Looking after your Health & Wellness: 8 Nutritional tips to help you along the way
If you find you have less focus throughout the day (was me), have trouble sleeping (used to be me) or are just a little more rounded at the edges than you would like (still me), perhaps you could use a few basic nutritional tips. Don’t get me wrong, I am no dietician and I am quite happy with the little bit of chub I carry, but I do try and help keep said chub on an even keel.
It’s always a good idea to stop and think about what we fuel our bodies with and if you have never heard the phrase “You are what you eat” then…. Well I don’t know but you just are! Quite worrying if you are doing in a bag of donuts a day and sinking 10 pints of Ale!
Try the following nutritional tips which might be obvious, but when written in front of you (hi there) just seem to make more sense:
Remove alcohol from your diet…. No? Really???
Or at least cut down. Really, No, Never…. Obviously, this must be number one on the list coming from a former binge drinker. In a nutshell, what good can come of putting ethanol (because that’s what it is) into your body and making you feel shit for days after (in some cases). This is all about giving the liver a good cleanse.
Water
Easy! This is another big one and I have a whole other post dedicated to it, Water for Life. Get plenty down you, at least a couple of pints a day to help flush you out of toxins and cleanse your insides. Imagine pumping mud through a hose pipe, eventually it will clog up! I know that’s disgusting, but you get my point.
Avoid stressors
No, I don’t mean your spouse or the kids! Stressors are things like caffeine, alcohol and processed foods. I told you it was basic but effective stuff.
Substitute wheat and dairy
Not always as straight forward but wheat and dairy products can often leave you feeling bloated. Try cutting down or substituting with rice cakes and oatcakes and almond, soya, rice milk and goat’s yoghurt for example. To be totally honest, this sounds a little boring to me but the almond milk in my oats in a morning works.
Use leaner cuts of meat
There is no need to cut meat out altogether which is good because I love a good fillet steak but try and keep to leaner cuts and eat more chicken, fish and tofu, it’s not that bad.
Eat foods close to their natural state
When cooked, food changes its composition and whilst it is not a bad thing try and eat foods that are as close to their raw natural state as possible. Goes back to our gathering days I guess, and my wife thinks I am strange when she sees me munching on a raw bag of mangetout, but she hasn’t read this yet? (I don’t think…)
Replace fruit juices with fruit in its natural form
Fruit juices contain sugar and the composition is changed too so try and either juice it yourself to avoid the concentrated crap or even better, just eat the fruit.
Finally, Sugar is a sly one so watch out for it. I’m sure I’ve said this before!
Basically, its in everything and as a society we have allowed all these companies to add it in almost everything and create a nation/s of sugar addicts so just be aware. After alcohol I would put sugar as the next biggest enemy of mine because I am also a chocolate fiend if not careful.
I hope this re-enforces what you might already know but could easily overlook. Here are some more great tips to help with you health.
Finally I like to round off my posts with a link to my sobriety tips. As many are either on or looking start their sober life.
Take care…. Darren
