A To-Do-List a mile long, deadlines, conferences, networking, calls, emails – and that’s before you get down to selling your service or product? School runs, caring responsibilities, managing a busy family life? Not much time left for health goals, weight loss or lifestyle changes.
Just as with your business or workplace or home, there are some small, yet very powerful ways you can meet your health goals with little effort.
1. Eat Breakfast. Every Day!
A good breakfast dictates your energy levels and eating behaviour for the whole day.
Protein, fibre and healthy fats at breakfast will signal positive bodily responses by reducing cholesterol, managing blood glucose levels, and supporting a healthier gut lining, resulting in natural bowel regulation, remaining fuller for longer after a meal, and an overall better mood.
Nuts, oily fish, eggs all give you a good bang for your breakfast buck with high levels of protein and healthy fats. Match them with some fruit or veg like berries, spinach, mushrooms and you’re on a winner. Fancy a bit of carbohydrate like oats or wholemeal bread? No problem once you’ve got the fats and proteins to slow down the sugar release.
Top Tip: Keep breakfast a simple routine
1. Prepare if you’re short on time – message me for some ‘prepare the night before’ breakfast ideas.
2. Have a set time to eat daily, ideally before 9am.
3. Keep a breakfast in your office/desk
In your desk drawer: A bowl, ½ cup oats, 1 small piece of fruit (skin on), flaxseeds, nuts or seeds ( for fab omega-3 fat content, plus phosphorous, iron, thiamine, magnesium, manganese and copper for bone health and metabolism support).
2. Health Snack every 3 hours!
Allowing large gaps between eating plays havoc with your blood sugar levels which in turn plays havoc with your hormones and that is one of the main culprits of weight gain. Have a selection of health snacks handy – car, office, home. Most supermarkets, garage forecourts, coffee shops have healthy options. Mini bags of nuts, fruits, packs of precooked chicken. Marks and Spencer’s even have a snack pack of a hard-boiled egg and handful of spinach. Outrageously expensive but great in a ‘hungry but want healthy snack’ emergency. It’s a staple snack for me now except that I make my own. So, think protein and health fats for snacking.
Top Tip: Have a few mini bags of almonds or nuts of choice in the car, bag or desk and get to know your go to snacks. My middle desk drawer has a packet of Nairn’s rough oatcakes, tub of Meridian nut butter, bag of almonds from Lidl and a bag of dried goji berries. PS Also have a tub of porridge and chia seeds for my emergency breakfast or lunch.
3. Drink water!
Most of us drink too much tea, coffee or fizzy drinks. Replacing a few of these with water throughout the day is a win win. You’re reducing your intake of addictive drinks that disrupt hormones, sap energy levels and increase the level of stress in your body and you are increasing your intake of the elixir of life.
It aids in digestion, lowers fluid retention and helps eliminate toxins from the body. It is one of the main pillars for a normal functioning bowel and for weight management is a healthy appetite suppressant and can be a strategy to control between-meal snacking. AND its free. What’s not to like.
Top Tip: Start and end the day with a large glass of water and you are half way there.
4. Mindful Eating
This has got to be the hardest one. Most are either managing a business, working from home, running a family or employed or all of the above.
Taking time to eat your meal, slowly, chewing food rather than gulping and giving attention to the passage of the food from the plate to the stomach is one of the most important things to support optimum health. It allows for the proper digestion of food, the maximum absorption of vitamins and minerals (needed to produce the energy we all complain we don’t have enough of), minimising physical stress in the body, supporting health bowel function and aids quality sleep. Chew each mouthful (start with 10 times and try to work up to 20) and put your cutlery down in between each mouthful. If you are eating a sandwich, put it down between bites. Bonus - You will eat up to 15%-25% less.
Top Tip: Schedule time to EAT lunch. Even a sandwich requires a minimum 15 minutes to be eaten mindfully. You need time to make lunch, buy lunch, or go for a walk at lunchtime etc BUT make sure you have scheduled time to EAT lunch.
5. Exercise
We all know muscle mass reduces as we age but did you know that our muscle mass can reduce by up to 40% between the ages of 20-80 years? I’m on the wrong side of the middle of this range so I’m acutely aware of this.
This decreases further if we do not make exercise (include some resistance activities) a regular part of our day. The loss of muscle mass is typically offset by a gain in fat mass, and as this increase, we can find ourselves at risk for serious complications such as cardio-vascular disease and diabetes.
Top Tip: Take the stairs instead of the lift, go for a 5 minute walk every hour, park the car 5 mins walk away, stand and walk when on the phone. Yoga is great for incorporating resistance and weight bearing poses so a good all-rounder. If you are short on time, check out short yoga videos (Yoga by Adriene is good) on You Tube. If you can’t afford an hour a week, 10 minutes a day goes a long way.
If you want to make nutrition and lifestyle changes, coaching is a great option. For the busy entrepreneur, mum or business woman, I offer reduced rates for online coaching via Zoom, Skype or Facetime. Early morning, lunchtime or evening sessions to suit from the convenience of your home, business or workplace. All you need is a laptop or mobile device. Contact Janice Tracey on janice@janicetraceynutrition.com or call 07933124779 to arrange a free online 10 minute consultation to discuss your needs.