more calories digesting protein than any other macronutrient.
Secondly, I made sure that I have designated times for my meals. Like 6:30 for breaky, 12:30 for lunch, and 6:30pm for dinner. This way, I don't feel the need to snack since I know I'll have my meal anyways. Also, having my big full of protein breakfast keeps me full for long enough.
The other things I did include learning how to make healthier snacks for myself for example these delicious sweet potato pancakes
Lastly, I also focus on planning out my meals. What you would say is a meal timetable. For example, I know what I'll have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner this week.
How do I feel,
Amazing! It is such a mood lifter when you know you are finally able to keep your cravings under control.
It also really shocked me with how well I was able to deal with bloating. I hardly get bloated now, only when the cause is my own known careless fault.
That's it for my storytime about my struggle with healthy eating.
I hope you can take something from it.
So long,
Wanja.
Comments
Post a Comment