Making Mindful Food Choices While Managing Stress By Suzy Lewis, BA, MCHC
I want to ask you, how are you taking care of you?
Today more than ever our personal wellness is a top priority, and for most of us, it’s up to us to maintain our health. Nutrition, stress management, and mindfulness are crucial aspects of our health that we have control over. Can you identify an area that you want to put more focus on to improve your overall wellness?
Be mindful to include these categories of superfoods into your diet…
Go Green – Choose organic salad greens and herbs.
Go Blue – Eat a variety of organic berries for the richest source of antioxidants.
Go Nuts – Include raw, unsalted nuts and seeds into your diet. A serving size is a handful.
Go Fish – Eat 2 6oz servings of Wild Pacific Salmon each week for sufficient Omega 3. Or you can add a plant-based Omega supplement.
Simple Snacks
Keeping your blood sugar in the zone of willpower can keep stress at bay. Have smart snacks at your fingertips to grab. Making a nibble tray with cut up fruits and veggies along with some raw nuts is a great way to get a variety of healthy foods into your diet. Include healthy, clean dips like hummus and nut butter for more variety. Shakes make a great breakfast or snack throughout the day also, packed with lots of produce!
Eating with mindfulness exercise inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh
Every time we eat can be an opportunity to embrace the gifts that surround us. When we allow ourselves to slow down and have gratitude for our food it naturally reduces stress and brings more joy into our lives.
- When you eat or drink recognize the food you are ingesting as nourishment for your body and a miracle.
- Consider all that went into this food, the people who prepared it, and the plants & animals that it came from.
- Observe gratitude for this food and moment that you are experiencing.
Now, can you feel the freedom and joy that comes from being supported and nourished by this food?
A great place to start is by taking notice of the food you are eating and recognizing how you feel when you eat.
Are you mindlessly shoveling food into your mouth between meetings or in the car before pick up? My wake up call was when my 10 month old said “french fry” as one of her first words because we were running through the drive through so often out of sheer desperation.
The first step for me was to realize that fake food and poor nutrition was zapping my energy and contributing to constant colds for my family. Once I got a handle on the importance of a diet rich in a variety of plants and clean protein and gained some skills like making smoothies regularly everything began to shift. This personal shift eventually led me to become a health coach because of the power that I found in lifestyle and nutrition. I wanted to pay it forward in hopes of impacting another busy mom’s life. Reach out if you would like to chat about your specific health concerns and feel free to check out the blog for more ideas to make health simple.
Best of Health,
Suzy
