Thursday, September 29, 2016
Diet Ideas that will Help Eliminate Your Anxiety
What you put into your body, makes all the difference. When you have a demanding job and a family at home, it can be hard to make healthy decisions about your eating habits, and that will affect your anxiety. Here are some tips for ways to improve your mood with food:
Add more greens & fruits:
Don’t make it hard on yourself! Buy precut ready to eat foods. You are much more likely to actually eat these healthy snacks when you take out the prep, washing and cutting steps. I
Kari’s Tip: I always have pre-cut apples in my classroom fridge. For lunches, I buy the pre-cut and washed lettuce for salads (or even the Ready-Pack salad bowls). During the summer, I enjoy pre-cut melons and the ready to go snack packs with carrots, celery and brocoli. Grab and go = success!
2. Reduce Sugar Intake:
If we admitted how much sugar we ate in one day, I think we would all be in shock. Sugar is a snuck into most of the foods we eat, even ones that you wouldn’t think of! When purchasing foods, look at the sugar content. Kari’s Tip: I stay away from Sugar-Free substitutes. They make me feel weird after consuming them and even though they offer lower (or no) calories, it is proven that consuming Sugar alternatives will actually make you gain weight! (ie: Splenda, aspartame, Sweet & Low, etc). Instead, I use less of the real deal. I also prefer sweetened items that are derived from nature - such as honey, sugar in the rocks (raw sugar) or fruit.
3. Reduce Caffeine Intake and Make Substitutes: To be completely honest, this is the absolute hardest things to cut out of my diet. I rely on coffee, but when I was suffering from insomnia and nightly panic attacks, I cut back on my caffeine so that I could (hopefully) sleep better. Caffeine has an effect on our brain that can send your thoughts racing even faster than they would during a panic attack. Mix caffeine with a panic attack, and your racing thoughts will go into overdrive and get a speeding ticket! Don’t go cold turkey. Slowly start to switch to lower caffeinated beverages and start replacing them with zero caffeine replacements.
Kari’s Tip: What really helped me was drinking Camomile Tea about an hour before bed. For really tough nights, I would also take 1 melatonin (I love the peppermint ones from Trader Joe’s). This would slow my thoughts down and make me sleepy.
4. Are you drinking enough water?
Water is essential. If you are not drinking enough water, your body may start to do weird things - headaches, dizziness, racing pulse, dry mouth and more. This will also put your anxiety into overdrive! Think about it: what happens when you don’t get an oil change for your car? It doesn’t drive as smoothly, it starts to act funny, and it’s overall life will get cut short. Same thing with your body! When you don’t drink enough water, you start to feel the effects almost immediately! Your urine is darker, you get headaches and become lethargic. Overtime, not drinking enough water also damages your organs and can cause psychological effects. Kari’s Tip: I have to admit it. When I am working full time, it is hard to drink enough water. I am so busy running around, that by the end of the day, I am dehydrated! To fix this, I decided to invest in a cute water bottle. One that I would want to carry around with me throughout the day. I also picked a bottle that had my prefered method of sipping. I tend to drink more when I use a straw versus a large open mouth canteen. Sounds silly, but the minute I bought a cute traveling cup with a straw, I drank 4x more than I normally would! It was convenient and easy! Also, if there is ever a cute travel cup that has a Christmas or Halloween theme, I will buy it to switch up my routine. A simple, small purchase like that will motivate me and in return, I will drink more water! Yay for cute cups!
I am also one of those picky drinkers and only like cold water. So I make sure to have my cup filled to the brim the night before and put it in my fridge. I also keep 5 extra “emergency” water bottles in my class fridge that I can use and refill when I have time to catch up. I also have an entire case of water stored in my classroom in case there is ever a class emergency (one for each student).
Is a cute bottle not enough? Try flavoring your water naturally! Test out different types of fruit slices until you find one you love!
5. Pre-plan Your Meals (As Much as Possible):
I get it. Life Happens. We can not plan out every tiny step along the way. However, if you know of an event that is coming up, try to plan ahead what you are going to eat. I use to work at a school where we would go out to eat every Friday (that was our half-days. Students left at 11:30 and we stayed until 3). I would research the menus at all the restaurants within a 10 miles radius of my school and take notes on my iPhone about what menu items I should pick for each place. It also helped becasue when we would get together, alot of times we would say, “where should we go for lunch”, and all of us would be like zombies moaning, “I don’t care. Where do you want to go?”. I could jump on my iPhone’s notepad and name places nearby where I knew I could grab a healthier option.
For days that we didn’t go out to eat, I would bring a lunch.
My routine is:
-Grocery shop Sunday for the entire week
My routine is:
-Grocery shop Sunday for the entire week
-Bring a lunch Monday through Thursday that I can easily eat within 20 minutes
-Find meals that are under 400 calories
-Find meals that are under 400 calories
-Enjoy meals that are free of added sugars, added fats and are healthy
Sounds hard? It is!! I never thought finding ready to go, healthy lunches would be so difficult! I started to become obsessed with the “Ready Pack” wrap kit. It looks just like their salad kits, only it comes with 2 small tortillas. It was just the right amount of calories and it kept me full. I was thrilled to find a match, until all my surrounding stores stopped carrying my kit. So here are some tried and try (and quick, easy, healthy) lunch ideas for you busy teachers:-Soup (Preferable with low sodium). I like the ones Von’s makes - they are usually located at the front of the store. Check out the calories and fat content. Stay away from the creamy ones. My favorites are Chicken Tortilla, White Bean & Kale, and Chicken Noodle.
-Salad Kit: Watch out for the fat content! Some of those salad kits have more fat and calories than a hamburger and fries!
-Make Your Own Wraps: I use the green spinach tortillas and meat from the deli. I add hummus, buffalo sauce or mustard (no pesto, no mayo!) for the spread - or anything that is low in fat. I avoid cheese, but add some tasty crunchies like lettuce, tortilla strips, and tomatoes.
-Sandwich: On hearty, whole wheat bread with natural chicken breast. Again, I use low-fat spreads and lots of yummy veggies to make a colorful sandwich. I love “Dave’s Killer Bread”, which can be found at Costco, Whole Foods, Von’s or online.
-Starbuck’s, Pre-made Lunch Kits: These aren’t that bad! They have tons of protein and low fat options. They are a little pricey, but for those mornings that I am running around with my head cut off, I can run to Starbucks, grab a cup of joe and a health(ier) lunch option. THey are located in the front refrigerated area - I always like the Protein Box which comes with a hard-boiled egg, pieces of cheese, grapes, PB and a small piece of bread.
Kari’s Tip: I always have 4-5 frozen meals in my home freezer at all times, because life happens! I even keep 2 at school because again, LIFE HAPPENS!
Are there any foods that tend to help relax you? Ones that you are staying away from?
Comment below with your own suggestions!
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