Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a flying start!
So last week your focus was on how you feel after eating a number of different types of foods. No doubt some made you feel good, and some made you feel lousy!
While continuing to observe how you feel after eating different foods (and hopefully you've found that you naturally make different choices as a result of listening to your body rather than turning up the music and drowning out the noise in your head!) I want you to identify your weakest point in the day or week, where you tend to eat anything and everything in sight as a result of feeling stressed, anxious, run down or tired.
If you know it's a particular day (eg. Friday as you're out at sport until late after all day at work) then I want you to think about that day in advance and when you feel low in energy and why you think that is - tiredness or is it blood sugar related as you may not have eaten in the last 2-3 hours?
If it's tiredness, is there anyway that you can squeeze in some activity like a walk (nothing super high intensity - so no special clothes really required!) after school while waiting for children from various activities?
If it's blood sugar, can you make up a snack box the night before to take some of your feel-good foods in?
I often find that I get really hungry and tired around 3.30pm - 4.30pm, and I could easily curl up and go to sleep then and there. But if I have a snack, especially one that includes some protein like chicken strips, tuna or a good fat like a handful of almonds, my mind is sharp again and I'm raring to go!
Then dinner time on this kind of night is ALWAYS a killer! That's when the "stuff it - I'm going to eat whatever I want, and start again tomorrow" mindset can switch back into gear if we're not careful. So to prevent this - I have a plan.
I always plan to have Thai on Thursday night. The busiest day of my week! I love thai - and I where I used to go heavy on the rice, and not so much on the chicken, now I only order the chicken stirfy dish, and no rice - as I feel WAY better at bedtime when I don't have a gutful of gluggy rice to digest! Rice at lunch is different - but when associated with Thai - I could only ever have a mountain of it on my plate - no less!
But - my favourite ritual of all - is my nightly cup of tea after dinner. I rarely have dessert these days - if I do it's a piece of fruit - as this used to be my biggest weak spot. I could get through a day fine, but then eat a weeks worth of food after dinner! So, to give my mind a distraction from the fact that I'm choosing to eat light at night, I implemented my tea ritual.
To keep it interesting I choose different types of herbal tea - roasted dandelion blend (try the tea bags - but only with full cream milk - tastes eew without it!) is my favourite, but I've recently discovered dandelion chai from the health food shop, and a good old favourite is peppermint tea - which I almost always have if I had a heavy dinner as the peppermint aids with digestion. It's worth trying different brands of the same flavour until you find one you like.
I used to have a really pretty cup that broke, so I do need to replace that. Maybe i'll even get a nice new little pot just for the fun of it! It's just the ritual of having a cup of tea, after doing all the jobs, and I've had a shower that signals to me "aahh... it's switch off time!" which is super relaxing.
Well, don't let this weeks task daunt you - or get too excited and try to be "perfect" every day. Just focus on those few key points in the week where you feel you could improve, and replace what you have been doing with a new ritual - like a snack box - or a chill out walk - or enjoy your nightly cup of tea!
Enjoy your journey!
